Earthquakes, a World Record Fireworks Display and a Tribute to Dead Actor Paul Walker:
The bizarre Big BANGS Theories That Make a Secret Spy Jet Seem like a Good Bet as the Cause of the Mysterious Noises
- Unexplained noises were heard across UK, from Llandudno to Croydon, from Devon to Inverness
- There were also reports of booms being heard in the skies over New York
- Theories range from fireworks, meteors and spy planes to UFOs
- More eccentric suggestions include cars backfiring in commemoration of the anniversary of Fast and Furious actor Paul Walker's death
We appear to be no closer to determining exactly what caused the loud booms heard across the UK and New York at the weekend.
And the mystery is encouraging waves of weird and wonderful suggestions to be made in an attempt to explain the mysterious noises.
Theories range from the more sensible fireworks and military jets, to the more eccentric meteors, spy planes and UFOs.
One conspiracy theorist even claims the noises could have been caused by hundreds of cars backfiring across the country, to commemorate the anniversary of Fast and Furious actor Paul Walker's death.
Reports of the noises began on Saturday evening, around 9.45pm GMT and 4.45pm ET.As soon as the booms ended, Twitter and Facebook, were flooded with reports about what the bangs could have been. Theories range from meteors entering the atmosphere, to fireworks, military jets and a secret spy plane
There were also reports of two loud bangs in the south of France on the Friday, at approximately midday.
As soon as the booms ended on Saturday, Twitter and Facebook were flooded with reports about what the bangs could have been.
What made matters more puzzling was that it emerged a loud bang had been heard in Buffalo, New York - thousands of miles from Britain - around the same time.
At 5.10pm GMT, the Norwegian town of Søgne set a new Guinness World Record for the biggest ever fireworks display (picutred). Organisers set off 540,382 fireworks during a 20-minute show, and some theorists claimed the noises could have travelled from the south Norway region across the UK
Fireworks
On Saturday night there were a number of large firework displays across the UK and the rest of Europe.
One in particular took place at the Walcountians Sports Club, which is four miles (6.4km) from the centre of Croydon where a recording of the noises was made by Claudia Angiletta.
After listening to the recording, mechanical and aerospace engineer Chris Goyne told MailOnline confirmed the noises did indeed sound like fireworks.
The firework theory (Sogne display pictured) also rests upon numerous displays occurring at the same time across the country, and New York
Describing a display in Atherstone, Warwickshire that began at 9pm GMT, one reader told MailOnline his house was around four miles (6km) from the display, but it caused his windows to rattle.
The Met Office added that Saturday was a still night in the Croydon and London region, which may have meant the sound had the potential to be heard further afield.
But Ms Angiletta said the noises were too loud, and she could not see any fireworks, for this to be a viable option.
At 5.10pm GMT, the Norwegian town of Søgne set a new Guinness World Record for the biggest ever fireworks display.
Organisers set off 540,382 fireworks during a 20-minute show, and some theorists claim the noises could have travelled from the south Norway region across the UK.
If this was possible, at its most simple - and not accounting for the differences in how sound travels over land or weather conditions - the noise of these fireworks would have taken around an hour to reach Devon.
This means they would have arrived in the UK too early, based on the reports.
These sounds would also not have been heard across the width and breadth of the UK, meaning the theory also rests upon numerous displays occurring at the same time across the country, and New York.
At its most simple, using the speed of sound - and not accounting for the differences in how sound travels over land, weather conditions and direction - the noise of the Sogne fireworks would have taken around an hour to reach Devon. This means they would have arrived in the UK too early, based on the reports
Meteors
Many of the reports about the booms were picked up by Twitter user Virtual Astronomer, who said space debris re-entering the earth's atmosphere could have been responsible.
'Space debris such as old satellites and things can cause sonic booms heard over very large areas,' he told MailOnline. 'It's the same for big meteors or rocks that come in.
'There was very little wind last night so conditions were perfect for sound to travel very long distances.'
Though meteors are considered a visual phenomenon, they do, in fact, make a noise - and the larger the meteor, the bigger the sound.
In the East Riding of Yorkshire in December 1795, a 56lb meteorite hit the ground near the village of Wold Newton.
Many of the reports about the booms were picked up by Twitter user Virtual Astronomer, who said space debris re-entering the earth's atmosphere could have been responsible. Historic reports of such events have been described as guns being fired, which is similar to the noises recorded over Croydon
‘I heard noises in the air like the report of cannon at a distance,’ said Mr L. Wilson at the time.
An 11-year-old boy named Charles Prestin also heard the sound, which he described as being like ‘the noise as of firing of cannon, heard at the above time a hissing in the air’.
Many local inhabitants thought the repeated noises were ‘guns at sea’.
Witnesses of other meteorite falls over the centuries have recorded hearing similar sounds and all these reports from over the years sound similar to those recounted over the weekend.
Dr Caroline Smith, the curator of meteorites at London’s Natural History Museum, agreed that the sound may have been made by a fireball - a meteor burning up as it hits the atmosphere.
But science writer David Dickinson was among the experts who dismissed the meteor theory.
He told MailOnline that there was one piece of debris from Russian satellite Kosmos 2251 scheduled for re-entry, but said that the timing was 'not a good fit' for it to have been over the UK.
He added:
'I do not think it was a meteor or a piece of space-junk, as the noises mentioned spanned a large segment of time.
'Plus, unless it was cloudy over the UK., there would've been visual sightings.'
Military jets
Many Twitter users suspected sonic booms, similar to ones which shook Kent last month when two RAF jets intercepted a Latvian cargo plane in British airspace.
But a Ministry of Defence spokesman told MailOnline on Sunday that there were no records of any jets being scrambled during the time the noises were reported.
Richard Taylor from the Civil Aviation Authority added:
'It is far from conclusive that any atmospheric noises heard last night had an aviation source.
'The MoD has clearly stated that no military aircraft were operating last night, and as there are no supersonic civil aircraft operating anywhere in the world at the moment, it is highly unlikely it was an aircraft.'
Extreme Weather
Other users suggested unusual weather conditions might be the source, such as extreme thunderstorms, but the Met Office dismissed the claims and said there was nothing out of the ordinary.
Weather reports across the UK show a relatively still night, with limited cloud cover and rain in the north.
Gusts of winds across the Midlands were reported between 35mph and 40mph (56km/h and 64kmh) in a southerly direction - but none of this was unusual or extreme for this time of year.
A spokesman told MailOnline:
'It definitely wasn't meteorological'.
At around the same time the reports were heard in the UK, a boom was reported in upstate New York. People described it as loud enough to shake their homes, which led to some attributing the booms to an earthquake. But, the US Geological Survey shows no seismic activity in these regions (pictured) over the past seven days
Earthquakes
At around the same time the reports were heard in the UK, a loud boom was reported by a number of people in the upstate New York areas of Buffalo, Cheektowaga and Clarence.
People described it as loud enough to shake their homes and rattle windows, which led some to attribute the booms to a micro-earthquake.
But Brian Baptie, seismologist at the British Geological Survey told MailOnline:
'Micro earthquakes are small.
'Usually too small for people to feel, and it’s extremely unlikely that the noises were caused by this.
'Even small earthquakes some have audible phenomenon. For example, the Folkestone earthquake of 2007, that had a magnitude of 4.3, had a loud booming noise.
'This is because the vibrations travel through the ground, and when this is coupled with the atmosphere it generates sound waves that can be heard over a large distance.
'But, observing this noise across such a large distance, including across countries, is unlikely.
Similarly, the US Geological Survey's earthquake map shows no seismic activity in New York or in the UK, of any magnitude, over the past seven days.
UFOs and Strange Lights
Other, more extreme explanations involve aliens and UFOs travelling across the Atlantic.
Aliens are often used by conspiracy theorists after such events, but as expected, there was a lack of corroborating visual evidence - such as spaceships or extra terrestrials.
One online report the witness heard multiple large bangs, which 'at first sounded like artillery fire or sustained small arms fire.'
This was followed a light in the sky, which appeared for five minutes then disappeared.
'As an ex Army officer I couldn't put my finger on what it was and forgot about it until I read this article,' explained the witness.
'It does seem odd that the same noise was heard all over the UK.
'Not sure if the light was linked it not but the sound was unmissable.'
The Hum Theory
The Hum theory was quoted as a possible explanation to the noises.
This is a widely reported low frequency noise said to occur in parts of Britain and North America.
There have been different reports of the noise for at least 40 years.
For example, in 2011 in the village of Woodland in County Durham, residents claimed to be hearing it for days.
Often, there are rational explanations for The Hum, such as nearby factories or people suffering from tinnitus, but some occurrences haven't been explained as easily.
However, what was heard on Saturday night was not a humming, but more of a series of explosions, so this has also been ruled out.
Aurora is rumoured to be a top secret aircraft in development since 1989. Last year Lockheed Martin announced it was developing a similar SR-72 spy plane (illustrated) said to be able to accelerate up to Mach 6
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THE AURORA RUMOURS
Aurora is rumoured to be a top secret aircraft that has been in development since 1989.
It could be a successor to the Mach 3.35 Lockheed Martin SR-71 Blackbird craft that was retired in 1998.
By comparison, extreme reports claim the Aurora could hit up to Mach 11.8.
These claims originated in Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine, which ran an article in 1989 about a a mysterious entry in the 1985 US budget.
The entry said $445 million was attributed to 'black aircraft production' under the name Aurora.
These reports did not reference a single craft, instead they discussed a series of planes.
Other reports suggest the Aurora programme kicked off at Lockheed Martin's Skunkworks in 1987.
The firm was said to be looking into replacing its SR-71 Blackbird.
In November 2013, Lockheed Martin announced it was developing for its SR-72 spy plane.
It said the plane can accelerate up to Mach 6, or 4,567mph (7,349km/h) - three times faster than Concorde.
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A PDE engine works by using force from a series of explosions, caused by mixing a fuel mist and air intake, to thrust itself forward. Its contrails appear to look like 'rings on a rope' (pictured), or a spine
Top-Secret Spy Plane
A picture claiming to be of a top-secret US spy plane, which may be the mysterious 'Aurora'
One of the more reasonable explanations is that the noises were caused by an ultra top secret American aircraft that uses a ‘pulse detonation engine’ to power it to five times the speed of sound.
According to Dr Bhupendra Khandelwal, a scientist at Sheffield University working on the technology behind these engines, the strange sounds could have been made by such a plane.
‘When we run a test engine it’s a real industrial noise you can hear it for miles,’ he said.
No aircraft have used such engines to travel at supersonic speeds, though a persistent conspiracy theory maintains that the Americans have a plane called Aurora powered by pulse detonation.
A widespread version is that the Americans have secretly developed a hypersonic spy plane to replace the defunct Blackbird spy plane, and that it flies around the world on clandestine missions.
Experts claim its seems more plausible that Aurora was the name given to a Lockheed Martin project that developed America’s range of stealth aircraft, such as the B-2 bomber.
And even if there was such an aircraft, it is unlikely it would have been heard the length and breadth of the UK on Saturday night, as well as in New York.
Sonic Booms
Many of the reports were picked up by Twitter user Virtual Astronomer (pictured), who said space debris re-entering the earth's atmosphere could have been responsible. He also said he was convinced the noises were created by aircraft sonic booms
Other theorists claim that it may not have been a spy plane, but the sounds may have been created by a sonic boom for a similar aircraft.
Sonic boom is created when an aircraft or other type of vehicle flies overhead faster than the speed of sound.
Air reacts like a fluid to supersonic objects. As objects travel through the air, the air molecules are pushed aside with great force and this forms a shock wave much like a boat creates a bow wave. The bigger and heavier the aircraft, the more air it displaces.
The width of the so-called boom 'carpet' beneath the aircraft is around one mile (1.6km) for every 100ft (30.5 metres) of altitude.
An aircraft, for example, flying supersonic at 50,000ft (15,240 metres) can produce a sonic boom cone about 50 miles (80km) wide.
The sonic boom, however, doesn't sound the same at each point.
Air reacts like a fluid to supersonic objects. As objects travel through the air, molecules are pushed aside with great force and this forms a shock wave much like a boat creates a bow wave. The width of the so-called boom 'carpet' beneath the aircraft is around one mile (1.6km) for each 1,000ft (304 metres) of altitude
The maximum intensity is heard directly beneath the aircraft, and this decreases as the lateral distance from the flight path increases until it ceases to exist because the shock waves refract away from the ground.
The spread of the sonic boom depends only upon altitude, speed and the atmosphere - and is independent of the vehicle's shape, size, and weight.
Although the speed at which it was travelling, and its location above the Atlantic could reduce this altitude and spread.
Another theory is that the noises were created by cars backfiring in commemoration of the anniversary of Fast and Furious actor Paul Walker's (pictured) death at the weekend
Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert at the Federation of American Scientists, said:
'If an aircraft is responsible, then it’s worth noting that it may not be local at all.
'Because the sound wave that causes the boom can be reflected by the stratosphere, the source of the event could conceivably be hundreds or thousands of miles away from the place where it is heard on the ground.'
But Dr Andrew Taylor, a senior lecturer in aviation at Buckinghamshire New University, said the noises did not sound like a normal sonic boom.
Meanwhile, Professor Trevor Cox, an acoustic engineer from Salford University told MailOnline:
'To have heard a noise simultaneously in New York and the UK, the source of the sound must have been flying half way between.
'That's an awful long way - about 4,000 miles. You do get cases of sounds travelling a long way, for example, in 2005, sounds from the Buncefield fire travelled around 125 miles to Belgium.
'But in this instance, it sounds quite unlikely.'
The Anniversary of Paul Walker's Death
Another theory is that the noises were created by cars simultaneously backfiring across the UK in commemoration of the anniversary of Fast and Furious actor Paul Walker's death at the weekend.
One reader told MailOnline:
There were car meet ups around the country; I attended one in Thurmaston in Leicestershire.
'There were huge bangs to be heard, going on for quite some time honouring Paul Walker and his influence he has had on the car scene.
'These bangs are heard miles away, and with modifications similar to rally cars such as anti-lag, by revving these heavily modded cars you can make quite a racket.
'With just short of 3000 cars at the meet I was at, and similar numbers around the country with similar cars, I'm sure you can imagine the noise and bangs involved.'
But a similar event would have had to have taken place in New York at the same time, and other people would have reported sightings of these cars backfiring.
Listen to the Sound of a Pulse Detonation Engine;
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