What is a cigar-shaped UFO?
A cigar-shaped UFO is a long, slender UFO with rounded ends, like a cigar or cigarette. Along with the disc (“flying saucer”), it is one of the best-known UFO shapes. It is often depicted as larger than the discs and has been told of as a “mothership” carrying several small disc-shaped UFOs inside.
Adamski and the mothership
The image of the cigar-shaped mothership was spread by the American George Adamski, who said he met aliens in the 1950s. Adamski said he saw, along with the disc-shaped UFO ridden by a Venusian, a huge cigar-shaped mothership that carried it, and released photos. Afterward, sightings such as “small lights came out of a cigar-shaped object” came to be told around the world.
Things easily mistaken for them
Long objects in the sky are often mistaken for UFOs: planes reflecting sunlight, or short segments of contrails. Lenticular clouds, which form near mountains, can also be mistaken for UFOs because of their smooth, elongated shape. Planes flying high in the sky can look like long, shining tubes when their wings are not visible from certain angles.
Oumuamua, the cigar-shaped interstellar object
In 2017, a telescope in Hawaii found the first object known to have come from outside the solar system, named “Oumuamua.” From how its brightness changed, it is likely elongated, several times longer than it is wide, and it became a worldwide sensation as a “cigar-shaped object.” Some astronomers raised the possibility of an artificial object, but most researchers think it is a natural object made of ice or the like. For UFO research, see also UAP.
