The Ladakh Lights
At a border post high in Ladakh, soldiers watched glowing objects rise over the horizon night after night.
What was reported
Between August and October 2012, an Indo-Tibetan Border Police unit at Thakung, near Pangong Tso, reported more than 100 sightings of bright, unidentified objects rising from the horizon and moving slowly across the sky. Reports continued into early 2013.
The sightings were reported up to the highest levels of government. Several agencies looked into them, and there was worry that they might be surveillance drones from across the border.
Explanations offered
Astronomers from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics concluded that the objects were the planets Jupiter and Venus. At that altitude the air is very clear, and the two planets, the brightest in the sky at the time, rose and set at exactly the times the soldiers described.
- When
- August 2012 – early 2013
- Where
- Thakung, near Pangong Tso, Ladakh, India
- Witnesses
- Indo-Tibetan Border Police troops
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.