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| Indian Army mistakes planets for spy drones |
New Delhi, July 26 (IBNS): In a bizarre incident which occurred under the shadow of repeated Chinese incursions into Indian territory in Ladakh, the Indian Army watched 'Chinese spy drones' violating the country's air space but later found that they were actually Jupiter and Venus planets, media reports said.
The Army watched the 'violations' for over six months into the skies above eastern Ladakh.
"The Indian Army mistook Jupiter and Venus as unidentified flying intruders making nocturnal sorties from China into the skies above eastern Ladakh for over six months until astronomers brought their fears to ground, it has been disclosed," The Telegraph reported.
"Requested by the army, the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, deputed two astronomers to Ladakh earlier this year to resolve the mystery of the two objects that the army had been observing in the sensitive border zone since August 2012," the Kolkata-based newspaper said.
The 'objects' have violated the Line of Actual Control (LAC) 155 times which made the Army take help from the astronomers to unearth the 'mystery'.
"Army personnel had until February 2013 documented 329 sightings of the unidentified objects seen over Thakung near Pangong Tso, a high-altitude lake shared by India and Tibet," The Telegraph reported quoting sources.
"The astronomers have concluded that the object observed from Point 4715 is Jupiter as the observations coincide with the planet’s diurnal motion and the apparent motion of the object due to the rotation of the Earth.
"The description of the second unidentified object that appeared early in the morning suggests that it is Venus, which is currently moving behind the Sun and will in the coming months appear as an evening object," the newspaper said.
"The Indian Army mistook Jupiter and Venus as unidentified flying intruders making nocturnal sorties from China into the skies above eastern Ladakh for over six months until astronomers brought their fears to ground, it has been disclosed," The Telegraph reported.
"Requested by the army, the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, deputed two astronomers to Ladakh earlier this year to resolve the mystery of the two objects that the army had been observing in the sensitive border zone since August 2012," the Kolkata-based newspaper said.
The 'objects' have violated the Line of Actual Control (LAC) 155 times which made the Army take help from the astronomers to unearth the 'mystery'.
"Army personnel had until February 2013 documented 329 sightings of the unidentified objects seen over Thakung near Pangong Tso, a high-altitude lake shared by India and Tibet," The Telegraph reported quoting sources.
"The astronomers have concluded that the object observed from Point 4715 is Jupiter as the observations coincide with the planet’s diurnal motion and the apparent motion of the object due to the rotation of the Earth.
"The description of the second unidentified object that appeared early in the morning suggests that it is Venus, which is currently moving behind the Sun and will in the coming months appear as an evening object," the newspaper said.
