UFO sighting in NSW, Queensland actually a Chinese rocket

An astrophysicist has confirmed the truth behind a reported UFO sighting last night in the sky over Queensland and NSW.

An astrophysicist has revealed the truth behind a reported UFO sighting last night in the sky over Queensland and NSW.

Residents took to social media to share eerie clips of a white disc-shaped object, speculating whether aliens had dropped by to catch the latest goings-on of Planet Earth.

But turns out the aliens aren’t coming to save us from lockdown any time soon.

Astrophysicist Brad Tucker has said the sighting was actually the plume of a Chinese rocket – the Long March 3B.

“The plume is like exhaust, gas coming out during launch of the rocket,” Dr Tucker explained.

“Sometimes if it happens in the evening you can see the stranger shape and sight.”

NSW Central Coast residents shared footage of the UFO-like object. Picture: Facebook

The ‘UFO’ turned out to be a Chinese rocket. Picture: Facebook

“The plume is like exhaust, gas coming out during launch of the rocket,” Dr Tucker explained. Picture: STR/AFP

The rocket was launched from China’s Xichang Satellite Launch Centre yesterday, and is rumoured to be a new generation of navigation satellite which broadcasts in 4K and 8K.

“Sightings like this can be rare and surprising – given their weird shape and the way they move in the sky,” Dr Tucker said.

“However, as many rocket launches happen – this was actually China’s second launch of the day, they are becoming more and more common.”

The satellite was reportedly launched in preparation for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

The “sighting” comes after experts weighed in on the existence of aliens earlier this year, with University of Southern Queensland Astrobiologist Jonti Horner saying the answer was a “definite yes”.

Speaking to The Conversation in June, Professor Horner said these other life forms may be too far away for us to ever make contact, which makes finding proof “astonishingly hard”.

“Space is unbelievably big. In the last few decades, we’ve learned almost every star in the cosmos has planets. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is estimated to have up to 400 billion stars,” he said.

“If each of those has five planets, we’d have two trillion planets in our galaxy alone. And we know there are more galaxies in the cosmos than there are planets in the Milky Way.

“In other words, there’s a lot of real estate out there. And with so much variety, I find it impossible to believe Earth is the only planet that has life – including intelligent and technologically-advanced life.”

Western Australia’s Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (CIRA) Executive Director, Steven Tingay, also agreed the existence of aliens was likely.

Professor Tingay said proof of life on other planets wouldn’t necessarily mean the discovery of other advanced civilisations, claiming it could be as simple as finding bacteria on a planet other than Earth.