Wotsits and Irn Bru: Readers and experts give their theories on what the Irvine UFO was

The mysterious object was spotted in the North Ayrshire town’s skies last weekend, leading to many explanations – some serious, some not so serious

The mystery surrounding and Irvine UFO continued this week.

As an expert gave his theory behind the odd ‘fireball’ like object in the sky – readers offered their explanations too.

Ayrshire Astronomical Society’s vice-president Roger Harman offered some possible explanations for what the phenomenon could be.

He said: “I can’t really say for sure but it looks like the sun glinting off something, perhaps a balloon, or it could be contrail from an aircraft being lit up, or indeed a hot-air lantern.

“All the meteors I’ve ever seen have flown fairly parallel to the earth’s surface, so if this were a meteor it would have created a large impact crater and would have affected a large area.”

Graeme Bennett offered a sensible answer: “It’s a cloud that’s higher up in the atmosphere than the rest so still being illuminated by the sun. Pretty simple really.”

Philip Bradley said: “It’s a cheesy Wotsit that a seagull dropped.” While Nikki McLaughlin agreed: “A cheesy Wotsit?”

Angie Smart added: “Somebody launched a bottle of Irn Bru!”

Lee Stuart said with his tongue firmly in his cheek: “Yeah cause aliens are coming to Irvine. But they left as there’s no intelligent life.”

The phenomenon was spotted from Bourtreehill last Saturday by Irvine Herald reader Heather Stewart.

She said: “My son Andrew was out in the street playing and they were all pointing up at the sky.

“I came outside and he came running over to me and said: ‘Mum, Mum, look at that — it’s a meteor.’

Heather said that it looked like the falling object would have been heading towards Stanecastle.

Among the X-Files memes and pictures of aliens, readers weren’t convinced that the orange glow was down to a fireball, and instead offered some alternative theories.

She added: “And you just sort of dismiss it at first but I looked out and I couldn’t believe it. It was like a big moving fireball.

“But after seeing it, I went to see if there were any plane crashes or anything like that and I’ve been looking on the internet as to what it could have been.”