Two separate cases of unusual-looking lights -- over cities on different continents -- were captured on video, prompting speculation that the objects were everything from alien life forms to popular Chinese lanterns.
The composite image above shows the aerial anomalies over Osaka, Japan, (left) and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, (right) within days of each other.
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The first event was videotaped and posted to Facebook by a Wisconsin police officer near Milwaukee on July 25. Officer Gustavo Rojas said he and his partner saw the lights slowly maneuvering around the sky, forming strange patterns before they eventually vanished.
NOTE: The following video of the Rojas encounter contains strong language:
Days after the Wisconsin UFO video was posted, a second one arrived.
RT, the Russian television channel, published a story on July 29 about a low-quality video, showing 10 white, circular objects above Osaka.
It's unclear when the video, shown below, was taken. RT says the footage shows "mysterious round objects moving quickly in the sky, while following a dance-like pattern."
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Comments on the story suggested explanations that included blurry birds, two strings of tethered objects, downright hoaxes, hot air balloons and Chinese lanterns.
Of course, as is the case with so many UFO sightings, some believed Osaka and Milwaukee had been visited by passing extraterrestrials. At the beginning of the week, Milwaukee's NBC News affiliate, WTMJ, wasn't sure what the objects were that had been seen slowly gliding and falling from the sky on July 25.
By the end of the week, the mystery appeared to be solved when a member of an elite Army parachute team, The Golden Knights, came forward to say it was his group that was seen over Milwaukee, performing during the city's annual German Fest events.
"We wear seven sticks of pyro on our left foot in a very similar fashion to how we wear smoke," Staff Sgt. Mick Koch told WTMJ.
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Koch told the station his team left the plane together, in a single formation, before splitting off separately, resulting in the numerous "UFO" reports and videos that night.
While that may take the wind out of people who thought they were seeing visiting ETs over Milwaukee, there's still no official word on what those floating and "dancing" lights were in Osaka.
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