Texas city sees huge spike in 'UFO' sightings - including bizarre strings of lights that light up the night sky

A Texas city which has seen a huge spike in UFO sightings is hoping a new app can help identify the phenomena.

The skies of Austin are increasingly lit up by unexplained sightings, partly thanks to Elon Musk's Starlink.

The network of 6,000 satellites were launched by his SpaceX company to try and bring internet to remote areas.

As a result there has been a rise in the number of suspected UFO sightings, although experts acknowledge not all can be explained by billionaire's project.

'With Starlink and other phenomenon up there in the night sky, you see more and more stuff that that you can't explain right away,' Michael Endl, a professor of astronomy and physics at Austin Community College told KXAN.

Now the Enigma Labs app is attempting to try and gather more data on UFO sightings in order to classify them better.

The app asks users to upload photo of the object, description and location data which is then sent to the government.

The company examines the reports and rules out objects which have a clear explanation such as Starlink. 

'One of the things that we've heard from the Pentagon and from NASA is that a lot of the issue with this topic is there's not enough data. So that's exactly what we're trying to do is gather more data,' Alejandro Rojas, a UFO researcher with the app said.

'Once you can't rule things out, that's when you have something anomalous that either deserves more research, or can point you in a direction.'

Among the unexplained phenomena submitted through the app was a 'small, cylindrical' UFO seen 'zig-zagging' above the Austin skies on July 28, 2023.

Another stargazer gave an account of a strange object spotted in December.

'I can't remember who saw it first, but we noticed this object directly above us. It felt distinctly weightless, spherical, and kind of amorphous,' the account reads.

'The texture was almost like a static TV, kind of gaseous, and grayish black except for a BRIGHT red glow that would flash along one edge, then another, then emanate from the bottom of the object. 

.'Tt was definitely at or above cloud level and was visible until it was way off in the distance, never changing its speed to my perception. We have no idea what this was - not balloons because it was too far and cutting against the wind, definitely not a plane, definitely not a consumer drone.'

 One curious incident during the solar eclipse saw a black object float past the sun during the cosmic event.

'We were on a boat waiting for the solar eclipse to happen,' the poster explained.

'Ten minutes before totality I see this object through my camera fly by on the screen, didn't think much of it at the moment until I reviewed the footage a few days later.'

But UFO-skeptic Robert Shaeffer has his doubts about the usefulness of the app.

'Since we know that the vast majority of reported UFO sightings are readily explained, and hence of no scientific value, this app encourages the reporting and sharing of low-quality UFO sightings, thus muddying the waters,' he said.

'It promotes the idea that seeing a UFO is something that the average person can expect to experience, but even if you don't see anything, send us a photo of the sky, anyway!'