Sphere with panels and antennas in Valenciennes

Summary

On January 26, 1979, a motorist in Valenciennes spotted a luminous sphere roughly 150 meters away. He estimated its diameter at four to five meters and described a surface made up of several panels topped by antennas one to two meters long. The object emitted small blue and white flames in complete silence before receding toward the horizon and disappearing. No further data were collected, preventing a precise classification.