The Betz mystery sphere
On March 27, 1974, the Betz family went to look at a small brush fire near their home on Fort George Island and found a shiny metal sphere about 8 inches (20 cm) across, weighing about 22 lb (10 kg), They took it for a conquistadors’ cannonball and kept it. Two weeks later their son Terry was playing the guitar near it and said it answered with a throbbing hum; the family went on to say it rolled across the floor, stopped and turned by itself, and seemed to follow people around the house. The story went national, the National Enquirer offered a reward for proof that anything was from outer space, and the Navy took the ball for tests: it was hollow, with a shell about half an inch thick, and made of stainless steel. A panel of scientists at an Enquirer conference in June agreed it was “made on earth”.
Explanation
The Navy, which examined the ball in April 1974, said it was “nothing more than a huge ball bearing”, a stainless-steel ball used as a check valve in industrial piping, and its size, weight and steel match such a valve. An artist later said a few of these balls, which he used in sculptures, fell off his van’s roof rack near Jacksonville around 1971. It “moved on its own” only after being handled; a Navy man pointed to the house’s old, uneven stone floors and the ball’s near-perfect balance.
What was seen
Shape: A heavy, polished metal ball about 20 cm across
Witnesses: Antoine, Jerri and Terry Betz; the U.S. Navy at Jacksonville; reporters
Duration: Found in an afternoon; the stories ran for weeks
Sources
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- United States
- 1970s
- Explained
- Landing and trace cases
- Military witnesses
- Physical traces
- Spheres and orbs