On: UFO spotted by US fighter jet pilots

[LyndsySimon]

Note that it's a thermal camera - the object is showing up as very hot compared to the background of the sky.

Also, the "halo" effect is an artifact of the imaging system I'm told.

[colanderman → LyndsySimon]

The sky is thermally very cold. Something room temperature would show up much brighter.

[LyndsySimon → colanderman]

When the MFD says "BLACK", black is hot. When it says "WHITE", white is hot. It switches partway through - the object is hotter than the background.

[colanderman → LyndsySimon]

Yes, I know. But almost any object is hotter than the sky, especially if you are above cloud cover. If you own an IR thermometer, point it at the sky on a clear day to see what I mean (you'll get readings well below 0°F).

So just because the object is hotter than the sky & clouds doesn't mean much. It could be "room temperature" (say, an insect or fresh bird poo). Or it could be reflective, and simply be reflecting the heat of the plane or camera itself.

What would be helpful is to know the range of temperatures represented by that image. The object is overexposed, so at least we could get a lower bound on its temperature.