A mysterious white object seen high above several parts of Costa Rica over the weekend triggered a new round of speculation online, with residents sharing photos and videos from communities stretching from the Central Valley to the Pacific coast. Sightings were reported Saturday, August 8, from areas including Quepos, Pérez Zeledón, Acosta, Grecia and Heredia.
Additional reports came from Alajuela and Cartago, with witnesses describing a white, roughly circular object that appeared to be floating high in the sky. By today, the object had a likely general explanation but still no publicly identified owner. The National Meteorological Institute (IMN), said the object does not belong to the agency.
Based on its visible characteristics, however, the institute said it appears to be some type of balloon. That distinction leaves an important part of the mystery unresolved: who launched it, where it came from and what it was carrying. High-altitude balloons are commonly used for weather observations, atmospheric research, communications, photography and other scientific work.
Weather balloons can carry a radiosonde, a small instrument package that measures atmospheric conditions such as temperature, humidity and pressure while its movement can also be used to calculate wind speed and direction.The radiosonde is technically the instrument suspended beneath the balloon, rather than the balloon itself.
Costa Rica has seen a remarkably similar episode before. On February 2, 2023, a large white balloon was visible from numerous parts of our country, including the Pacific, Central Valley and Caribbean. The object initially puzzled authorities. Neither the IMN nor the University of Costa Rica said it belonged to them, and Civil Aviation officials said at the time that they had no record identifying who had launched it.
University of Costa Rica researchers initially examined images and said the object appeared consistent with the type of balloon used to carry atmospheric instruments. But the mystery did not end there. Several days later, China acknowledged that one of its balloons had passed through Costa Rican airspace and formally apologized to Costa Rica for the incident. Chinese officials described the aircraft as a civilian device used for research and said it had deviated from its intended route because of weather conditions.
The incident unfolded at the same time that another Chinese high-altitude balloon crossed the United States, setting off an international dispute before the U.S. military shot it down off the coast of South Carolina. U.S. officials described that balloon as a surveillance platform, while China maintained that it was a civilian research aircraft that had gone off course.
Costa Rica had another unexplained balloon-like object only a month later, in March 2023. That object was spotted over La Unión, and Civil Aviation, the IMN and university researchers again said they did not know who had launched it. The object seen over Costa Rica this weekend has not been connected to those earlier events, and there is currently no evidence suggesting it came from China or served any surveillance purpose.
For now, the most that can be said with confidence is that it appears to be a balloon, it does not belong to Costa Rica’s national weather service, and its origin remains publicly unidentified.
