1969年6月，有两架飞机和空中国民警卫队战斗机的飞行员，报告受到一组不明飞行物的干扰。

One man estimates the glowing ships have come within a few hundred feet.

一个目击者估测那些发光的飞船已经来到了距离他们数百英尺以内。

The pilot of the fighter plane even declares a near-collision.

战斗机的飞行员甚至还称跟它有近距离碰触。

What were these UFOs really?

这些真的是不明飞行物吗？

It turned out they were fragments of a meteor coming apart in the upper atmosphere.

事实证明，它们是流星在高层大气瓦解后的碎片。

Now here's the most interesting part: the meteor fragments were at least one hundred and twenty five miles from the planes.

有趣的是：这些流星碎片距离飞机至少有125英里。

How could you possibly think something over a hundred miles away was about to hit you?

你怎么会想到一百英里之外的东西会砸得到你？

Objects in the sky confuse our perceptual abilities.

天空中的物体会混淆我们的感知能力。

With no visual cues to help calculate distance, our brains rely on size and speed instead. How?

没有参照物来判断距离，于是人类大脑依靠尺寸和运动速度来判断物体的大小。怎么判断呢？

By using a simple fact: far-away things look like they are going slower than close-up things.

通过一个很简单的道理：远处的东西运动起来看起比近处的东西慢。

You may have noticed this when driving: those distant phone poles pass sluggishly while the ones on the road go zooming by.

你或许会在开车时有这种感觉：远处的电线杆移动的很慢，而路边的电线杆则移动的很快。

In a blank white sky, our brains default to a simple strategy: the bigger it looks and the faster it goes, the closer it probably is.

在空旷的白天，我们的大脑默认了一个简单的道理：看起来越大、运动的越快的东西，距离我们就越近。

This is a smart way to proceed, and it generally works.

这倒是个很聪明的方法，而且通常都能起到作用。

Still, our perception can be fouled by rare situations in which we find ourselves looking at something far away that nevertheless moves extremely fast, such as an incoming meteor.

然而当我们在观察那些离我们很远却移动很快的事物的时候，例如转瞬即逝的流星。我们的感知可能会被混淆。

At thousands of miles an hour, that flaming object speeds across your field of vision, and your brain can easily conclude it must be much closer than it is--maybe even about to abduct you.

发光的流星以一小时数千公里的速度穿过你的视野，你的大脑很容易觉得它离你比实际距离要近得多。或许它是来绑架你的！