1:12:00 PM Tuesday, January 25, 2011 | Post by: TIM & AKUR NETWORKS

Mysterious crop circle found in Yogyakarta

Local residents were on guard, the Indonesian Air Force launched a helicopter and social networks were atwitter after a crop circle was discovered in a rice field in Sleman, Yogyakarta on Sunday. The crop circle — a large, geometric pattern often made by flattening crops — was found by a local farmer, Tukiman, on Sunday at 6 a.m.

Residents of Rejosari stood watch over the paddy where the crop circle was discovered throughout the night, as reported by kompas.com news portal — guarding their ripening rice crops from hordes of visitors who swarmed over the field after reports of circle were made public.

A police line had replaced the farmers on Monday. The Indonesian Air Force also dispatched a helicopter to photograph the crop circle, which measured 70 meters in diameter.

“Adisutjipto [Air Force] base responded by flying a Colibri HL 1210 for a 30-minute photographic session starting at 10:30 a.m.,” according to a press release posted to the base’s website. The release said the Air Force helicopter took numerous photographs “of the object thought to be leftover from a UFO from the height of 1,000 feet… from a number of different angles.”

Twitter users engaged in debates on the origins of the circle. Some tweeted outright disbelief in that UFOs were beyond the phenomena while others said they were “spooked out” by the crop circle’s appearance.

“It’s scary. It got me thinking if I should believe the world will end in 2012,” one Twitter user said.
Some believe that crop circles are the works of alien visitors or are supernatural occurrences; other hold that the phenomena are surreptitious works of art crafted by humans.

A posting on the website of BETA-UFO INDONESIA, which lists UFO sightings and analysis, said the pattern of Yogyakarta crop circle resembled the chakra symbol in Hindu Tantrism.

UFO enthusiast Nur Agustinus said that the event in Yogyakarta differed from the dubious crop circles that had been reported in Tuban, East Java, in 1986-1987.