A hovering spaceship, 1,000 lights in the sky and unidentified moving craft above the motorway are among the emergency calls to Kent Police people have made, worried about unexplained flying objects.

Despite the government closing its official UFO desk almost 20 years ago, each year a number of people phone the force concerned about mysterious things in the skies.

But with the Garden of England previously declared the county with the second highest number of UFO sightings - Kent author and academic Neil Nixon, who in 2021 wrote a book called UFOs, Aliens and The Battle For The Truth, said the sightings are likely to be the ‘tip of the iceberg’ when it comes to unexplained encounters over the last decade.

He said: “Some people who see these things don’t know what to do when they see it.

“Not everyone will call the police.”

The log of UFO sightings, obtained from Kent Police through a Freedom of Information request, covers reports made directly to the force over the last 10 years.

Five UFOs above Sevenoaks, 1,000 lights in the sky above the district of Tonbridge and Malling and a spaceship in the sky above Gravesend are among the 15 unexplained events worried residents have felt compelled to report to officers.

A mass sighting of UFOs in Dover and a spaceship hovering for 30 minutes can also be found among the control centre’s logs.

Mr Nixon - who while not an ‘out-and-out sceptic’ says he tends to approach his work as a hard-nosed journalist rather than a fanatical believer - says there can be numerous reasons in the mix when it comes to trying to make sense of flying objects.

Weather conditions, astronomical events and military exercises can all feature.

“There are some classic UFO cases that correspond with meteorological activity”, he added.

But it can sometimes be many years later, suggests Mr Nixon, before the pieces of a puzzle might drop into place, if they ever do it all, as details about events during that period emerge over time or make their way into official records.

In 2016 the Ministry of Defence was forced to deny it was using or testing flares on military ranges near Hythe after numerous people reported bright lights in the daytime sky.

The appearance of the strange orbs, which ‘hovered’ for 30 minutes also attracted the attention of television stations and national newspapers with the Metro, Daily Mirror and Daily Mail all questioning what the unexplained objects might be.

“Military ranges were shut”, says Neil. “But you have only got to look at the photos to see that they are probably flares.”

Sightings over Kent’s coast can also fall victim - particularly in the dark - to witnesses not having any context to what they’re watching or no means by which to compare it in size to anything else nearby.

Mr Nixon recalls once watching an unexplained bright white light in the sky above Shellness beach during a visit to the Isle of Sheppey.

“I have a light in the sky where you cannot gauge anything between me and it”, he explains.

But a chance conversation with expert birdwatchers nearby, extremely familiar with the area’s atmospheric conditions and climate, soon clarify the sighting is likely to be a bird - possibly a seagull - which against the bright reflection of the sun was also flying abnormally high because of temperature changes in the air.

“Truth be told I saw a peculiar white seagull where the atmospheric conditions were a bit weird.

“All the birds were much higher than they should be.”

Some of the ‘cutting edge research’ being done by academics into the subconscious and quantum theory, believes Neil, may also pave the way for other more in-depth explanations in some cases.

While understanding a person’s experience of pareidolia - in which the brain can make and see something significant in random patterns or faces that aren’t actually there - is also often considered by those looking for explanations.

A good old-fashioned prank can also not be ignored, says Neil, with the development of drone technology - combined with the growth of social media - sometimes offering an alternative explanation.

He explained: “Clever hoaxes do exist. Particularly in the age of drone flying.

“And if you can get a viral hit, of course then there’s money to be made.”

The Ministry of Defence closed its UFO desk - run by the RAF which collated details for the national archives - almost two decades ago because it was decided it served ‘no purpose’ and was taking staff away from ‘more valuable defence-related activities’.

However last year, the UK was urged to follow the US and take UFO reports more seriously by a man who used to investigate reports of UFO sightings for the Ministry of Defence.

Nick Pope told the PA news agency that the US was treating the phenomenon as a “potential defence, national security and flight safety concern”, adding “it’s time the UK did the same thing” after a drop in reported sightings.

Mr Nixon says sightings happen more regularly than people think - and during his talks and visits many audience members have a story to tell about something they’ve been unable to logically explain.

“You cannot get out of the room without people wanting to come up and tell you about the strangest things that has happened to them or that they’ve seen.

“Most witnesses are credible.

“The people I meet are not looking for publicity and there are way more people than you think.”

And among them, insists Neil, are close encounters of the third kind that remain impossible to pinpoint with a valid explanation.

He said: “A lot of people are sincere about this and they are stunned by what they see.

“And in the middle of all this stuff are a handful of cases which are very difficult to explain

“There are some genuine mysteries out there.”

Other strange sightings in Kent include "disc-shaped" lights charting the skies near the Dartford Crossing in August 2021.

In the first few seconds of the clip a blaze of light appears in the night sky before two distinct glows emerge.

The lights then travel in opposite directions before looping around to face each other.

The mysterious beams of light were spotted travelling overhead at Ebbsfleet station on the same day.

Meanwhile in July 2023, a Gravesend man spotted three mysterious flying objects in the sky above his home.

Chris Lovell told KentOnline: “I was literally just watching TV and I happened to glance out of the patio door window. I saw three lightish dots moving right to left quite quickly.

“I said to my partner ‘that's strange’ and grabbed my phone. They were moving from the back to the house to the front, so I went out and snapped some pictures.”

Mr Lovell said the dots were initially in a triangular formation and moved into a vertical line, becoming a darker colour as they did so. He said he was unable to estimate how far away or how big they were, but believed they were flying at a typical altitude of a plane.