Fact Check: Does Video Show Giant Flying Jellyfish over Antarctica?

Jellyfish can be found in oceans all over the world. Some species can indeed grow to huge sizes. The lion's mane jellyfish, for example, can reach 120 feet long.

To see one of these in the wild would certainly be a sight to behold—but what about if you saw one cruising over the snowy slopes of Antarctica? A video recently posted to social media appears to show such a thing.

The Claim

On October 9, a social media user on X, previously known as Twitter, Truechucknorris, posted a video that appeared to show a huge jellyfish-like object floating over a snowy landscape. The video shows the strange object moving slowly across the land as the camera zooms in.

"What looks like a giant flying jellyfish has been spotted in Antarctica," the social media user said in a caption to the video.

At midday on October 10, the video had received over 28,500 views and was shared by others on the platform.

X users responded to the video, some expressing shock at the bizarre sight.

"Great, now we've gone and upset the jellys," one person responded.

Another X user wrote: "Looks like it has some eyes."

Other people, however, were not so quick to believe the claim. Some believed it was not a jellyfish at all, but an alien UFO or an unidentified flying object.

"Cool cloud!" one person said.

"Pretty sure I saw that movie," another social media user said.

Others did not think it looked like a jellyfish at all.

"Looks more like a Mothership..." an X user said.

"I saw that at Macy's Day parade," a user on the platform wrote.

The Facts

This footage actually first surfaced at the end of 2017 when it was posted to the YouTube channel UFO SECTION 51.

The footage is not real and has been digitally generated.

The YouTube channel is run by French visual effects artists who, according to the "about" section on the channel, "share [their] point of view on sciences, space, UFO & ancient aliens theories."

The "jellyfish" was created using CGI and was supposed to look like a UFO flying over the landscape, which is actually in the Northern Caucasus in Russia, and not Antarctica.

It is not clear if the channel's owners were also behind the creation of the video. The authors' motive and inspiration for the work is unclear, but Newsweek found one possible source.

A 2009 piece of concept art by digital creator Alex Andreev, posted on his LiveJournal page in December 2009, shares some striking resemblances with the object in the video background, including the apparent "black spot" that appears to be a helicopter.

Despite it being fabricated, the footage was covered by a range of local news outlets at the time.

There have been sightings of mysterious flying objects all over the world—however, these are usually called Unidentified Aerial Phenomena and cannot be confirmed as anything to do with extraterrestrials.

The Ruling

False.

A huge jellyfish did not float over Antarctica. While the footage may look realistic, it was actually developed using CGI, by artists depicting their version of a UFO.

FACT CHECK BY NEWSWEEK