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© ARCHANTChris Middleton took the picture of the suspected UFO on a visit to the Jacobean house and garden
The flying shape was snapped hovering over the house at Hatfield, near Welwyn Garden City. Chris Middleton, of Welwyn, took the picture on a visit to the Jacobean house and garden, the home of the 7th Marquess of Salisbury.

"It made no noise and I didn't see it until I put the image on my computer," he said. "If you sharpen the image and zoom right in you can see it~s no normal aircraft and you can see a red heat source behind it. I think it's impossible for there not to be something like that out there - the universe is so vast. He had the intriguing image examined by professional photographers - and none of them could explain it."

Richard Wiseman, psychology professor at the University of Hertfordshire, has an international reputation for research into the paranormal.

Prof Wiseman said: "It's very difficult to tell what it is because it is tricky to know how far the object is from the camera. I guess that it could be a bird or a paraglider in the distance, or a small piece of dust or debris very close to the lens.

"Either way, I don't think Hatfield House should be bracing themselves for a close encounter of the third kind quite yet."