SHANGHAI - More than 10 aircraft crews witnessed an unidentified flying object on the evening of Aug 20.

The object, a huge shining globe, was spotted 10.7 kilometers above Shanghai at 9 pm and transformed from a small globe to one about 92 kilometers in diameter, which faded away after 20 minutes, according to a micro blog by a man claiming to be the pilot of China Southern Airlines flight CZ6554.

A source with the East China Air Traffic Control Bureau said they had received more than 10 reports of similar findings from pilots on the night of Aug 20.

The source said the object was not detected on radar and had no affect on flights at the two international airports in Shanghai.

According to Tang Haiming, spokesman with Shanghai Sheshan Observatory, considering its huge size, the globe was unlikely to an astronomical object, as no astronomical object could appear a hundred times bigger than the moon to the naked eye.

In Beijing and Taiyuan, capital of North China's Shanxi province, there were reports of similar objects.

Zhan Xiang, a staff member of Beijing Planetarium posted a picture he took on the evening of Aug 20 around 9:10 pm showing a round, pale blue bubble-like object with a twist of aquamarine.

Meantime, Ma Jin, an engineer with National Astronomical Observatories under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, took a series of pictures showing the object traveling above the horizon.

Yu Jun, a former editor of a scientific magazine and member of songshuhui.net, a popular science network said the sightings can easily be explained.

"The glowing bubble was a phenomenon caused by the launching of rockets of satellites," said Yu.

However, no open resource shows rockets or satellite were launched that day within China.