It was the supposed missile launch that no one could explain just the kind of videotaped mystery that cable news programmers crave. In early November, a television news crew captured footage of what appeared to be a sunset missile launch off the coast of California, as an object slowly ascended from the ocean to the sky, leaving a vapor trail behind. Within hours, the footage had been picked up by every major news network, spawning not only dozens of conspiracy theories but also a string of confused government officials, all claiming that nothing unusual had taken place. In a rush to report before all the facts were in call in the 2010 variation on 2009's "Balloon Boy" fiasco the cable news networks ran with the mystery for a solid day, until someone talked to an expert and discovered that it was most likely an optical illusion created by the setting sun. It wasn't something shooting upward, just something high in the sky streaking northeast. And as quickly as the mystery missile arrived on the scene, threatening our national security and the American way of life, it was set aside and laughed away.
The Top 10 Everything of 2010
- Top 10 Albums
- Top 10 Animal Stories
- Top 10 Apologies
- Top 10 Biz Deals
- Top 10 Buzzwords
- Top 10 Campaign Ads
- Top 10 Comebacks
- Top 10 Crime Stories
- Top 10 Facebook Trends
- Top 10 Fashion Statements
- Top 10 Feuds
- Top 10 Fiction Books
- Top 10 Fleeting Celebrities
- Top 10 Food Trends
- Top 10 Gadgets
- Top 10 Green Stories
- Top 10 iPhone Apps
- Top 10 Late-Night Jokes
- Top 10 Magazine Covers
- Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs
- Top 10 Movie Performances
- Top 10 Movies
- Top 10 New Species
- Top 10 Nonfiction Books
- Top 10 Numbers
- Top 10 Oddball News Stories
- Top 10 Overreported Stories
- Top 10 Pictures
- Top 10 Plays and Musicals
- Top 10 Quotes
- Top 10 Political Gaffes
- Top 10 Reality-TV Moments
- Top 10 Religion Stories
- Top 10 Scandals
- Top 10 Scientific Discoveries
- Top 10 Songs
- Top 10 Sports Moments
- Top 10 Talented Web Videos
- Top 10 Toys
- Top 10 Travel Moments
- Top 10 TV Commercials
- Top 10 TV Episodes
- Top 10 TV Series
- Top 10 Tweets
- Top 10 Twitter Moments
- Top 10 World News Stories
- Top 10 Underreported Stories
- Top 10 U.S. News Stories
- Top 10 Video Games
- Top 10 Viral Videos
In 50 wide-ranging lists, TIME surveys the highs and lows, the good and the bad, of the past 12 months