August Crop Circle Photos From the UK

The 2011 crop circle season is in full swing in England with more formations appearing in the first half of August, mostly in Wiltshire.

This pattern cropped up at Jubilee Plantation in Wiltshire on Aug. 15, and looks like a five-dimensional hypercube or penteract. You can see eight more new designs below.

According to the Wiltshire Crop Circle Study Group, 13 formations were reported in the county in June and 22 in July. The patterns continue to be diverse, ranging from six-pointed stars to multiple circles in varying alignments.

Overall, some of the formations seem less complex than previous designs, suggesting to skeptics that perhaps these ones are man-made.

Earlier this month, physicist Richard Taylor from the University of Oregon published an article in Physics World trying to explain how so-called crop circle artists could create the patterns rapidly using handheld microwave devices.

Jeffrey Wilson at the Independent Crop Circle Researchers’ Association told the Huffington Post last week that he believes the formations come from multiple sources, including some hoaxes.

"There are natural processes that make complex geometry, so it’s not unprecedented in nature,” Wilson said. “I’m not 100 percent convinced it’s from an intelligent source—it’s unproven at this point."

Wilson also pointed out that Taylor’s article does not explain the evidence recorded of crop circles that occurred before hi-tech devices were invented. He also mentioned that there have been around 50 eyewitness reports of crop circles that formed during severe weather, such as a storm front.

Previous research on numerous crop circle formations, for example by biophysicist W. C. Levengood, has revealed cellular abnormalities in the plants believed to be caused by spinning plasma energies or gas-like matter that is partially ionized.

"The affected plants have components which suggest the involvement of rapid air movement, ionization, electric fields and transient high temperatures combined with an oxidizing atmosphere,” wrote Levengood in his 1994 study published in the journal Physiologia Plantarum.

“One naturally occurring and organized force incorporating each of these features is an ion plasma vortex."

Whatever the causes may be, the sheer size and regular complexity of these patterns continues to fascinate scientists and laypeople alike.