A doughnut-shaped 'UFO' seen floating above the Kent sky has been identified - and the reality is far less exciting than some stargazers were hoping.

The ominous glow of the mysterious object has been spotted several times over the past few weeks by a Broadstairs couple.

Christine Carmoody, 67, and husband Robert, 56, were left baffled by the sight after noticing it late at night.

They compared its appearance to a 'hazard sign' with blue mist.

However, a Kent-based academic has reassured residents that aliens have not been hovering - and the object is in fact, Jupiter.

Broadstairs High Street resident Christine said: "There was one night when my husband got up to let the dog out at 3am when he noticed something bright in the sky.

"He got me up and then we started taking pictures of it on our phone.

"When we blew them up on our phone, it looked round and blue, and almost like there is a round bit in the middle and another bit with legs."

She told how her sister and husband had both seen the ominous glow in the sky and were left stumped.

Mr Carmoody said: "We took loads of pictures and it’s weird.

“I was looking online and was looking at Google images of UFOs and there is an identical picture of it in a 2010 article in Switzerland which says: 'Doughnut shaped UFO spotted over Switzerland'."

He captured several pictures of the intriguing object, and said he saw it on multiple nights in a south-easterly to southern direction.

"I am calling it a spaceship because it is weird," he added.

"When you see it, it looks like a triangle - like a hazard sign with lights along the strip of it and it comes with a blue mist."

But the University of Kent's director of the Centre for Astronomy and Planetary Science, Professor Michael Smith, confirmed it is not a spaceship.

"While spotting something unusual in the night sky may set our imaginations running, most UFOs quickly become IFOs," he said.

"Flying saucers can be as innocuous as Chinese lanterns or people playing with lasers, but more often than not we can identify them as a planet by using an understanding of astronomy.

"While the low altitude and thick atmosphere have made this image look like something stranger, it is actually the planet Jupiter."

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun and the largest in the solar system.