Half Century old picture is showing an unidentified flying object

A 50-year-old picture has gone viral on the internet, with netizens claiming it shows an unidentified flying object (UFO).

The image was taken by Sergio Loaiza in 1971 when he went to Costa Rica for a survey of land before the beginning of the construction of a hydroelectric project.

The photograph, in which a saucer-like object can be seen, has been shared several times on the microblogging platform Twitter.

Loaiza had used his automated 100lb camera to capture high-resolution images near the Arenal Volcano in the South American country.

The volcano, surrounded by rainforest, is the backdrop of the viral picture which was a property of National Geographic Costa Rica and has been enhanced to study the potential impact of the hydroelectric project on surrounding water and land.

Costa Rica's citizen Esteban Carranza, who has a contact copy of the original negative from the national archives of the country, had shared the image on Twitter.

In his caption, he wrote I made this high res scan last year, met with people on the National Geographic Institute, and tracked the technician in charge of the camera back in 1971.'' 

''But there’s no reason for the image to sit on my desktop. Disclosure is a team effort and everyone should have this image,'' he added.