IS THIS the moment paranormal activity was spotted speeding across Sunshine Coast skies?

The UFO Institute has posted footage of an "unidentified aerial phenomenon" on the Sunshine Coast yesterday.

The UFO was spotted coming through the clouds in the video.

It's left us questioning whether it was a meteor, or a sign of extraterrestrial life.

Sunshine Coast astronomer Owen Bennedick of the Wappa Falls Observatory said he received about half a dozen calls a year on the Coast reporting UFO sightings in local skies.

"Who knows what some of it is," Mr Bennedick said.

He said people often spotted Venus and Jupiter and thought they were moving, mistaking them for UFOs, while satellites were other objects often mistaken for signs of alien life.

"I've only ever seen one thing that I can't explain," Mr Bennedick said, recalling an object he spotted in central Queensland years ago while searching for UFOs.

But Mr Bennedick said another theory that's circulated following extensive research by scientists with the US Geological Survey is that these 'UFOs' could be signals of earthquake activity.

He said research done 15-20 years ago which was ongoing, had shown stresses in rocks as they bent and broke during earthquakes produced electrical currents.

Those electrical currents were released into the atmosphere and charged air particles, lighting up pockets of air.

Mr Bennedick said the research done along fault lines in the US and with Brisbane universities had shown about 83% of UFO sightings were made a few weeks before or after minor and major earthquakes.