Ominous images of a perfectly spherical UFO, seemingly dotted with yellow 'landing lights,' have left some researchers certain one is 'the first selfie with a UFO in history.'

Taken by Brazilian UFO researcher and author Edie Meireles in 2011, the snaps show the apparent craft above a hiking trail to 'La cascada de la purificación,' a chilly waterfall in Brazil's high-altitude Chapada Diamantina National Park.

What followed, at least, according to one of Meireles' UFO-hunting peers, was years of 'threats and intrigues' — with two members of their group 'killed by the military' and three more 'abducted.'

And by Meireles' own account, his sighting in one of South America's most scenic ecological preserves led to a raid on his home by 'soldiers in camouflage and black.'

Skeptics on social media, however, have alleged that the photos are everything from 'sky lanterns' held aloft by hot air from candles to outright doctored images.

DailyMail.com reached out to Meireles for further comment — but the researcher, who serves as admin for 'el Grupo de Pesquisa Tecnológica Extra Avançada' ('the Extra-Advanced Technology Research Group') on Facebook has not replied.

But, in a March 2022 post, Meireles boasted that his candid snaps were 'the only selfie with a flying saucer.'

And, in a submission to Brazilian nonprofit Museu da Pessoa (Museum of the Person) the UFO researcher recounted his trips back to the national park for repeated, but less-well-documented, encounters with these UFOs and their occupants.

Those expeditions, documented in his book Fieldworkers: Pesquisadores de Campo in 2016, according to Meireles, led to further unwanted encounters with the military.

'The result of the interrogation was [...] Fractures: 4 left ribs and left knee [...] Perforation with bleeding in the left lung,' and worse, Meireles told the nonprofit.

'I was hospitalized for 12 days at the Chapada Regional Hospital, in Seabra-Ba, my medical history is there for anyone who wants to investigate,' according to the Brazilian UFO researcher.

Meireles' version of his UFO experiences at the national park, includes more surreal encounters with beings and a prophecy of global environmental cataclysm: 'a natural collapse, with a lack of renewable resources, drinking water, and wood for construction,' as he told the nonprofit museum.

Fact or fiction, his story has a fitting setting in Brazil's Chapada Diamantina National Park, established in September 1985 to protect a host of rare, endangered species native to these Atlantic Forest plateaus 3,000 feet about sea level. 

Brazil's giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus), its giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) and Chaco eagle (Buteogallus coronatus) are all protected species that call the park home.

One account of the 2011 sighting, attributed to Meireles, described a UFO whose onboard devices or novel means of propulsion managed to either accidentally or intentionally leave him stranded in the park.

'I got out of the car and photographed,' according to a Reddit posting quoting Meireles. 'It was an indescribable wonderful emotion to have photographed a UFO so clearly visible.'

But, the account continues: 'About 40 minutes later, still on the road, my car turned off, I braked, I tried to turn the key and nothing, absolutely nothing.

'I saw a light on the hood and I looked up and there was a UFO standing on top of my car, I opened the door and ran,' the account continues. 

'I even stopped to take a Selfie with them. My car was towed by a tractor the next day, it burned all electrical parts.'

This version of his encounter states that Meireles was travelling to the historic district near the national park, Serra de Igatú, although a 2016 posting apparently by Meireles on Facebook asserts the images were taken on his was to the waterfall at the park known as 'La cascada de la purificación.'

Some champions of Meireles' UFO research have attributed the murky stories around his incredibly crisp and visually compelling photographs to the alleged hostile encounters with the military.

Hélio Nunes de Camargo, the self-decribed founder of UFOs na Chapada – Centro Ufológico da Chapada Diamantina, wrote that Meireles' UFOs Bahai research group disbanded over the alleged military harassments and violence.

'They are leaving UFOlogy to live their own lives away from threats and intrigues,' Nunes de Camargo wrote in a 2014 post to his group's Facebook page.

The UFO researcher recounted the deaths and abductions that UFOs Bahai is alleged to have faced, adding: 'They told me that families are suffering a lot and they don't want to make other families suffer.' 

Other UFO researchers online, however, have had trouble with this explanation. 

'The fact that he's [Meireles] still uploading those photos to his Facebook account every few months proves that might not be correct,' Reddit user spriz2 opined.

'I've written to Edie multiple times on Facebook over the last year to try and gain more knowledge on this event,' the Redditer explained. 'He's ignored every message and comment.'

Others, however, not only found the case credible but believed they had seen this same UFO themselves.

'Holy F***, this is identical to what I saw right before Covid hit,' one Redditer, who goes by ehtseeoh, said.

The poster said that the bottom of the craft he saw 'rotated when it glowed red with an orange center, and then it did a quick zig zag and it was gone,' making 'zero sound' as it vanished in an instant.

'I screamed laughed and cried,' the poster said. 'FINALLY the orb I've been looking for online, this guy has a selfie with it haha.'

DailyMail.com also reached out to noted UFO skeptic and computer programmer Mick West of Sacramento, California, who weighed-in saying: 'They look photoshopped to me, but could be practical effects.'

The prolific, skeptically minded, UFO researcher and former video game designer noted that UFO cases like this, with limited information like static images and inconsistent eye-witness testimony, should always be taken with a grain of salt.  

'In cases like this we need actual evidence that the photos are NOT fake before attempting to explain them,' West told DailyMail.com via email.