Everyone loves a good mystery. Especially if there’s aliens or UFOs involved. Nobody knows for sure if extraterrestrial life exists beyond our blue planet but that doesn’t stop us from speculating. When bright blue flashes lit up the New York skyline, the ‘do aliens exist?’ debate stirred up. The same happened when a strange hole was seen in the UAE.
Recently, glowing blue spots appeared against the Northern Lights in Norway and Sweden. The phenomenon both baffled and amazed everyone.
Last night, between 12:24 and 1:04 AM our webcam captured a SPECTACULAR set of photos of a pair of intense blue lights…
Posted by Lights Over Lapland on Saturday, April 6, 2019
And then everyone started theorizing on what they could be. From UFOs to photo-editing, everything was discussed.
But what exactly are these strange blue clouds?
The reality is not so crazy as the conspiracy theories. These glowing lights appeared in the night sky because of NASA’s AZURE mission. The Auroral Zone Upwelling Rocket Experiment (AZURE) had two rockets launched from the Andøya Space Center in Norway on April 5. The colourful clouds are a result of these rockets
The AZURE mission successfully launched back-to-back aboard two sounding rockets in Norway tonight. These colorful clouds created a light show in the sky, helping researchers track the flow of neutral and charged particles in Earth's ionosphere. Details: https://t.co/aAp7FJDPgk. pic.twitter.com/vCZ3wFzzBo
— NASA Wallops (@NASA_Wallops) April 5, 2019
According to NASA, this mission “will study the flow of particles in the ionosphere and measure the vertical winds in these regions.” The two rockets determined the atmospheric density and temperature before releasing visible tracers. These tracers created stunning blue lights and allowed scientists to “track the flow of neutral and charged particles.”
Ultimately, they hope to unlock the secrets of the aurora borealis. Experiment or not, these are a definite treat for the eyes, don’t you agree?
Time-lapse of @nasa AZURE mission launching 2 sounding rockets from @AndoyaSpace about 4 hours ago. They created glowing clouds (background is real aurora) to study and track the flow of particles in the ionosphere @NASA_Wallops @TamithaSkov @StormHour @chunder10 @B_Ubiquitous pic.twitter.com/sFiCCP9LdY
— Adrien Mauduit (@NightLights_AM) April 6, 2019
Alas, another alien conspiracy has been proven wrong. Maybe next time we’ll witness an actual UFO? Keeping our fingers crossed!