Strange Skies
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Bizarro Earth

This rare rainbow appeared over the Atacama Desert at 9,500 feet above sea level

Rainbow
© ESO/A. Silber
Rainbows are widely appreciated for the welcome touch of colour they can bring to an otherwise dark and dreary day, and this rainbow is no exception.

This rare rainbow appears over the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Operations Support Facility (OSF), which lies some 2900 metres above sea level close to San Pedro de Atacama. The OSF is the base camp for the ALMA site, which is significantly higher at over 5000 metres up on the Chajnantor Plateau.

The OSF isn't just a location for operating the giant ALMA Observatory; it is also where new technologies are assembled, integrated, and verified before they are transported to their final destination on Chajnantor. The technology has to be assembled and tested at the OSF because the air is much denser there than on the plateau, and workers can complete their tasks without the adverse health risks associated with working at high altitude.

This rainbow was captured by ESO employee Armin Silber.

Comment: Atacama desert is one of the driest places on Earth, it is almost a miracle that we can admire this beauty.


Grey Alien

Saucer shaped lighted object floats over Manchester, UK

ufo manchester
Spooky: The peculiar outline was captured by craftsman John Hindley - who claims he took the picture of what looked like a 'glitch' in the sky after feeling a 'magnetic pull' towards it
A mysterious saucer-shaped object has been photographed floating in the sky above Manchester.

The peculiar outline was captured by craftsman John Hindley - who claims he took the picture of what looked like a 'glitch' in the clouds after feeling a 'magnetic pull' towards it.

The 35-year-old insists he is a perfectly rational man but after zooming in on the photo believes what he saw could have been a UFO.

Comment: The United Kingdom is not alone in experiencing a surge in sightings of strange objects: UFO sightings soar to new heights in Canada


Bizarro Earth

This bizarre, glittering cloud just appeared in the sky over Australia

Hole Punch Cloud
© Peter Fell/ABC News, Australia
The ABC is reporting an incredible sight in the skies over east Victoria, in the Gippsland area. It looks like a UFO, but it's entirely natural.

No, it's not chemtrails. Instead, it's a type of cloud called a Fallstreak Hole. You may recognize that it glimmers in a way that's similar to the contrails of jets. That's because a similar phenomenon causes it. That rainbow look is the result of water crystals in the clouds freezing and refracting the light. Those frozen crystals have also made one patch of the cloud slightly heavier, pulling it downward from the rest of the cloud layer, and giving it that odd, punch-out look.

I mentioned contrails earlier because they are also caused by frozen water droplets hanging in the air, gleaming in the sunlight. But contrails happen when warm air is released with jet exhaust and collides with supercooled water in the stratosphere. This causes the water to freeze instantly, and thus you can see a long trail of frozen vapor where a plane just flew overhead.


Rocket

Antares rocket explosion: A "vehicle anomaly", a deliberate destruction, or something else?

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An unmanned rocket exploded shortly after takeoff Tuesday evening (28th of October) on Virginia's eastern shore. It was carrying a capsule loaded with experiments and much needed equipment. There were no injuries, but because of "classified crypto equipment" onboard, NASA made sure to secure the area.


Although there is much to say about the symbology of the event (starting with it being US's another flop and Russia saving the day, or the fact that Antares was being partly developed in Ukraine), there are plenty of other no less curious details.

Bizarro Earth

'Phantom' lights in sky over Rochdale, UK mystery continues

Rochdale strange lights
© Matthew JacksonUnexplained blue / green lights over Rochdale.
Mystery continues to surround phantom lights that appeared in the skies over Rochdale last week.

As featured in Wednesday's Rochdale Observer, strange flashes of blue and green were spotted in the skies, power went out and homes were left without electricity during the curious episode last Thursday evening, October 23.

Some people also reported hearing a loud bang, while others thought they had seen an object shoot into the sky.

And social media users have come up with all sorts of explanations for the events, from fireworks to a solar flare, the Northern Lights and even alien activity.

The lights were spotted above homes over Rochdale, Norden, Littleborough, Newhey and Whitworth, with many residents noticing their own lights flickering, a temporary loss of power, flashes and the triggering of burglar alarms.

Comment: The sun did have a massive sunspot during the time of the sighting of the mysterious lights.

Solar flare danger - massive sunspot the size of Jupiter takes aim at Earth


Cloud Grey

Strange and spectacular cloud formation over Perth

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© Glenn RogersWeird cloud formation, Perth Australia
Several PerthNow readers have woken to a sight described as "out of this world" after spotting a puzzling UFO-shaped cloud in the sky. The unusual cloud formation even had experts baffled, with the Bureau of Meteorology taking some time to investigate what the strange phenomenon may be.

Anyone fearing an alien invasion can now have their minds put at rest as experts at the Bureau of Meteorology have confirmed their original suspicions are true - the strange phenomenon sighted in Perth skies this morning was in fact a Fallstreak Cloud.

According to the bureau's Neil Bennett, the cloud - which was sitting high above Perth Airport - contained extremely cold water particles.

Comment: Strange clouds have been noted over Australia before. Read this article on Chemtrails? Contrails? Strange skies


Cloud Grey

Noctilucent clouds captured by ISS astronauts

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The view of our planet from space is amazing, but from time to time, the astronauts on board the International Space Station are able to spot an elusive treat - wispy, shining 'polar mesospheric clouds' hanging far above the planet's surface, like these ones spotted above the Ukraine on August 1, 2014.

Polar mesospheric clouds are pretty much what they sound like. They're clouds that happen over the planet's north and south poles, at mesospheric heights, or about 80 to 100 kilometres above the ground. The thin, wispy layer of ice crystals that they're composed of is virtually invisible during the day, when the sunlight is shining down through it. However, as the Sun is setting, and the rays of light from it strike this layer of ice crystals edge-on, the effect is quite spectacular.

Comment:
Noctilucent cloud intensity is a precursor to changes in global weather patterns. And it should be no surprise that the climate is not at all what it used to be, say 10 years ago. In fact Noctilucent clouds have increasingly become a more ordinary sight at lower latitudes, with the increased fireball and meteor activity in our skies (loading the skies with dust), along with the severe cooling of our upper atmosphere from low solar activity.

Noctilucent outburst over Europe
More cometary dust in the atmosphere: Noctilucent clouds appear above Gateshead in the UK late at night

To get ahead on what our solar system is up to with its ominous weather, read:
Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection (The Secret History of the World Book 3)


Meteor

Space object slams Nicaragua's capital as asteroid passes Earth

meteor hit
© article.wn.comMeteorite leave crater in Nicaraguan capital Managua.
A blast that filled Nicaragua's 1.2 million capital Managua with dismay on Sunday night is most probably a meteorite that left a 12-meter crater near the city's airport. The space rock might be a fragment of a larger space object that passed near Earth.

"We are convinced that this was a meteorite. We have seen the impact from the crater," Wilfredo Strauss of the Seismic Institute said, as cited by the AFP.

Nicaraguan authorities are pretty sure it was a piece of an asteroid dubbed "2014 RC", an estimated 20-meter large piece of rock that whizzed close past Earth, Humberto Garcia, of the Astronomy Center at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, told The Associated Press on Sunday. It was most clearly witnessed in the skies above New Zealand. At its closest, asteroid 2014 RC was a mere 34,000km from the Earth's surface, about one-tenth of the distance to the moon.

The impact was severe and was heard throughout Managua. The meteorite crashed into a wooded area close to Managua's Augusto C. Sandino International Airport around midnight and left a remarkable 12-meter diameter crater, 5 meters deep. However, no one was hurt and operations at the airport weren't interrupted.


Comment: Asteroids and meteors: Henny-Penny harbingers of things to come. A meteorite is a solid piece of debris, from such sources as asteroids or comets, that originates in outer space and survives its impact with the Earth's surface. It is called a meteoroid before its impact and may vary in size from tiny grains to large boulders.


Rainbow

'Light Pillar' seen over Sabah, Malaysia

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© Unknown
A strange vertical light that formed in the sky on Tuesday night took many Kota Kinabalu and Penampang folk by surprise.

Many rushed out to watch the beam of amber light that remained in the night sky for three hours, beginning at 7pm.

They took pictures of the incident and shared them via WhatsApp as well as uploaded them on social media websites.

Some of those who saw the pictures discussed the incident as being a possible sign of doomsday.

As mysterious as it sounds, the Sabah Meteorological Department has pointed that the phenomenon is known as a "light pillar".

Attention

Major seismic event imminent? Strange glowing lights seen by pilots over part of the Pacific Ring of Fire

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Strange lights have been spotted near the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka (image by Dutch pilot JPC van Heijst). The sighting was made by pilots flying from Hong Kong to Alaska. The glow came about 20 minutes after a vertical lightning bolt was seen
* Strange lights have been spotted near the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka

* The sighting was made by pilots flying from Hong Kong to Alaska

* The glow came about 20 minutes after a vertical lightning bolt was seen

* Dutch pilot van Heijst ruled out squid-fishing-boats as the origin

* He says the cause may have been an underwater volcano

* An ongoing investigation is taking place to find out what happened


A pilot and his co-pilot have spotted a mysterious orange and red glow over the Pacific Ocean.

The strange lights were spotted south of the Russian peninsula Kamchatka during the flight of a Boeing 747-8 from Hong Kong to Anchorage, Alaska.

And while no explanation has yet been given, it's thought that they may have originated from the explosion of a huge volcano under the surface of the ocean.

Comment: Note that the pilots saw "an intense flash of light like a lightning bolt, directed vertically up in the distance". While there was no thunderstorm in the area, this does not preclude some form of electrical discharge event, which can and have occurred in virtually cloudless skies. A photo of a 'blue jet', or sprite, was photographed above Australia a few days later.

What could the red blobs be then?

Note that they occurred at the same time as the string of strong earthquakes hit the western side of the Americas (California, Peru, and Chile, on August 24th). So these lights may be another form of 'earthquake lights' that appear with episodes of subterranean stress, pockets of illuminated plasma between charged layers of the atmosphere.