In something straight from a sci-fi movie, a neon blue cloud has been spotted floating above a city in the US.
After spotting the aura in Quincy, Massachusetts, around 1am on Sunday night, one person took to Reddit to ask if others had seen the same strange blue cloud hanging in the night sky.
Dozens flooded the comments section with what they seemed to feel was the obvious answer: aliens.
One account, bubbaliciouswasmyfave, wrote: ‘”Damn it! Who left the blue clouds effect on?!” -Aliens probably.’
Another, Phil_McCrankin, wrote: ‘It’s our alien parents’, while a third, 1blueShoe, said: ‘Fastest moving cloud I’ve ever seen!!, seriously though.. that’s a bit weird.’
But others were quick to offer a more logical explanation, after a weekend of delight for stargazers who were treated to a once in a lifetime view of the Northern Lights.
‘I’d say it may have something to do with the solar storm,’ said defiCosmos.
Another commenter, Exotic-Scarcity-7302, added: ‘Aurora borealis was over much of the northern US. We are getting hit with a strong geomagnetic storm.’
Still, many argued that since the blue light has been spotted several times before, with a similar formation being spotted five years ago and again five months ago, it seems less likely that it is caused by the aurora borealis.
But all arguments aside, the cause of the floating phenomenon is pretty mundane.
The strange blue light which has been confusing people for years is simply the effect of light pollution from the Fore River Bridge.
Spanning the Weymouth Fore River between Quincy and Weymouth, the Fore River bridge stretches 2,216 feet (675 m) long, and is illuminated each night with a neon blue light.
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Taking six years to complete, the bridge was completed in 2018, and reports of the lights have been rolling in since then.
When clouds line up with the bridge on the horizon, the lights illuminate clouds that happen to be passing by, producing this strange effect. Not so exciting, after all.
As Reddit user SwampMonk put it: ‘Alien ship was a lot cooler. Oh well.’
