SHOCKED Brits thought they may have spotted a UFO last night after a mysterious shimmering light appeared in the sky.
Others likened the strange appearance to a “portal to the next dimension”.
3
3
It was noticed by residents in Scotland, with reported sightings from Edinburgh to Angus.
But it’s actually a very rare cloud.
The rainbow cloud, often called “mother of pearl”, is especially rare in the UK.
Officially, they’re known as nacreous clouds.
Read more science stories
It’s the very unique conditions they form in that make them so rare.
Usually, they appear in very cold conditions over dry areas and much higher in the sky than your average cloud.
The strange glowing colours come from light the clouds reflect after sunset or before sunrise.
These rare clouds only form below -78 degrees, so are most likely to occur during the polar winter.
Most read in Tech
Onlookers claim it only lasted about ten minutes before disappearing.
“Because of the very low temperatures required, nacreous clouds are usually only visible from the UK when the cold air which circulates around polar regions in the stratosphere (known as the stratospheric polar vortex) is displaced and hovers temporarily over the UK,” the Met Office explains.
It looks like a “portal to the next dimension”, one weather watcher told the BBC.
“Brief, eerie and bright cloud illumination at sunset this evening. Unsure exactly what. No filter, no spaceship,” another commented.
Others took to X, formerly known as Twitter to share their photos.
“Rainbow pearl clouds. It is a rare event,” one observer wrote.
BBC Weather presenter Tomasz Schafernaker responded to users on the social network, saying: “Great shots of recent #NacreousClouds.
“They can be extremely high – three times higher than an airplane at cruising altitude.
“Nacreous clouds are in indicator of especially cold air high in the atmosphere.”
3
Find out more about science
Want to know more about the weird and wonderful world of science? From the Moon to the human body, we have you covered…
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at [email protected]
This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
