Photographer takes pictures of a mysterious object during Aurora in Norway
According to Mr Mikalsen “‘I have never seen an object like this before, and I am eager to find an explanation to the phenomenon.”
Mr Mikalsen captured this strange phenomenon he described as a ‘parachute’ when taking pictures of the vivid Aurora over Andenes, Norway
The photographer first assumed the odd optical effect was a spot on his camera lens. But after he posted his photographs on Spaceweather.com he was inundated with emails from interested experts from around the world.
Lead scientist Truls Lynn Hansen from Tromsø Geophysical Observatory said he doubted the picture, taken on January 20, was due to a simple camera fault.
He told the media : ‘The “phenomenon” has the same greenish colour as the Northern Lights. That means the Northern Lights is the source of light causing the strange phenomenon.’
However, Mr Hansen said it was unlikely the Northern Lights could create the optical effect on its own. Instead the aurora might be bouncing off an external source like a satellite or an airplane.
In this way it would act like an ‘iridium flare.’ The flares are created by sunlight reflecting off iridium satellites. They appear as bright white flashes in the sky.
One problem with Mr Hansen’s theory is that the light intensity from the Northern Lights is 100,000 times weaker than the sunlight.
