Parts of the Interwebs have been, for want of a better pun, all a-twitter in recent days over this video of what appears to be a spectacular glowing ring in the skies above Moscow.
The video, which was shot last week, has prompted much fevered speculation. Could it the Eye of Sauron? The end of the world as we know it? Informed paranoia leaned heavily toward a UFO mothership.
Russian authorities, performing the meteorological equivalent of "Move along, there's nothing to see here," called the event an "optical effect." The light on the horizon in the distance suggests the Sun is setting at the time the video is taken, and on closer examination, what initially seems to be a circular shining cloud appears in fact to be a gap in the cloud cover, through which the bright evening sky above is being revealed.
It is, in other words, most likely a rare but not unheard of phenomenon called a "hole punch" cloud, the creation of which seems to require a combination of ice crystals, supercooled water droplets, warm, rising air, and a passing jet aircraft. A more precise explanation of the process is here and a neat gallery is here.
So, no, the Moscow cloud presages neither a UFO invasion nor the end of times. It is, however, to use the scientific parlance, pretty cool-lookin'.
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