Was this giant glowing aerial presence just a satellite — or a sign of intelligent life in the universe? That's what scientists are asking when a strange, eerily familiar shape showed up in a photo of Norway's Northern Lights.
The aurora borealis — oddball illumination caused by iodized atoms in extreme northern latitudes — are weird enough as it is without something like this showing up. Here, in a story by the Mail Online about the image captured by an amateur photographer, reporter Claire Bates fields educated guesses as to what exactly this thing is.
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.
Apparently every theory makes sense — but not completely enough to make a solid explanation.
Fun fact: Carl Sagan's Cosmos speculated that lifeforms on Jupiter, and other gas giants, could look very much like enormous jellyfish, using something like jet propulsion to move itself through the thick atmosphere.
Northern Lights image from Per-Arne Mikalsen. Jellyfish courtesy Getty Image.