On Jan. 20, 2010, Per-Arne Mikalsen was photographing a vast aurora erupting over the northern Norwegian town of Andenes.
Because solar activity is on the increase, aurora spotters have many opportunities to see the Northern Lights. On this particular night the aurora was intense, stretching toward the southern latitudes of Norway.
In one of the photographs taken by Mikalsen was an “object” that couldn’t be identified. Although Mikalsen had taken several images at the same location, just one photo showed a mysterious green parachute-like object hanging with the main aurora. (This time, it appears that the Russian military was not involved in the making of this strange shape in the sky.)
At first it seemed easy to dismiss the object as a lens flare or a spot on the camera lens, but after further study it became clear that the answer wasn’t that simple.
Just more swamp gas, cool pic though.
It’s DB Cooper. We finally found him.
cp (Colin) look at the whole photo http://news.discovery.com/space/norway-aurora-satellite-flare.html
look at the “artifact” then look diagonally downwards you can see a big house light, and with a good lens, with good glass and a multi coating, I still think it’s a flare.
here is the original photo with a line to illustrate… http://bayimg.com/image/iakfkaaca.jpg
here is a similar photo, note the light is much brighter
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amason_is/3471633225/sizes/o/
Its star jelly.
It’s lensflare. If anyone would know, it would be me. Go see Star Trek 2: Lensflares in Space coming out soon!
#19. LOL
Looks a lot like the sprite pictures (or the other similar atmospheric phenomena) found a decade or more ago on space shuttle videos/pics.
Lens flare it is! Caused by the bright back porch light directly opposite in the full image.
It’s a sprite. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_%28lightning%29
“…as pointed out by astronomer Daniel Fischer via Twitter, the green flare might not have anything to do with reflected aurora light, it could just be the color of the lens coating. The lens flare was therefore the result of internal reflections inside the camera lens caused by the bright lights in the lower left-hand corner of the frame.
“It has the typical caustic shape and it is opposite several bright point lights,” Fischer observed. “Green color could be caused by lens coatings.”
Although more research will need to be done, it certainly seems plausible that Per-Arne Mikalsen serendipitously took a photograph of a satellite flare (possibly an Iridium satellite).”
Discovery: “Aurora Mystery Solved?”
http://tinyurl.com/yebrztt
I want to believe…
OMG, why don’t these Aliens just land in the middle of the super bowl half time and get it over with??
Don’t these Alien idiots watch this stuff from SPACE????
With Billions and Billions of stars, can’t they just teleport one of their green beings to earth??????
Sorry, even though it states “It’s not that simple” – it still looks like a lens flare to me.
Nevertheless, living in Australia, I’ve never been close enough to a pole to have seen an aurora.
Street light.
I go with #7. That shape shows up in a lot of pictures.
It is probably not a lens flare because multiple individuals in multiple (different) locations took pictures of the same object in the sky at around the same time:
Person 1
Person 2
That is a good old fashion lense flare. Sorry to burst the bubble of the UFO enthusiasts. This happens often in pictures with 20-30 second exposure. Just a car-light in the distance is enough to cause light pollution.
I’ve never had it myself because I take extra caution to cover my viewfinder with a cap and also travel far away from light sources when I search for the aurora.
Many people get these. They’re quite common in aurora pictures taken with DSLR.