YouTubeMost UFO sightings can be chalked up to active imaginations and a desire to believe we are not alone on Planet Earth.
So when witnesses noticed ‘a mirage’ they described as a ‘floating alien city’ over the Yueyang in China they could be forgiven for thinking there was no reasoned or scientific explanation for the unusual and eerie-looking masses.
Amazingly, they could have been wrong.
PixabayThe Chinese city of Yueyang is home to over a million residents. Of the hawk-eyed among them, some people noticed huge skyscrapers appeared to be jutting out of clouds as they loomed ominously over the city, capturing the strange sight on camera.
In the furore, many jumped to the conclusion that the mass had mysteriously descended from the sky, prompting conspiracy theorists to ruminate that the shapes were in fact airborne alien spaceships entering Earth’s atmosphere.
This is not the first time a ‘floating alien city’ has been spotted. The first appearance was documented in the footage below as early as last year in the Chinese city of Jiangxi.
After this initial sighting, conspiracy theorists claimed the otherworldly happening was part of something called the Blue Beam Project by NASA. The unverified and far-fetched theory states that NASA is trying to get humanity to abandon existing faiths and religions for another NASA super religion, by convincing people an alien invasion is underway.
In actual fact, this particular mysterious otherworldly skyscraper shapes piercing the sky can be explained very easily using the rationale, empirical evidence of science.
This case was the simple result of a type of mirage called Fata Morgana, an optical phenomenon that occurs when rays of light bend through air layers of different temperatures. The illusion is down to a phenomenon called thermal inversion.
Due to the widespread media coverage of the initial incident, which was indeed a mirage, the tourists who filmed the foggy scenes in on Yueyang’s skyline assumed the same.
However, according to The Daily Mail, meteorological experts said the phenomenon was not a mirage and Li Dongyang, the deputy director of Yueyang Meteorological Bureau, confirmed that the buildings were real, and they had been covered by radiation fog.
So for now, the UFOlogists will just have to keep blindly believing that aliens exists.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.