By Mail Foreign Service and Will Stewart
Last updated at 5:00 PM on 09th December 2009
A mysterious light display appearing over
Witnesses from Trøndelag to Finnmark compared the
amazing sight to anything from a Russian rocket to a meteor or a shock wave—although
no one appears to have mentioned UFOs yet.
The phenomenon began when what appeared to be a blue
light seemed to soar up from behind a mountain. It stopped mid-air, then began
to circulate.
Within seconds a giant spiral had covered the entire
sky. Then a green-blue beam of light shot out from its centre—lasting for ten
to twelve minutes before disappearing completely.
The Norwegian Meteorological Institute was flooded with
telephone calls after the light storm—which astronomers have said did not
appear to have been connected to the aurora, or Northern Lights, so common in
that area of the world.
The mystery deepened tonight as
Fred Hansen, from Bø in Vesterålen, described the sight
as 'like a big fireball that went around, with a great light around it again.'
'It spun and exploded in the sky,' Totto Eriksen from
Tromsø told VG Nett.
He spotted the lights as he walked his daughter Amalie
to school.
He said: 'We saw it from the
'It almost looked like a rocket that spun around and
around and then went diagonally down the heavens.
'It looked like the moon was coming over the mountain,
but then came something completely different.'
What could it be? Astronomers say the spectacle did not
appear to have been connected to the aurora, or Northern Lights.
'It was like a giant spiral-a shooting star that spun
around and around. I initially thought it was a projector', added Axel Rose
Berg, from Alta.
Celebrity astronomer Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard told VG
Nett he had never seen anything like the lights.
He said: 'My first thought was that it was a fireball
meteor, but it has lasted far too long.
'It may have been a missile in
Air Traffic control in Tromsø claimed the light show
lasted for two minutes, but admitted that was 'far too long to be an
astronomical phenomena.'
Tromsø Geophysical Observatory researcher Truls Lynne
Hansen was certain the light had been caused by a missile launch.
He told Norwegian media that the missile had likely
lost control and exploded. The spiral, he claimed, was the result of light
reflecting on the leaking fuel. He was quoted as saying the light was sunlight,
despite the strange lights showing up at night.
The Barents Observer quoted Norwegian Defence spokesman
Jon Espen Lien as saying that the Norwegian military does not know what the
lights were—but that they were probably from a Russian missile.
He said it was normal for
However a
The Russian Defence Ministry was unavailable for
comment last night.
Read more:
Giant
Mysterious Spiral Takes Over the Skies of Norway
It wasn't the fury of Thor or an alien
portal or the Second Coming of Hey-Zeus. Here you have the explanation of the mysterious
giant spiral that happened yesternight in
The video shows a rocket running out of
fuel and spiraling out of control, which looks exactly like the photos and
videos.
Norwegian astronomer Knut Jørgen Røed
Ødegaard says it's 99.9% safe to say that it's a rocket out of control, while
some newspapers and TV channels are quoting Russian military sources,
confirming that this is a failed Bulava missile launched from a nuclear
submarine in the
The Norwegian defense has confirmed that,
even while they have not admitted the failure, the Russian Navy alerted them
about the tests prior to the giant spiral appearing in the skies. And if that
wasn't enough to convince everyone, here are two images of the missile trails
being blown away by the wind, at dawn.
http://gizmodo.com/5422792/this-is-how-the-mysterious-giant-spiral-happened