As misinterpreted meteorological phenomena are often cited as the cause of UFO claims, it is not unexpected that scientists are drawing criticism for taking this tack when discussing a peculiar halo spotted above China. It was seen above Pu’er in the Yunnan Province (north of Laos) in August and resembled a rainbow-colored tower perched atop a dense exhaust cloud.
An image of the formation was posted to the NASA “Astronomy Picture of the Day” Facebook page. The image was taken by Jiaqi Sun, and the NASA website provided an explanation that included clouds, evenly sized water droplets, and diffracted sunlight. After more than 62,000 replies and 1,400 comments, it is evident that not everyone believes it was unintentional or natural.
Alternative explanations include the possibility of an explosion, the atmospheric spraying of “toxic substances,” and a Chinese government holographic experiment. On the other hand, many others were certain that it was a UFO and proposed a cover-up by the government. Marjana N. Manny Perez wrote, “There are aliens in that cloud.”
Either aliens or man-made material meant to conceal cutting-edge military technology are to blame. You decide,” stated Andreja Depiazzi. Cassi Idle said on Facebook, “Weird how I have never seen or heard of them in my whole life.”
Although it did acknowledge that the hypotheses were a little “strange,” the NASA-supported Facebook page did provide a more thorough description of what it dubbed “an iridescent pileus cloud.”
According to the website, there is a pileus iridescent cloud, which is made up of water droplets that are consistently comparable in size and hence collectively refract distinct hues of sunlight in varying quantities. The camera also photographed unusual cloud ripples that were seen above the pileus cloud. A typical cumulus cloud capped by a rare pileus indicates that the bottom cloud is growing higher and may eventually become a storm.