Mysterious light pillars illuminate skies over Leningrad oblast
Residents of Swietogorsk, a city in the Leningrad Oblast, had the chance to admire mysterious lights in the sky at the start of January. Although elongated formations of this type are not commonly seen, their appearance can be scientifically explained, as highlighted by the Focus service.
Photos showing mysterious light pillars appeared on social media on 5 January, reports Focus. They were shared by users, including one named astrophotoboloto on the Telegram channel. This optical phenomenon occurring in the atmosphere is well-known to science.
Mysterious lights over Russia
It manifests as vertical columns of light extending above or below the light source. Light pillars occur when light—natural, like the Sun or Moon, or artificial, like streetlights—reflects off horizontally aligned ice crystals suspended in the air.
Light pillars are most commonly observed when light falls at a low angle during sunrise or sunset. They occur mainly during cooler times of the year when ice crystals are present in the atmosphere.
Light pillars are not the only spectacular optical phenomenon observed in the Earth's atmosphere. Other phenomena resulting from the interaction of light with atmospheric components such as ice crystals, water droplets, or dust particles include halos, which are luminous rings around the Sun or Moon, as well as more familiar phenomena such as rainbows and auroras, or the Brocken spectre, often seen in the mountains.
