When a mysterious orb of light was first spotted above the skies in Siberia it was clear that this was not a natural phenomenon.
Combined with the spectacular Northern Lights, the subsequent images showed an alien landscape with what looked like a distant gas giant orbiting in the distance.
Many speculated about what the huge orb could be but few had definitive proof, until now that is.
According to the Siberian Times, the orb of light was in fact caused by a series of massive ballistic missile tests being carried out by the Russian military.
What you’re actually looking at is the exhaust from one of the missiles being caught by the Sun, even though at this point the Sun has dropped below the horizon.
Due to the high altitude of the missile the light was still able to interact with the exhaust which is why it appears to be glowing.
The Russian military have confirmed that they were carrying out a series of exercises which involved the launching of two intercontinental ballistic missiles from one of its nuclear submarines and one further land-based launch of an ICBM from the Plesetsk Space Center.
Each launch was captured and video has since been uploaded to Twitter.
It’s not unusual for missile launches to be misinterpreted due to the simple fact that they’re often kept secret.
Even with the secretive nature of the launch, the likelihood of a missile launch creating a phenomenon like this is still pretty rare.