Residents of St Petersburg's second city were left stunned by the unusual footage and images of the so-called halo effect and after it have shown three suns appearing in the sky over Russia. After watching the video clip, experts were reportedly convinced that the triple sun scene was the result of a rare natural phenomenon.
The Three Suns: Could This Be Possible?
In one of her statements reported by The Daily Star, head of popular science at the Petersburg Planetarium and a current PhD student in celestial mechanics at St Petersburg State University, Maria Borukha, explains that the false suns were known as "sun dogs". She further added that they were an atmospheric phenomenon consisting of a pair of bright spots appearing on either side of the Sun, however, people from the St Petersburg, can rarely get to see them due to their location.
On the other hand, according to senior researcher of the Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nikolay Zheleznov, said some halos were even more eye-catching. In one his statements reported by Daily Mail, Zheleznov explains that this phenomenon was just a sort of a regular halo and not the most spectacular type. It is nothing but a play of light on ice crystals in cirrus clouds at an altitude of five to ten kilometers (three to six miles) above the ground.
Local residents of the area has allegedly then took the images on social media which has been likened to Luke Skywalker's fictitious home planet of Tatooine in Star Wars, where it also shows two suns. It was found that recently last November, similar happenings were also reported in some parts of Siberia. Ultimately, authorities have also revealed that the halo illusion triggered many road accidents across the country because of the brightness and shock of witnessing three suns.
