Look, up in the sky, it's???

"When it is darkest, men see the stars."-Ralph Waldo Emerson

On December 9, the spiral show at right was seen floating in the sky of northern Norway for 15 minutes. Was this an alien invasion? The time vortex of Dr. Who? The return of the Christmas Star?

No, Russia admitted this was a failed missile test of a submarine-launched Bulava ballistic missile.

"It consisted initially of a green beam of light similar in colour to the aurora with a mysterious rotating spiral at one end," eye witness Nick Banbury of Harstad said, according to Spaceweather.com. "This spiral then got bigger and bigger until it turned into a huge halo in the sky with the green beam extending down to Earth."

Bottom Line

Truth is often stranger than fiction. Once as a young teen I got lost returning from a campground bathroom at night and wished that I had a light. Suddenly a meteor streaked across the sky and exploded - making the night as bright as day for a second or two. Just long enough for me to spot the path I needed to get back to the family tent. I've never experienced anything like that again.

Update

On the topic of odd but true, Cassini Sends First Full Images of Saturn's Mysterious Giant Hexagon