Read: Canadian amateurs discovered a new kind of auroraĭuring at least one time in history, the sight of weird lights in the sky became a business opportunity. During the American Civil War, soldiers thought the lights were a sign of disapproval from God to the Confederacy. In Scandinavian folklore, they were the burning archway that allowed gods to move between heaven and Earth. In ancient China and Europe, the auroras were dragons and serpents, flitting around in the night. But centuries ago, observers, captivated by the wisps of colors, dreamed up their own explanations. Today, we know the northern lights are the product of electrons from the sun interacting with different gases in Earth’s atmosphere. Perhaps the oldest example is the aurora borealis, the resplendent performance of dancing lights in the night sky. Like the blue glow over New York, these sights have baffled, scared, and mesmerized us, even when we’ve known their source.

We human beings have long been intrigued by strange lights in the sky. But the evening also tapped into something much older and more primal. This strange December night encapsulated so much of what makes the internet great: the dissemination of captivating photos and videos in real time, a shared sense of camaraderie that transcends state lines and borders, and some pretty funny jokes. It was a joy to watch the discussion of the blue light unfold online. 🤷‍♂️👽 Our live #EarthCam in midtown #NYC captured the electrical arc flash as it turned the night sky blue! /3fY56xu1ug - EarthCam December 28, 2018 Sorry to disappoint, but the eerie blue glow last night wasn’t an alien invasion. “No injuries, no fire, no evidence of extraterrestrial activity,” the New York Police Department tweeted, extinguishing most of the theories that had flooded social media. In this case, the atmospheric recipe resulted in a ghostly blue. When atoms become excited, they emit light, and different gases produce different colors. A powerful electric current shot into the air and sent atoms of gas in the air into a state of excitement. (There was no explosion or fire, contrary to early reports.) According to the station’s operator, Con Edison, the malfunction produced something called an arc flash. local time, some equipment at an electrical power plant in the Astoria neighborhood short-circuited. What people witnessed was much less dire: a quirk of electricity. Maybe the apocalypse was nigh, and this, these eerie turquoise clouds over Queens, were the first sign that the end was near. Maybe the glow signaled the end of a massive battle between superheroes. The theories leaned heavily on science fiction. They sensed something was wrong-because, obviously, would you look at the freaking sky?-and quickly formulated some possible explanations.

The spectacle, which appeared without warning on Thursday night, stunned observers. With a flash, the sky over New York City turned a mystical blue.

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