Many residents of Jiangxi and Foshan were left in awe as they looked up at what seemed to be a massive floating city in the sky.
While scientists have thrown the debunked book at the event, it got conspiracy theorists in a buzz, with the sightings sparking ideas of an invasion by an advanced extraterrestrial civilisation, Project Bluebeam, and even a ripple between our universe and a parallel universe.
The optical illusion is known as Fata Morgana, which is a mirage created by distorting distant objects, and can be seen on land or sea. It happens when the sun heats up the atmosphere above land or the ocean, creating a gradient of temperatures. The air close to the surface is cool, with layers of warmer air above it.
When light hits the boundary between the layers at different temperatures and densities, it bends and travels at a different angle. Our brain assumes that light travels in a straight path, so when it bends we presume that the object is where it would be if the light’s path runs straight.
In this case, light reflected from the skyscrapers is bent downward as it passes through the colder, denser air. Because the brain puts the object where it would be if the light traveled a straight path, the distant skyscrapers appear higher than they actually are.
Nevertheless, conspiracy theorists had a field day.
‘Notice the group of buildings is repeated three times? If it isn’t someone making it on their computer, it seriously could be project blue beam.’
‘Or a temporal vortex, a possible parallel universe material briefly into our own reality.’
‘It is also possible, considering China’s technological achievements that a top secret holographic technology was tested over a heavily populated area in an effort to gauge the public reaction.’
Project Blue Beam is believed by conspiracy theorists to be a super secret project by NASA to emulate an alien invasion, or new world religion via advanced holographic technology projected around the world, appointing the antichrist as the new age ‘God’. There are different variants of the theory, and can easily be found with a quick search.
Check out the video of the event:
