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Evidence of a parallel universe? ‘Floating city’ seen from two Chinese cities

Thousands of residents in the Chinese cities of Jiangxi and Foshan were stunned to see what appeared to be a floating city up in the clouds. This unusual event led to widespread belief that these sightings were evidence that a parallel universe exists which can only be seen under certain conditions as what happened in these places.

Instead of the usually rounded shapes of the clouds, the ones seen in these cities had tall rectangles that resembled skyscrapers. Photos and videos of the phenomenon which were posted online quickly went viral.

Photo credit: Live Leak
Photo credit: Live Leak

Conspiracy theorists announced that this was evidence of their long-held theory that NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has the technology to create giant holograms to simulate an alien invasion, Jesus Christ’s “second coming,” or some other events of global importance. Others believe this was evidence of a parallel universe.

Some jokingly said these cities floating up in the clouds were not really there, but that some people were able to see them because some portal opened, much like the views of the other realms in the movie, Thor.

Still there were others who were quick to dismiss these photos as merely products of Photoshop, discounting evidence that there were many witnesses of the event.

Scientists were quick to debunk these wild theories, explaining that the formations seen were mere mirages called “Fata Morgana” which causes distortion of distant objects on land or at sea. This quickly changing mirage occurs for just a few minutes just as what happened with the Chinese sightings.

This very complex mirage is caused by temperature inversion. According to Wikipedia, “temperature inversion has to be strong enough that light rays’ curvatures within the inversion are stronger than the curvature of the Earth.” Only then will the light rays bend and create arcs that “copy” structures on the ground and make them appear higher in the sky.

The phenomenon has been observed many times in the past, especially in the polar regions where the conditions are perfect for a Fata Morgana. The perfect example for this phenomenon is the Farallon Islands in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States.

Because of their relatively low heights, the islands can not be seen from sea level under normal conditions. But when there is temperature inversion, these islands “appear” in the distance.

Sequence of Fata morgana of Farallon Islands show how Fata Morgana is changing constantly. The last two frames were photographed few hours after the first frames. Around sunset time the air is getting cooler, while the ocean might be a little bit warmer after a hot day. The lower the difference in the temperatures the lower inversion, and the mirage shown in the last two frames is not as complex as the mirage photographed around noon. Brocken Inaglory [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons
Sequence of Fata morgana of Farallon Islands show how Fata Morgana is changing constantly. The last two frames were photographed few hours after the first frames. Around sunset, the air is getting cooler, while the ocean might be a little bit warmer after a hot day. The lower the difference in the temperatures, the lower the inversion which makes the mirage shown in the last two frames not as complex as the ones photographed around noon.
Brocken Inaglory [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons
Of all the theories surrounding these floating cities, the Fata Morgana is the most plausible, there are those who continue to believe that there is a parallel universe out there.

Written by Joy Adalia

A non-functioning licensed Chemist but full-time mommy of 2 kids, full-time wife, and full-time freelancer ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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