Mystery of Two Suns in Chinese Sky Leaves Scientists Puzzled

The phenomena over China is something so rare that science has not had the opportunity to fully investigate its properties.

(CHICAGO) - A rare meteorological event occurring over the Chinese skies has left scientists scratching their heads.

One sun, the normal, bright cheerful one that warms the Earth and lights the countryside continued to slide towards the horizon as dusk approached. The other "sun" suddenly flared to life. That eerie interloper shone almost as brilliantly. As large as the original sun, the new sun differed mostly in color and definition: the impostor was tinted orange and appeared a bit fuzzy.

Stranger still, people witnessing the strange sight noticed the suns cast double shadows of objects on the ground.

Website "Life's Little Mysteries," as stumped as many others that saw the phenomena, sought out expert advice from Jim Kaler, the University of Illinois astronomer that debunked the viral story about the Orion constellation star Betelgeuse undergoing a supernova explosion and appearing as a second sun in the sky.

Kaler believes that the second sun that many saw over China was caused by atmospheric refraction. He admitted, however, that the phenomena is not fully understood.

After viewing a video taken of the phenomena, Kaler said: "I doubt it's been computer modeled. There must have been some blob of atmosphere somewhere that caused this truly spectacular phenomenon, which in a sense is a mirage."

Not completely satisfied with Kaler's partial explanation, Mysteries sought out another expert, Grant Perry. An atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Institute for Satellite and Meteorological Studies, Perry admitted that he too is a bit mystified.

"This is not a common optical phenomenon that we're seeing here," he explained. "I'm asking myself if this is an artifact of the lens, but if that were the case—if it's reflections of the lens elements—then the images would move in relation to each other as the camera moves. But that doesn't happen."

If the peculiar incident was not caused by lens flare or any understood meteorological phenomena like "sun-dogs"—multiple images of the sun projected by refraction in the upper atmosphere—then what caused a second sun to appear?

"You would have to assume it is particles of ice or something in the atmosphere aligned in such a way that they would refract the sunlight at that very small angle, but only in one direction. It would require some fairly peculiar characteristics."

So, scientists believe it is ice after all that caused sunlight to refract and create the image of a twin sun.

A logical explanation, yet one that has not been proven. The phenomena over China is something so rare that science has not had the opportunity to fully investigate its properties.

The second sun disappeared at sunset when the original sun set. The next morning, only one sun rose.

Terrence Aym is a Salem-News.com Contributor based in Chicago, who is well known nationally for his stirring reports on the top ranked site, helium.com. Born in Minnesota, Terrence Aym grew up in the Chicagoland suburbs. Having traveled to 40 of the 50 states and lived in 7 of them, Aym is no stranger to travel. He's also spent time in Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and Western Africa. An executive for many years with Wall Street broker-dealer firms, Aym has also had a life-long interest in science, technology, the arts, philosophy and history. If it's still possible to be a 'Renaissance man' in the 21st Century, Aym is working hard to be one.

Aym has several book projects in the works. Media sites that have recently featured Aym, and/or discussed his articles, include ABC News, TIME Magazine, Business Insider, Crunchgear.com, Discover, Dvice, Benzinga and more recently, his work has been showing up in South Africa and Russia.

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Zach August 21, 2011 5:41 pm (Pacific time)

Well some scientists are claiming that it is the star Betelgeuse in the orion formation going supernova, they claim it will be visible for up to a few months! But if you have any knowledge of astronomy and what a supernova is, you would know that a supernova lasts normally from a few days to a week, the really large fantastic supernovas may be visible for up to 3 weeks but beyond that has never been seen before, Its not a supernova, Its not ice in the atmsphere forming a perfect orange colored sphere, Its happening this year because we're nearing the 3600 year round time of the tenth celestial body in the solar system, it was announced decades ago that a tenth celestial body must exist in the outer reaches of the solar system to account for the anomalies discovered in the orbital patterns of the outer planets, they knew something was tugging on the outer planets, the only reasonable explanation was a tenth celestial body in an extended elyptical orbit, with a round trip time of 3600 years we just so happen to be in the right part of our own orbit to witness this body coming through our inner solar system, in fact we may come a bit too close to it, hence FEMA buying out all dehydrated goods to the point where they cancelled previous contracts with suppliers all around the world just to supply FEMA's Billion dollar purchase, also in 2008 the CIA initiated a costly and seemingly inconvenient move from Langley Virginia (about 100 feet above sea level) to Denver Colorado (about 1 mile above sea level), when asked for the reason they gave no comment. Call it Nibiru,Hercolubus,Planet X, whatever name you use we are heading for serious times. Only advice i can offer is use your brains and try to notice the obvious changes in the world around you. You'll be surprised

Zach August 21, 2011 5:38 pm (Pacific time)

Baby June June 22, 2011 9:02 pm (Pacific time)

My Bible, the Word Of God, states there will be "signs and wonders in the heavens" just before the coming of Jesus. It won't be long til we see Him coming in the clouds.

XXX June 21, 2011 5:25 am (Pacific time)

To World Saviour's comment. Dude, honestly, you need to watch a series called Ancient Aliens. It will open you eyes, that point of time because science was not that explicit people came up with mystical explainations. Have you ever seen your one and only creater Allah???? where is he?? up in the sky?? where??

Webslinger325 May 20, 2011 11:41 am (Pacific time)

The Earth is flat. We've regressed in our understanding of this in this BC era. The sun has always been an optical illusion of an indivisible frequency, as low frequencies cause interference into higher ones (causing the curvature appearance of the horizon and spherical shaped celestial bodies). The throne is returning to its high seat, and it's causing this illusion of another infallible point in our heavens.

World Saviour March 14, 2011 6:10 pm (Pacific time)

• " والسماء و الطارق * و ما أدراك ما الطارق * النجم الثاقب * ان كل نفس لما عليها حافظ * فلينظر الانسان مما خلق * خلق من ماء دافق * يخرج من بين الصلب و الترائب * السماء ذات الرجع و الأرض ذات الصدع * انه لقول فصل * و ما هو بالهزل * انهم يكيدون كيدا و أكيد كيدا * فمهل الكافرين أمهلهم رويدا "
سورة الطارق
This is AL TAREQ SURA from holly QURAN
it tells us a thousand of years ago that GOD is swearing with the skys and a star called "AL TAREQ" that will pass through our system
• and then it speaks about how people should realy look into themselves and know how weak they are and and how they were created by GOD from water
then GOD tells us that at that time the skies will tremble and earth will shake with earthquakes , just to remind mankind that they were created by GOD , and they should repent before its too late
• Please guys don't comment on my writing before you take a deep breath and think for a moment.......how could a man "Mohammed Ebn abdellah"صلى الله عليه و سلم
who couldn't read or write 1421 years ago know that scientific fact
I Urge you all for your sake i have no benifit from this just that mohammad صلى الله عليه و سلم teachings gave us light that we should care for all humanity
I swear the end is near and we will all see the truth that this world has only 1 creator " ALLAH "

Elias Vargas March 14, 2011 7:54 am (Pacific time)

I noticed it to, after walking outside I put on my sun shades and SAW two suns, I thought that was strange but thought to myself it must be my sun shades. Now I know I wasn't just seeing things that wasn't there. Fontana. Ca.

Todd Pollard March 9, 2011 6:54 pm (Pacific time)

The Bible says there will be signs and wonders in the sky in the end times, and I think Obama is the Antichist and we must soon choose to take the mark of the beast and worship him or be killed. This is an exciting time for Christians, but here on Ash Wendsday we know that before Christ's ultimate victory there will be much suffering for the faithfull.

WaJesus Thabiki March 9, 2011 10:33 am (Pacific time)

Signs in the sky... What's happening to the world we living at? Jesus can cleary answer that... The Saviour is coming. Get ready people, repent, for He is c0ming.

Victoria March 9, 2011 6:50 am (Pacific time)

(+_-) |\/| Thank you for confirming my sanity. I recorded 2 suns at sunrise on 2/20/2011 in orange county,california victoriaaudio (at)gmail.com

Victoria O' Reilly March 9, 2011 6:45 am (Pacific time)

Thank you China for confirming my sanity.I recorded video of 2 suns at sunrise on 2/20/2011 in orange county,california Thank you china moon (+_-) |\/|

laurent March 9, 2011 5:29 am (Pacific time)

is it possible that it is just o cloud tornado or something dividing the sun? giving the optical illusion of 2 suns? the phenomenon already happenned in UK.

truth March 8, 2011 7:43 pm (Pacific time)

MARK 13:25 And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.

jimmy March 8, 2011 4:30 pm (Pacific time)

So.. can you see two suns when you look up in the sky??? Where are they hiding the other one?

VERNON S March 8, 2011 1:26 am (Pacific time)

So, scientists believe it is ice after all that caused sunlight to refract and create the image of a twin sun.THERE FULL OF IT WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO TELL THE WORLD THE TRUTH !!!!

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Mystery of Two Suns in Chinese Sky Leaves Scientists Puzzled

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