Latest Wild Las Vegas Strip Mystery: UFOs Reported in the Sky
Tourists flock to Las Vegas for its many entertainment options, not the least of which are its visual attractions, which take many forms.
The performing arts are a big part of the experience. Cirque du Soleil at Bellagio Resort & Casino, operated by MGM Resorts International (MGM) – Get free reportis an example of great crowd-pleasing entertainment.
Big-name acts such as Adele, Maroon 5, the B-52s, Aerosmith and country stars such as Luke Bryan and Garth Brooks perform in the city.
The 4.2-mile stretch that makes up the Las Vegas Strip features attractions such as Caesars Entertainment’s (CZR) – Get free report The Eiffel Tower at Caesars Paris Las Vegas, MGM’s New York Statue of Liberty lookalike and the famous fountains in front of the Bellagio.
Other attractions for visitors are in plentiful supply. Professional sports franchises such as the NHL’s Las Vegas Golden Nights and the Las Vegas Raiders of the NFL play home games in the city.
And, of course, ever-present gambling options — including slot machines, card games, sports betting and other activities — are sources of entertainment that entertain visitors as well.
Visitors to Las Vegas see something completely surprising
But an unexpected sight graced Las Vegas during the holidays.
Tourists’ attention was riveted to the night sky on December 23, when many guests of Sin City thought they were witnessing something they never expected and had never seen before: UFOs.
Alien spacecraft, some thought, were flying over the city.
“There’s a #ufo over Sapphire Las Vegas right now!” wrote Twitter user @HotHeadBrett, adding a video to his tweet.
“UFOs over the Las Vegas Strip?” tweeted @mightypadula, as he posted a video of himself.
So what was the phenomenon of witnessing?
It turns out the explanation had to do with the wild weather system that roared across the country over the weekend. It involved a weather activity known as a light pole.
“Tall pillars of colorful light stretching across the sky seem like the perfect backdrop for an impending alien invasion, but in reality, light pillars are a common effect that can be found all over the world,” explains the National Weather Service on his website.
“They come from above – not extraterrestrials, but tiny ice crystals hanging in the atmosphere,” the explanation continues. “Ice is very thin, shaped like a plate with hexagonal faces. When ice goes down through the air, it falls almost horizontally. At the top and bottom are the faces with the most surface area. Ice is very reflective, so when light hits them wider. faced, it bounces around and reflects more ice crystals.”
So what people were witnessing were simply the brilliant lights from sin city reflecting off the weather activity in the sky.
“That means we get these vertically stacked mirrors floating in the atmosphere,” the National Weather Service explains further. “The light that hits it is reflected up and up (or down and down, depending on the source) and becomes a radiant column in the sky. The light can come from the sun, the moon, cities, street lights—any strong light source. “
Visitors to Las Vegas enjoyed the spectacle of the city’s bright and colorful lights in a rare new way: on the ground and in the mystery of its reflection from above.
