It remained suspended there, showering the city with a multitude of extremely thin beams, like pouring rain.
The entire phenomenon lasted for 10 to 12 minutes.
The wake of a Falcon 9 rocket seen from California on 22 December 2017.
Residents of Petrozavodsk saw something similar on 20 September 1977.
Photo:Kevin Gill/Wikimedia Commons
The event was widely reported the following day in newspapers.
In Denmark, pilots flying over Copenhagen also saw a glowing object.
The luminous amorphous object was reported from various places across northwestern Soviet Union.
The director of the Petrozavodsk Hydrometeorological Observatory, Yu.
With time, eyewitness testimony became garbled and the stories turned progressively more bizarre.
A doctor reported that his ambulance went out of control when the UFO appeared.
Others accused America of a nuclear attack.
A couple of rare photos of the Petrozavodsk phenomenon.
For the Soviet government, the case had become an acute embarrassment.
They trotted out a series of scientists to assure the public that all was well.
At first, they explained that it was a rocket stage burning up.
The visibility depends on the materials of the sputnik, Vladimir Krat, director of Pulkovo Observatory stated.
When it became apparent that this was not convincing anyone, a new explanation was cranked up.
He then explained what chemiluminescence was and how nitrous oxide pollution from factories enhanced it.
Even today, the Petrozavodsk phenomenon is hotly debated among Russian UFO enthusiasts.
This luminous apparition often looks like a jellyfish.
Here are a few examples:
Falcon 9 launch on 22 December 2017.
This contrail was observed from Long Beach, California, more than 100 miles southeast from its launch site.
Photo:Toy135/Wikimedia Commons
Launch of Falcon 9, seen from Florida on 29 June 2018.
Launch of the Argentine satellite SAOCOM from the Vandenberg United States Air Force Base on 7 October 2018.
Photo:Brian Gonzalez/Wikimedia Commons
Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg, California on 7 October 2018.
Photo:Marty B/Wikimedia Commons
References:# Yu.
V. Platov, B.
