A photographer in Chicago has shared his stunning shot of a spooky object that was changing colour while it was stationary in the night’s sky.
Depending on the observer, it resembles a mask, an alien face, an indigenous totem, or even Rafiki the monkey from The Lion King.
Experts are baffled as to what it might be, although they called the image ‘beautiful and ‘spectacular’.
The remarkable shot was taken by Dietrich Zeigler, a photographer in Chicago, and shared exclusively to MailOnline.
‘It was around evening just as the sun dipped below the horizon,’ he said.
‘I noticed some colorful shimmering and took out my 70-200 MM lens and shot this.
‘The object’s appearance was striking, with a palette of purple, gold and green.
‘It seemed to be changing colours, but the shape remained the same which looks like a mask.
‘After quickly heading indoors to examine the photos, I was unable to locate it in the sky again.’
Mr Zeigler said it ‘seemed as stationary as a star’ to the naked eye, although slight differences in the photos he took suggested it might have been moving slightly.
‘I was quite startled upon reviewing the photos on a larger screen,’ he said.
‘Even now, I frequently gaze at the sky, both during the day and at night, hoping to witness something as remarkable.’
‘Yet, nothing similar has crossed my view since that intriguing evening.’
UFO stands for ‘unidentified flying object’ and so the term doesn’t necessarily describe an object with an extraterrestrial origin.
Nick Pope, a UFO expert formerly with the UK’s Ministry of Defence, called it a ‘beautiful image’ but couldn’t identify the ‘unidentified aerial phenomenon’ (UAP), now the preferred term by authorities.
‘Often, when looking at UAP images, we’re not necessarily seeing an accurate picture of the object,’ Pope told MailOnline.
‘Distortions can occur for example when an object is photographed through glass, or when zooming-in, or as a result of various anomalies and light effects relating to the camera.’
Another British UFO researcher, Philip Mantle, said the object could be plasma or even ice crystals in the clouds.
‘I’ve seen these ice crystals myself and they do look really spectacular,’ he told MailOnline.
‘[But] it’s difficult to reach a definitive conclusion.’
US Department of Defense – otherwise known as the Pentagon – declined to comment on the image.
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