Chinese city bears witness to five suns appearing in sky simultaneously

Wonder or illusion, five suns were seen in North China’s Inner Mongolia which was lit up by a rare occurrence leaving witnesses in awe.

What a spectacular wonder! Five suns are seen shining in the sky in N China’s Inner Mongolia pic.twitter.com/uvYydtCtYJ

— People’s Daily, China (@PDChina) February 14, 2020

People rushed outdoors to take pictures and video of the additional “suns” that appeared in the sky, surrounded by rainbow-like halos.

In some areas of the city, like the city of Chifeng, residents reported seeing three suns shining.

The naturally occurring illusion – a legitimate astronomical phenomenon – is also known as phantom sun or ice halo, according to the Chifeng Meteorological Bureau.

In some countries, it is called a “sun dog”, but its official name is the parhelia.

It appears when ice crystals create high clouds in the air around 6,000 metres above ground and produce reflected sunlight.

According to Nasa, sun dogs are like a new type of ice halos and formed by plate-shaped ice crystals drifting down from the sky – like leaves fluttering from trees.

Sun dog can occur at any time of the year and from any place, although they are most visible when the sun is lower on the horizon in January, April, August and October.

It also occurs when ice crystals in the atmosphere are more common but can be seen whenever and wherever there are cirrus clouds.