أخبار العالم

A crazy pink sky over Thanet isn’t aliens landing – so what is it? | Tech News


No, this photo isn’t fake – the skies over Thanet really turned pink (Picture: KentLive/BPM Media)

This isn’t the start of an alien invasion. At least not in Thanet, anyway.

An apocalyptic, eerie pink sky gave the Kentish seaside community quite a fright as they woke up yesterday morning, opening their curtains expecting Storm Babett but finding something much more strange.

For an hour between 5am and 6am the entire town was overcast by the ominous magenta clouds.

Millennials thought it was Zuul from Ghostbusters making his arrival. Gen Z thought Stranger Things was coming to life.  

Others reckoned it was just straight-up end of the world vibes.

There is nothing wrong with your screen, the sky over Thanet really was pink this morning (October 19). The bustling coastal community looked as though it had been plonked in a sci-fi film, leaving many mystified over what could be causing the unusual glow.

What would you think if you saw this? (Picture: KentLive/BPM Media)

However, the striking phenomenon had a much more Earthly, if slightly less fun, explanation.

Tomatoes.

Just outside the town lies the ‘plant factory’ Thanet Earth, an enormous greenhouse complex that grows hundreds of millions of tomatoes each year alongside 30 million cucumbers and 24 million peppers.

All those tasty vegetables need more light to grow than a drizzly English autumn can provide, and so the team switches on the lights early in the morning for a brightness boost – think of a massive Lumie alarm clock.

And while the company says it does its best to keep the light trapped inside using blinds, when low cloud rolls into town, the light that does escape can’t help but create an eerie glow.

The unusual glow was caused by a nearby ‘plant factory’ (Picture: KentLive/BPM Media)

‘As a responsible local business, we constantly monitor the way our business affects the community around us and during certain weather conditions there will inevitably be some light that reflects, particularly when there is low dense cloud cover over the Thanet area,’ said a Thanet Earth spokesperson.

‘We mitigate this light reflection as much as possible by deploying blinds in our glasshouses once the lights are switched on. 

‘We continually assess our operations and their impact on the community and the pink LED lights we use here at Thanet Earth have much lower emission levels compared to other types of growing lights.’

The Upside Down in Stranger Things (Picture: Netflix)

The Upside Down in Stranger Things also sends a colourful hue across the sky (Picture: Netflix)

However, some residents didn’t see the funny side of the spooky sight.

‘Would that be the massive light pollutant Thanet Earth?’ said one user on X, formerly Twitter. ‘Pink skies at night thanks to them, an inept planning dept who allowed it… No dark skies here!’

Another wrote: ‘When were Thanet Earth given permission to turn our skies pink? Horrific light pollution.’

Most however seemed to enjoy the curious sight caused by a few million tomatoes sunbathing in the early morning glow.

And who knows, one day they may get their revenge for the early morning fright by slicing up one of those tomatoes for dinner.


MORE :
‘Alien’ signal detected from deep space


MORE : The truth about aliens could be exposed ‘with one phone call’


MORE : Doctor insists ‘aliens are real’ after examining corpses of strange creatures

Follow Metro across our social channels, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Share your views in the comments below



مقالات ذات صلة

اترك تعليقاً

لن يتم نشر عنوان بريدك الإلكتروني. الحقول الإلزامية مشار إليها بـ *

زر الذهاب إلى الأعلى