
‘Aliens’: Mysterious glow baffles New York
AMERICANS have been baffled by a mysterious blue light that illuminated the night sky in New York City.
Twitter was flooded with curiosity, with post questions whether the powerful glow was caused by everything from a UFO, to a secret party.
It was a scene that could have been an alternate plot line to War of the Worlds, a bright flash followed by power outages, according to one Twitter user.
But it wasn't signalling the arrival of an alien invasion. In fact, it was something far less exciting than residents had hopes.
Video taken by my friend featuring this weird “explosion”?? Blue light followed by power outages😱WTH JUST HAPPENED IN NYC??? #bluelight pic.twitter.com/4cetzEu2rb
— Hanwen Li (@Linalhw_) December 28, 2018
NBC News reports the striking display was caused by a transformer explosion at the Con Edison power plant in Astoria East and North Queens - about half an hour away from the city centre.
It went off at about 9pm (1pm AEDT).
A spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted their had been "scattered power outages".
It's not the first time the ominous glow has caught New York City residents by surprise.
A video by The Weather Channel shows a 2012 explosion at the same power plant produced the same result.