A photographer has captured an optical phenomenon that looks like an "interdimensional portal."
Photographer Gaby Chavez captured the footage at ski resort Cerro Catedral in Patagonia, in southern Argentina, and posted the unusual sighting on Instagram.
"A portal to another dimension?" the photographer said in a caption. "Nature [is] always surprising, snow crystals flying, and the sun's rays filtering through the cloud!"
The video shows the circular glowing "portal" in mid-air, along the snowy slopes of the ski resort.
Although it may look like something out of a science-fiction movie, this optical phenomenon is known as a subsun, which is generated by the reflection of the sun on a cloud of ice crystals.
It can only ever be seen from above and can only occur directly below the sun. The sunlight reflects off the small ice crystals floating in the atmosphere, creating a strange halo in the air.
The ice crystals almost act as a mirror for the sunlight, Chavez explained in her Instagram post.
The ice crystals that create this phenomenon have the form of hexagonal plates. As a general rule, the orientation the ice crystals hold in the atmosphere determines the kind of optical phenomenon that is created. There are other factors in play as well such as, for instance, the angle of the crystals' facets.
These optical phenomena usually occur in cold places where there are very clear conditions. In these conditions, the ice crystals allow the sunlight to pass through, Chavez said.
"In this case, we can see a multitude of bright points surrounding the ball of light, and they coincide with crystals moving in the air, shining stealthily like mirrors and whose density decreases rapidly with distance from the center of the phenomenon," the photographer wrote.
They are often seen out the window of airplanes, as this provides a good view down below, where ice crystals are suspended in the atmosphere.
Instagram users were amazed by the footage.
"It's time for you to go back from where you came friend haha," one Instagram user said in a comment. "What a beautiful moment!"
"Never seen anything like this. Unbelievably magical," another Instagram user said. "And I love that you saw it and recorded it. Someone who loves nature, someone who loves what it does."
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