A shocking video of seven suns taken at a hospital in China has captured the attention and baffled viewers around the world.
A woman was filming the sun setting on the horizon when something spectacular happened: the image showed more than one sun in the sky.
However, the minute-long video that looked like a cosmic miracle was actually an optical illusion created by the glass window through which it was filmed.
The phenomenon was caused by light refracting through the layers of glass in the window.
A woman in China captured an image of what appeared to be seven suns in the sky. The image was caused by light refracting through a glass window.
The video was captured from the 11th floor of a hospital in Chengdu, China, southwest of Sichuan, on August 18, and shows the sun duplicated with different levels of intensity.
The woman who allegedly captured the video, known as Wang, said viewers were fascinated by the surreal display, according to Jam Press, as many have offered theories about how the phenomenon occurred.
“This happened because of a glitch in the magnetic field that caused parallel universes to manifest visibly,” one person wrote on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
“The Cosmic Office has resolved the issue and those responsible have been reprimanded,” they added.
Others argued on Reddit that the fragmented suns were a sign of “immense pollution” in China, with one person writing: “The truth about global warming has finally been revealed.
Meanwhile, one person simply joked: “Would the real Sun Shady please stand up?” in a nod to rapper Eminem’s famous hit, “The Real Slim Shady.”
However, one commenter correctly addressed the issue of how one video showed seven suns, writing: “This is due to the reflection/refraction of the glass in a multi-pane window. The sunlight bounces between the layers, causing the clear visual separation of the reflections.”
Similar to how you would see a reflection in a mirror, light refracts and reflects off layers of glass, with each layer creating another copy of the image.
Except for the brightest sun in the center, which is the real one, the others are part of the optical illusion.
Although there is a scientific explanation for the seven suns, some people still prefer to believe that the show is part of the story of Hou Yi.
In Chinese mythology, Hou Yi was depicted as the god of archery who was sent from the heavens to help humans.
He is said to have stopped ten suns from burning the Earth and, according to the tale, shot them down with his magic bows and arrows.
The tenth sun begged for his life and agreed to separate day from night as punishment for trying to burn the earth.