Russian Cosmonaut Films Mystery Lights Passing over Aurora Australis

The mystery lights, pictured here center left of frame. (Roscosmos / Twitter) — The mystery lights, pictured here center left of frame. *(Roscosmos / Twitter)*

Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner filmed a line of mystery lights last week from aboard the International Space Station. Vagner later referred to the lights as “space guests,” after posting a time-lapse video of the captured footage to Twitter.

"Space guests, or how I filmed the new time-lapse," Vagner captioned the video. "The peak of [aurora australis] when passing over the Antarctic in Australia’s longitude, meaning in between them. However, in the video, you will see something else, not only the aurora."

Space guests, or how I filmed the new time-lapse.

The peak of aurora borealis when passing over the Antarctic in Australia’s longitude, meaning in between them. However, in the video, you will see something else, not only the aurora. pic.twitter.com/Hdiej7IbLU
— Ivan Vagner (@ivan_mks63) August 19, 2020

"At 9-12 seconds, 5 objects appear flying alongside with the same distance," he added. "What do you think those are? Meteors, satellites or…? "

The objects were filmed at one frame per second, he said, and later assembled in a video with a rate of 25 frames per second, "meaning, the real observation time is 52 [seconds]."

According to Vagner, "The information was brought to the notice of Roscosmos management, [and] the materials were sent to TsNIIMash and the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences for further analysis."

Some viewers speculated that the lights represent a string of highly-reflective SpaceX Starlink satellites momentarily catching the sun, while others subscribed to a more paranormal explanation.

"Five years ago this is the exact same thing that was hovering over my Jeep while driving the highway in Prince Rupert, [British Columbia]," one person commented. "I remember flooring the gas pedal and turned to go back to town, it was spinning just like that, [then it] went past the mountains and [was] gone. People thought I was seeing things and making jokes about ET, [but] with the lights spinning I [could] see how close and large it was. I remember looking at it as it went to the mountains, how fast it disappeared. I definitely was terrified, [which is] why I floored the gas pedal back to town."

Roscosmos Spokesman Vladimir Ustimenko told a state-controlled Russian-language news station last Wednesday that it is too early to say definitively what exactly the objects Vagner filmed are.

"It is too early to make conclusions until our Roscosmos researchers and scientists at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences tell us what they think," he said. "It was decided to hand over those materials to experts, who will tell us what that was in their opinion."

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