According to Newsweek, photographer Gaby Chavez captured this extraordinary scene at the Cerro Catedral ski resort in Patagonia, southern Argentina, and shared it on Instagram. “A gateway to another dimension?” the photographer commented in the caption.
Gaby Chavez’s video shows a “gateway” glowing in a circular shape in mid-air, along the snowy slope of the resort.
Although it looks like something out of a science fiction movie, this optical phenomenon is created by the reflection of sunlight on a cloud of ice crystals.
It can only be seen from above and occurs just below the sun. Sunlight reflects off tiny ice crystals floating in the atmosphere, creating a strange halo in the air.
Chavez explained in her Instagram post that the ice crystals act almost like a mirror, reflecting sunlight.
Gaby Chavez shows the glowing circular “gateway” in mid-air.
The ice crystals that create this phenomenon take on hexagonal shapes. Generally, the orientation of the ice crystals in the atmosphere determines the type of optical phenomenon produced.
After Chavez’s video was shared, it attracted significant attention from internet users. Many Instagram users were amazed by the footage.
“What a beautiful moment!”, “I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s unbelievable”, “It’s incredible, and I love that you witnessed and captured this”, “I feel like I’m watching a scene from a science fiction movie”,… are some of the comments from the online community.
