On two separate nights in May, a strange blue laser sliced through the skies over the Oxfordshire, England countryside, leaving skywatchers baffled. Astrophotographer and astronomy communicator Mary McIntyre captured the eerie spectacle on her remote aurora-hunting cameras — and what she saw didn't match anything she'd encountered before.

"The first time I spotted it [May 1], I thought at first it may have been a rare form of blue aurora but then realised it was moving too quickly," McIntyre told Space.com in an email. "It just didn't fit with any other aurora we've seen during the 30 or so displays we've captured."

Suspecting a spotlight from a nearby RAF base sometimes used for film sets, McIntyre considered that theory, then ruled it out due to the light's speed.

Maybe lights from a

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