NASA Spotted a Huge Ring Over the Ocean - What Was That - video Dailymotion

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Imagine looking down from space and seeing a giant ring stretching across the ocean. That’s exactly what NASA satellites spotted, leaving scientists scratching their heads. Was it a strange cloud formation, an atmospheric shockwave, or something more mysterious? These rare patterns don’t just look otherworldly—they challenge how we understand our planet’s skies. The footage sparked theories online ranging from weather experiments to encounters with extraterrestrials. Get ready, because we’re diving into one of the strangest ocean mysteries ever caught from space!  Credit: NCSA Advanced Visualization Lab / YouTube NOAASatellites / YouTube BBC Sky at Night Magazine / YouTube NASA's Kennedy Space Center / YouTube European Space Agency, ESA / YouTube aviafilmsproduction / YouTube ThespaceReport / YouTube Animation is created by Bright Side.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV  Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Our Social Media:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

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00:00It was in the year 2014 when a satellite snapped a picture of something unusual in the middle of

00:09the Pacific Ocean. It was a giant, almost perfect ring floating all by itself. It was an eerie sight.

00:16This formation showed up thousands of miles southwest of Hawaii and was about 280 miles

00:22wide. Who created this ring? How did it appear there? The questions were countless. The huge

00:29ring was spotted by NASA's Terra satellite with the help of a special camera called MODIS.

00:35Later, after examining the images, scientists realized that the ring was made out of perfectly

00:40shaped clouds. Even though clouds like this aren't super rare, it's not common to see one that big

00:47and completely on its own. Normally, such clouds show up in groups, not just hanging out solo in

00:52the middle of nowhere. The ring is made of puffy cumulus clouds. It turned out that it had been

00:58shaped by something called a Rayleigh-Bernard convection cell. It's a fancy-schmancy way

01:04of saying that the clouds formed when warm air arose and cooler air sank, creating a circular

01:10pattern. There are two types of such cloud cells. One is a closed cell, where cold air sinks around

01:17the edges and clouds pop up in the middle. The other is an open cell, where cold air sinks in the

01:24center, and clouds form around the outside. And that giant ring floating over the ocean

01:29was exactly a closed cell, hence its cool shape. Interestingly, such cloud patterns usually look

01:35like a bunch of hexagons packed together, you know, like a beehive in the sky. But this one was

01:41out there all by itself, which made it even more eye-catching. Now let's take a look at how the ring's

01:47formation happen in detail, shall we? At one point, the sun heated up the water, or land,

01:54warming the air above it. That warm air got lighter and started rising. Cumulus clouds formed. Maybe

02:00it even rained a bit. When that rain came down, it cooled the air beneath the clouds. That cooler air

02:06then sank and spread out in all directions. But when it ran into the surrounding warmer air,

02:12it pushed the warm air upward again. That's how the ring of clouds formed around the original spot.

02:18This whole thing happened just south of the intertropical convergent zone,

02:23a region near the equator where trade winds meet and often cause thunderstorms and heavy rain.

02:28That particular location probably helped with the formation of this cool cloud pattern too.

02:34Now take a look at the right side of the satellite image. The ocean looks super shiny there,

02:39almost like silver. That shiny effect is called sun glint. It happens when sunlight reflects directly

02:45off the ocean's surface and hits the satellite camera just right. It kind of turns the sea into a

02:51ginormous swirling mirror. The cool thing is that the texture of the water, whether it's smooth or choppy,

02:58changes how that sun glint looks. Most of the time, the wind stirs up the surface, creating waves.

03:04These waves normally scatter the sunlight in different directions. But some of that light

03:08still hits the satellite, so the area looks shiny. But sometimes, if the water is super calm

03:15or there's a break in the wave pattern, it can create darker patches where less light gets reflected

03:20back. It gives sun glint zones a strange, patchy look. So if you notice really dark spots in satellite

03:27images, keep in mind that they might not be shadows or oil spills. Most likely, they're just signs of how

03:34the wind and waves are behaving on the surface of the ocean. Now, at the same time, it's not just weak

03:40winds that can smooth out the water. According to an oceanography professor from the University of

03:45South Florida, other stuff like freshwater, shipwakes, and even natural ocean movement, such as underwater

03:52waves or currents, can change the water's texture too. And all these phenomena can mess with how the

03:58sunlight reflects, which, in turn, can cause weird patterns in the images. Some of the darker lines

04:04you can see, for example, inside places like Delaware Bay or Chesapeake Bay, might be freshwater

04:10mixed with things like algae, dissolved plant material, or even natural oils. But those patches aren't

04:17usually as big as the giant dark blob they saw off Delmarva. It happened on May 6, 2023, when the ocean

04:24just east of the Delmarva Peninsula was super calm. There was barely any wind. So, the surface of the

04:30water was all smooth and glassy like a giant mirror. And the angle was just right to make it look dark.

04:38Now, even though these sunglin effects make for some stunning satellite pictures, they can be

04:42annoying for scientists who are trying to study the color of the ocean or track things like phytoplankton

04:48blooms. Basically, sunglin can cover up the stuff they actually want to see. So, to work around that,

04:54scientists and engineers have built tools to either fix the data afterward or design sensors that avoid

05:00the glare in the first place. For example, the new ocean color instrument on NASA's upcoming PACE mission

05:07is designed to tilt just enough to dodge the worst of the Sun's reflection. Oh, by the way,

05:13NASA scientist Ralph Kahn reminds us that our eyes can deceive us, judging brightness based on what's

05:20around it. So, even a dark patch in an image might actually be pretty bright. It just looks dark compared

05:26to the shiny parts nearby. Now, let's tilt our heads back to the night sky. See that weird glowing spiral?

05:35Looks pretty extraterrestrial, doesn't it? Well, chances are, it was just a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket

05:42doing its thing. When these rockets launch satellites into orbit, they sometimes dump leftover fuel once

05:48they're high up in the atmosphere. That fuel freezes and starts spinning around as the rocket moves.

05:54It looks like a mini ice tornado in space. But what makes it look even crazier is sunlight.

05:59Even if it's dark where you are, the rocket's way up high where the Sun can still hit it.

06:04The light reflects off the icy fuel spiral, making it glow. Just a bit of night sky drama,

06:11but nothing mysterious. Now, let's admit it, you aren't likely to see a real-life flying saucer.

06:18What you can see, though, is a lenticular cloud, which looks pretty much the same if you ask me.

06:24These clouds pop up high in the sky, usually around mountains, where moist air flows over them just

06:30right. Even though the wind is moving super fast, these clouds just kind of hang there, totally still,

06:37like someone has parked them there. They're usually perfectly shaped, smooth, and saucer-like.

06:42And still, it's just nature showing off again.

06:52Another kind of weird stuff you might see in the sky is space junk. When satellites stop working, a lot

06:59of them are just left behind, floating around. Eventually, they slow down because of atmospheric

07:05drag and start falling back to Earth. When they do, they light up the sky like massive fireballs.

07:11Sometimes it can last for nearly a minute. As the pieces burn up, the different materials they contain

07:17can create colorful streaks in the sky. And once in a while, chunks actually survive the trip and crash

07:24land on Earth. The leftover bits are often twisted and scorched. And they look so strange that people

07:30sometimes think they're wreckage of spaceships from another planet. But nope, just another piece of

07:36our own space clutter coming home. Now, look at this. A plane is flying straight toward the horizon

07:43and leaving behind a long contrail. You know, that artificial cloud from engine exhaust? And in some cases,

07:50it can look like something is falling from the sky. The wind can blow those trails wider,

07:55making the whole picture seem even more dramatic because it looks like smoke from a crashing object.

08:01Add in the red glow from a setting sun and, well, it looks like something is on fire and plummeting to

08:07Earth. Plus, if sunlight reflects off the bottom of the plane just right, it can look like there's a

08:12glowing core in the crashing cloud. But the giveaway is the speed. Slow. Real falling objects,

08:19especially from space, zip across the sky at thousands of miles per hour. So if it's barely

08:25moving, it's probably just a plane. Nothing to worry about. Wink wink.

08:32That's it for today. So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it

08:37with your friends. Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side!

NASA Spotted a Huge Ring Over the Ocean - What Was That

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