Airbus pilot captures rare 'cosmic marvel' during night flight and it goes viral

An Airbus pilot captured a rare cosmic marvel known as a ‘gigantic jet’.

Despite having the word ‘jet’ in the name, this phenomenon has nothing to do with jets, other than the fact you probably have to be on one to see it.

This is because gigantic jets are only visible from a certain altitude.

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The video was shared by Airbus pilot, Alexander Torres, across his social media accounts.

It was also reposted by Airbus and that’s when it went viral.

And it’s easy to see why, because it’s spectacular, and it certainly isn’t something you get to see every day.

What is a ‘gigantic jet’?

A gigantic jet is one of three main phenomena that only occur in the upper atmosphere, the other two being blue jets and blue starters.

There are a lot more than these three, but these are the most well-known.

A gigantic jet could be described, loosely, as lightning but it happens well above the altitudes of a regular bolt, and the electricity propagates upward from the cloud, rather than downwards.

The view from above the clouds

There’s no shortage of gorgeous phenomena that can be observed from the sky, but sometimes, some of the best ones occur well above the clouds.

Possibly the most beautiful one to behold is airglow, which unfortunately (for us down here) can only be seen from space.

Then there’s another one that’s just as rare and difficult to capture, perhaps a little less so because at least you don’t have to be a cosmonaut to see it.

It has a weird name, too.

They call it ‘pilot’s glory’, and it can only be captured when you’re on a plane, looking at another plane, under certain weather conditions.

Cockpit POVs also give us a different perspective of things we think we are getting the measure of from down here: like how close planes fly and how fast they actually fly.