So there you are. You’ve been driving for hours through the night. You didn’t have any chance to sleep, so your mind is hanging by a thread. You stop the car and go out to stretch your limbs.

And then you look up into the sky and see a beautiful sunrise. Whoa, wait! There’re three Suns in the sky! You rub your eyes, but nope. There’re still three bright stars in the sky.

No, our home star hasn’t been torn into three pieces. Nor has it been visited by two other stars. This is called a sun dog. It occurs mostly during severe frosts. Small ice crystals in the sky bend the light. As a result, you may see three bright spots in the sky instead of just one.

This phenomenon is officially called a halo. Usually, it’s just a circle around the sun. You can even see a halo at night too. Just look at a streetlamp, and you’ll see a bright circle around it. Sometimes, a halo can take on a fancier shape. If there’s a lot of ice in the air, the light is warped even more. Just like in a room with a dozen mirrors. Then, the halo can take on the shape of a human eye.

Because of this phenomenon, a false dawn can occur too. While you’re looking at the horizon, the dawn begins, and the edge of the sun appears. A little bit more, and... Wait, the Sun starts to just dissolve in the sky. After a few moments, it’s dark again.

And only a minute later, the real Sun shows its face. It was the same light curvature effect you saw before with the three Suns. Only now, the light is curved vertically, not horizontally. And instead of the real Sun, its reflection in ice crystals in the sky appeared.

But the sunrise with three stars on the horizon is actually real. Not on Earth, though, but 340 light years away. There’s a star system at the center of which lurks a star almost twice the size of the Sun. And there’re two small stars orbiting around this giant. From afar, they look like dumbbells.

This strange world has a planet too. Sunsets and dawns there really happen with three stars. If you brought your significant other to a park bench to watch a sunset here, your date would go just fine. Whatever that means.

Now you’re at home, watching YouTube to the sound of a thunderstorm. Suddenly, you hear the sound of a window shattering, and all the lights in the house go out. You see a streak of bright blue light from under the door to the next room. You open the door and see a sphere of lightning the size of a basketball. It’s hanging still, occasionally zipping tiny lightning bolts to the sides. After a couple of moments, the ball flies away toward the window through which it got here.

You’ve just witnessed a ball lightning. Clever name. Such a phenomenon has been observed in different parts of the world and each time it scared people to bits. In 1753, an experienced sailor went up on the deck of a ship. He looked out and saw a big blue ball of fire over the water. The sailors wanted to turn around and catch up with this mystical orb. But it was moving too fast.

And before they could change course, the ball flew upwards at a tremendous speed. Then, there was a powerful explosion, the force of a thousand cannons. The boom tore the top of the ship’s mast, and several sailors were thrown back by the shock wave. In the same instant, the orb disappeared, leaving behind only the unusual smell of sulfur.

And one recent case occurred in Eastern Europe. During a thunderstorm, a ball of lightning flew into a woman’s house. The woman remained motionless, and the blue ball flew right over her head. The lightning then discharged into the electrical wiring inside the wall and disappeared. But despite eyewitness claims, ball lightning still remains an unconfirmed phenomenon.

And even if it exists in reality, we can’t explain how it appears. Some scientists have even been able to create ball lightning in the lab. But those spheres weren’t stable, and they weren’t anything like what the eyewitnesses described.

Moving on. This cloud looks like a dinosaur. And this one looks like a cat. And this... Whoa, it looks like these clouds are falling down! Ah, phew, that’s just a mammatus cloud. Their shape really makes them look like chunks of clouds about to slam on the ground. Well, that’s not going to happen, but you better start seeking cover anyway.

Such clouds are a sign of a severe thunderstorm coming. It takes a lot of moist air with ice crystals at the top and dry air at the bottom to create such clouds. Then, vertical currents of air appear between these layers. And these currents make the clouds take the shape of a human brain. Mu-wha-ha-ha.

And this giant cloud looks like a dome that’s going to cover an entire city. In fact, that’s exactly what happens. A huge cloud covers a large area and then rains heavily on it. Sometimes, the front of such a cloud takes a bizarre shape. It looks more like several giant spaghetti clouds. Or even giant cloud worms.

This phenomenon can often be seen in Australia, and it’s called a Morning Glory. It happens because a strong wind twists parts of the cloud on both sides. And then the huge sheet of air dough splits into thick strips.

And sometimes, you can see clouds in the sky made of... Birds. Wow, that cloud moves quickly and changes shape. It becomes more transparent, but then denser and darker again. The birds seem to be involved in some kind of dance or performance. But they’re not doing it for beauty or for the crowds of spectators gathered below. They’re doing it for protection.

When birds group themselves into such a cloud, they intimidate birds of prey. An eagle or hawk would’ve a hard time picking out a single target among the endless number of birds. And they move quickly, covering each other. Fish are huddled together in schools in the same way. Such a cloud might just spook a hungry predator.

For another unusual phenomenon, we’ll have to look at the Earth from a bird’s eye view. At night. We head to the Middle East. There’s a large desert here, and it’s completely dark. Except for one spot. It’s a big circle that glows with a bright orange light — the Darvaza Crater. And it’s just a giant gas burner.

Years ago, geologists found gas here, and they started mining for it. But when they excavated, they came across a void underground. The void collapsed, and it formed a crater. It’s as wide as half a soccer field and as deep as a five-story building.

Gas began to come out of the cracks in the crater. And since animals were often grazing near this place, the gas could harm them. Then the geologists decided to set these gas streams on fire to exhaust the source. One spark, and the crater was filled with columns of fire 30 feet high.

Geologists thought the fire would be over in a day or two. But if you come here now, you’ll see this gateway to the underworld is still burning. And it’s been going on for almost 50 years.

In 2013, a man descended to the bottom of the burning crater for the first time. He collected many different samples there, and scientists were able to find bacteria that aren’t found anywhere else on Earth. They’re quite comfortable at the bottom of this endless burning frying pan.

Another mystical phenomenon can be seen in the desert. A sand waterfall. When the wind brings a lot of sand to the edge of the canyon, it begins to fall down. Now amplify this effect 100 times, and you get a sand waterfall in Saudi Arabia. It really is like Niagara Falls. Only there’s not a drop of water. The locals say this phenomenon warns of an impending sandstorm.

And the last phenomenon can only be seen in winter. You see a frozen river. And there’re some strange stones sticking out of the ice. But when you get closer, you get scared. Because it’s not a stone, but a crocodile’s snout.

Don’t fret, though: it can’t jump out from under the ice and take a bite out of you. And the animal isn’t in trouble, as you might think. Crocodiles can’t breathe underwater, and they need to constantly rise to the surface to take a breath. But when the water freezes, that becomes impossible.

So crocodiles stick their noses out before severe frosts, and leave half their body on the surface. They can breathe safely. Plus, the ice and cold air cools the crocodiles, and slows down their metabolism. That’s how crocs can survive the cold and hungry times. And so this true story about crocs is not a crock.

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