Mysterious green lights seen from space have a fishy explanation

COULD it be aliens or secret underwater cities? These lights bright enough to be seen from space have been mystifying astronauts, but what are they?

A PHOTO taken by an astronaut in space has revealed a splattering of perplexing green lights seen glowing over a huge area near Thailand.

Reid Wiseman, one of the crew members on the International Space Station, noticed weird illuminations that shone as bright as cities out to sea in the Gulf of Thailand so, mystified, he immediately posted his discovery to Twitter.

#Bangkok is the bright city. The green lights outside the city? No idea… pic.twitter.com/TDzyin3hK7

— Reid Wiseman (@astro_reid) August 18, 2014

So what are these lights that even have NASA men stumped? Being in the middle of the ocean, explanation of city pollution is ruled out (unless they’re secret underwater ones? Hmm…), so could it be blooms of bioluminescent algae, a trick of light or something far more eerie? Theories ran wild from nuclear waste to aliens but it eventually it came to a fishy conclusion.

It turns out those mysterious lights are actually from fishing boats that use hundreds of striking bright green LED lights to attract squid, which normally hang out deep down, to the surface and straight to their jiggling hooks. The idea is they follow the plankton they feed on, which are drawn to the bright light. Very smart.

To plankton this is just irresistible . Source: NASA

With the greenery stretching over miles and miles the image shows just how many fishing boats are out there but, more remarkably, how powerful those lights are to be seen from space. If you’re wondering what this must look like at ground level the lights fill the night skies to create an emerald aurora like this:

Skies of green from the fleet of squid fishing boats. Source: tomrl.blogspot