In Muar in Malaysia, residents were stunned to see what looked like a reddish object near the sun at about noon on October 3, 2012.

Many thought it was an unidentified flying object or UFO.

Muar marine police chief Asst Supt Nordin Osman said his personnel captured the image on their handphones.

“The object looked static, it didn’t move.

“It looked like an orb with a planet inside it,” he said.

Resident Muhamad Sharin thought the object was another planet.

“I immediately called many of my friends and asked them to look at the sun.

“They were all amazed at the sight,” he said.

Muhamad Sharin added that the strange sight might have been related to the weather as it was very hot that day.

Muar is one of the cities situated around Johor Bahru, on the south-western coast of West Malaysia.

As this phenomenon was witnessed by multiple people with the naked eye, lens flare can be ruled out.

Sundog?

Picture of very bright sundogs in Fargo, North Dakota.

A possible explanation is that it is a Sundog, however, Sundogs may appear as a colored patch of light to the left or right of the sun, 22° distant and at the same distance above the horizon as the sun, and in ice halos.  Sundogs are best seen and are most conspicuous when the sun is low. The malaysian phenomenon appears to be to the upper left of the sun seemingly ruling out a Sundog.

Halo?

A picture taken in Petaling Jaya showing a halo around the sun.

On the same day another phenomenon involving in the sun, appeared in the sky in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. A  strange sight of a Halo circling the sun became a talking point and many people were seen using their handphones to capture the spectacle, ruling out that the reddish object is a Halo.

This “rainbow-around-the-sun” effect occurs naturally when light interacts with ice crystals in cirrus clouds in the upper troposphere. The crystals act like prisms, refracting and reflecting sunlight to produce a rainbow-colored effect around the sun.

Reddish Object Enlarged.

Remains the question, is the reddish object a natural optical phenomenon or maybe similar which is rarer.

Source and author: thestar.com.my Malaysia