A peculiar image circulating on social media in Thailand shows an enormous dark pillar that mysteriously appeared in the sky and left a prominent scientist in the country scratching his head. The puzzling picture (featured in a Thai newscast above and isolated below) was shared online this past Sunday by an individual who said that they snapped the photo the previous day in the city of Ubon Ratchathani. Intriguingly, they reportedly indicated that they initially intended to capture the "beautiful, colorful sky" and it was only later that they noticed the striking anomaly that "wasn't visible to the naked eye."

The genuinely strange photo understandably sparked considerable speculation on social media with many wondering if the weird anomaly was otherworldly. The picture proved so intriguing that popular Thai science communicator Jessada Denduangboripant put forward his own theory for the eerie pillar. In his estimation, the formation could have been a phenomenon similar to a contrail known as a 'distrail,' wherein "the clouds disappear into a channel, due to a plane flying over."

That said, the Chulalongkorn University professor noted that such an occurrence should have been visible in the sky, which led him to lament that "the mystery of this pillar persists. Hopefully, it isn't a trick of photo editing or a camera glitch." An update posted by Denduangboripant on Tuesday morning added another hypothesis to the mix as, based on other pictures taken by the witness, he posited that the pillar may have simply been a reflection. That said, he conceded that this is merely a guess as "it's fun to keep thinking about." To that end, what is your theory for the puzzling pillar photographed over Ubon Ratchathani? Share your best guess with us at the C2C Facebook page.