This is the incredible moment seven suns appeared in the sky above a Chinese city.
The spectacle was captured by staff and students inside the West China Hospital of Sichuan University on August 18.
Local media reported that when they tracked down the posters of the different videos and pictures, all of them appeared to have been taken inside the university building using mobile phones and that the spectacle had only been visible for a few minutes.
Many people speculated that it was an atmospheric phenomenon in which light is scattered through ice crystals and water droplets in the atmosphere, creating multiple images.
However, it is rare, and creating so many separate images is almost unknown.
Further research then revealed that the images could also be caused when light was reflected through multilayered glass. Given that all of the images were shot in the same building, officials confirmed that this was most likely the cause.
Zeng Yang, vice president of the Sichuan Astronomy Popular Science Society, said: 'The images were taken through laminated glass, so this is a man-made optical phenomenon.
'The glass was probably very thick and multilayered, and that creates refraction. A virtual image if you like. Only one is the real sun, and the others are virtual images. That is why the brightness of the copies is slowly diminishing.'
He added as an afterthought that nevertheless, it was extremely beautiful and not easy to capture as the person viewing needs to be standing in exactly the right position to capture it.
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