Oxfordshire: Mystery cloud lit by worm moon thrills skywatchers

Facebook users likened the "bizarre" cloud to an alien invasion or a wormhole

Pictures of an "eerily cool" thin cloud illuminated by the March full moon - popularly known as the worm moon - have been shared on social media.

The worm-like phenomenon was reported to be hanging in the sky above parts of Oxfordshire on Tuesday evening.

Facebook users likened the "bizarre" cloud to an alien invasion, a wormhole or the result of experiments at the Harwell science campus.

Meteorological consultant Jim Dale said the cause was probably combustion.

The cloud was probably not a natural phenomenon, meteorological consultant Jim Dale said

Mr Dale, from British Weather Services, said water vapour from an artificial source, such as a rocket, would have crystallised quickly in the cold weather and hung in the air.

He said it was unlike any natural cloud formation he knew, although he acknowledged: "Nature... has a funny way of presenting itself sometimes and it can come up with wonderful and weird things.

"Not that there's any rocket launch pads in Abingdon, I don't think.

"It's either a mini-tornado that looks a bit freakish or we've got a... rocket. It's hanging in the air still, quite literally."

Cassandra Russell from Southmoor said the cloud was the vapour trail from a plane

Cassandra Russell, who photographed the cloud from Southmoor, said it was "the vapour trail of a plane" which she had been watching, starting as a "thin line across the moon" and growing to the size seen in pictures.

Debra Newman said her children who spotted the phenomenon in Abingdon were convinced that aliens had landed.