Eerie light pillars transform Minsk into a science-fiction metropole

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These eerie light pillars appeared in the sky of Minsk on December 30, 2015.

And transformed the capital of Belarus into an science-fiction metropole.

These amazing pictures were captured by photographer Alexander Tarasevich in his beautiful city of Minsk.

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Alexander Tarasevich

These pillars of light beaming directly upwards are sometimes visible during very cold weather.

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Alexander Tarasevich

These columns of light result from the reflection of light on plate shaped ice crystals, normally only present in high clouds.

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Alexander Tarasevich

The horizontal facets of these ice crystals floating in the air close to the ground reflect light back downwards.

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Alexander Tarasevich

The resulting pillars are collected light beams from all the millions of crystals which just happen to be reflecting light towards your eyes or camera.

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Alexander Tarasevich

Artificial light pillars, as those in these pictures, can be much taller than their natural counterparts.

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Alexander Tarasevich

Because rays from the lights are not parallel and plate crystals with small tilts can still reflect them downwards.

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Alexander Tarasevich

Some other insane light pillars were captured over Russia last month.

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Alexander Tarasevich

You can follow Alexander Tarasevich on VK or watch more of his awesome work on his photography webpage.

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