Scots have been left bewildered after a 'UFO' was spotted by hundreds of people across the country.
On Sunday there were an influx of social media posts showing a peculiar light shooting across the sky.
A number of pictures from Aberdeen and Fife showed a bright oddly shaped light appearing to hover in the night sky.
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The posts from across the country were followed by a flurry of curious guesses to what the unknown light could be.
Possibilities included various explanations from a police or offshore helicopter to an alien landing.
It turns out although the bizarre light is most likely not of extra-terrestrial origin it could be an operational spacecraft.
Speaking exclusively to the Record, space technology engineer, Dr Malcolm Macdonald said: "Yesterday evening an Atlas V rocket launched from California (Vandenberg space force base) to deliver the Landsat-9 spacecraft to orbit, alongside some much smaller spacecraft.
"The Centaur upper stage (a rocket like this is actually several rockets on top of each other, termed stages) performed a de-orbit burn over the UK just after 10 o’clock our time.
"This is a manoeuvre that means the upper stage doesn’t stay in orbit, and so helps prevent build-up of space debris (littering in space) which can cause problems for other spacecraft.
"The exhaust gases from this manoeuvre, due to the time of day was illuminated by the Sun even though it was dark on the ground which is what a lot of people seen and put photos of on social media."
Just last week a Scots family were left in shock after spotting a potential UFO at Edinburgh Airport.
12-year-old Jack McKnight captured the unidentified floating object in the sky.
The family have now contacted a UFO specialist and the video is now under investigation by the British UFO Research Association.
