It was a regular Wednesday evening in the sleepy town of Mildura in northern Victoria, Australia, until residents realised that the night sky was bathed in a mysterious pink glow. The unusual sighting was attributed to unusual factors – alien invasion for one.
But in a rather anticlimactic explanation for the phenomenon, a local cannabis facility has been found to be the source of the eerie pink glow. As per The Guardian, a pharmaceutical company Cann Group has come forward to confirm that the lights were coming from its local medicinal cannabis facility. They explained that the pink light had escaped when the “blackout blinds had been left open.”
Explaining the pink hue of the light, Rhys Cohen, senior communications manager at Cann Group Ltd, told The Guardian that different spectrums of light are used to encourage the growth of cannabis plants, of which red spectrum light is often used. “Normally the facility would have blackout blinds that come down at night, and will in the future block that glow.”
Peter Crock, CEO of Cann Group Ltd spoke to ABC Mildura-Swan Hill Breakfast and confirmed it. “Normally, the blackout blinds close at the same time as the sun sets, but last night we had the lights on and the blinds hadn't yet closed, so there was a period where it created a glow,” Mr Crock said.
Here's a set of images of the pink sky over Mildura as shared by a user on Twitter:
Hey @JaneBunn any reports of this scary but brilliant sky over Mildura tonight ?? pic.twitter.com/3WZ7FZj1zp
— Tim Green (@Tim_Green78) July 19, 2022
#Mildura and surrounds were treated to a spectacular sight tonight when a red light appeared in the sky.
— Sarah Tomlinson (@sarah_tomlinson) July 19, 2022
Was it aliens?
An aurora?
No, it appears to have been the hydroponic lights from a medicinal cannabis farm reflecting off cloud which is somehow the most Mildura answer ever. pic.twitter.com/Wfy63tRrng
Despite the rather mundane explanation, the story is not without its share of secrets. As per a report by EarthSky, Cann Group claims to be the first Australian company to procure required licences for cannabis cultivation for medicinal and research purposes. So far, the company has not disclosed the location of its facility. Despite the incidence of pink light on Wednesday, the company continues to keep the exact location of the facility under wraps.
