A perfectly spherical cloud popped up over Japan, and it’s creepy and soothing at the same time

When a woman in Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture recently looked up in the sky, she discovered not a bird or a plane, but this perfectly spherical cloud formation that is strangely creepy and soothing at the same time. As Bored Panda reports, a Twitter user by the name of Poppy snapped photos of the globe-shaped cloud as it hovered above the city of Fujisawa and shared the unedited images online.

Remember that menacing storm cloud in Australia that looked Photoshopped? Well, this particular cloud is also somewhat unbelievable, only instead of making us think of Doomsday, we’re thinking more Independence Day. Seriously, if you stare at it long enough, you start to wonder if there’s some sort of UFO hiding behind it, ready to zap us into oblivion. false

"When I looked out of the car window I saw a round ball-shaped cloud," Poppy said. "I gazed at the cloud for a while then I rushed to take the photo. When I saw the cloud it was an even more spherical shape, so I regret not taking the photo more quickly."

According to RocketNews24, online commenters who viewed the cloud somehow surmised that it’s a type of roll cloud.  However, The Weather Channel meteorologist Ari Sarsalari debunked that theory, saying that he believes this to be a type of lenticular cloud that simply has a weird shape. As he points out, lenticular clouds usually form near mountain ranges, and this round cloud happened to be spotted about 15 miles away from a mountain range.

Whew! We’re beyond relieved to have an expert weigh in on this subject. We can totally sleep better at night knowing that these weird clouds aren’t really alien shields in disguise.