Hiker Snaps Photo of Ghost-Like Phenomenon in Ukraine's Mountain Area

As a group of friends hiked in a mountainous region in Ukraine, they witnessed this otherworldly phenomenon and decided to capture it on camera.

It has been described as a ghost, or a rainbow aura, but all you see in the picture is the Brocken specter effect, the photographer told the Sun.

The Brocken specter is an optical illusion in which an observer's shadow appears magnified, when he is standing on a ridge or peak, the sun shining from behind him.

According to Environmental Graffiti, it only occurs on an extremely misty day, as the shadow is enhanced through the diffraction of light.

This shot was snapped at an altitude of 1,200 meters(3,937 feet) in the Chatyr-Dag mountains, in Crimea, Southern Ukraine, by 61-year-old university lecturer Mikhail Baevsky.

“As a scientist, I know the physics behind why this shape happens but because that day I saw this a few times it was as if I was being chased by a ghost!,” he describes.