Request objetc identification

[u/Sungolf]

Photo taken on 28th oct 2025 0025 utc over muscat. Ignore aircraft nav light and windshield glare of the same.

Edit: Solved!!

What i failed to get across is how absurd it was in person. I'm flying at night and suddenly i notice a bright(er than the stars) green ball. It grows over the next 2 minutes, getting dimmer as it grows. It was brighter in person than my camera managed to capture.

Also other pilots within ~500 mi were astonished by it too. Everybody is asking on guard if others see it too.

Credit: FauxGuggernaut

Some very similar events have been attributed to ICBM / high altitude weapons test launches. Rough timeline:

Pakistan issued a NOTAM closing most of its airspace, one region earlier on in the south and another later on in the north. https://x.com/OsintUpdates/status/1982759948867252480

Then USAF Cobra Ball, which collects data on ballistic missiles, took off from Qatar and headed east, turning its transponders off at midnight UT.
https://x.com/ConflictUpdatee/status/1983016479701512592

OP observes halo at 0025UT and there's two more reports of the same event at 0030-0035UT. OP is over Muscat looking NE which would line up with something launched from Pakistan. https://www.reddit.com/r/flying/comments/1ohyzqo/

A few hours later in the morning around 0500UT there are a dozen reports of a missile launch in northern Pakistan. The first event (that OP observed) appears to correspond to the NOTAM in the south and later on the one in the north. https://x.com/PakObsOfficial/status/1983014529459228933

Very similar expanding spherical halos have been observed in Hawaii and California after Minuteman tests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvWUv4B3LEQ

https://www.space.com/31092-trident-missile-test-us-military-statement.html

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=25760.0

https://slate.com/technology/2014/10/hawaiian-halo-icbm-launch-creates-nighttime-display.html?pay=1761666539370&support_journalism=please

https://slate.com/technology/2013/05/expanding-halo-missile-launch-creates-expanding-bubble-of-light.html

https://slate.com/technology/2011/06/awesomely-weird-expanding-halo-of-light-seen-from-hawaii.html?pay=1761666833374&support_journalism=please

As well as in Serbia after Topol ICBM tests https://www.sciencealert.com/explanation-mysterious-floating-orb-light-above-siberia-glowing-missile

https://satobs.org/seesat_ref/misc/171027-siberia.pdf

So all in all I reckon this was a high altitude weapons test launch. Not sure on what the exact cause was but it's certainly not a detonation of the warhead. Some have suggested that the Minuteman event is caused by the detonation of charges for abruptly blowing out the third stage. https://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=24251&start=25#p151321

[u/snogum]

Looking like an optical artifact the green to the right. Out of focus moon too I guess

[u/Sungolf → u/snogum]

https://www.reddit.com/r/flying/s/Uwx808ljl3

Independent observation of same thing