Thousands of awe-struck Norwegians bombarded the Meteorological Institute to ask what the incredible light - that could be seen in the pre-dawn sky for hundreds of miles - could possibly be.

The phenomenon was yesterday dubbed 'Star-Gate' - as the world's top scientists and the military lined up to admit they were baffled.

Theories ranging from a misfired Russian missile, meteor fireball, never-before-seen type of northern light, 'black hole' and even alien activity were all proposed.

Witnesses across Norway, who first glimpsed the space show at 8.45am yesterday morning, all described seeing a spinning 'Catherine wheel-style' spiral of white light, centred around a bright moon-like star.

A blue 'streaming tail' appeared to anchor the spiral to earth, before the light 'exploded' into a rotating ring of white fire.

The spiral spectacle - which lasted for two minutes - was seen by vast swathes of the Scandinavian country's almost five million population, with sightings as far north as Finnmark to Trondelag in the south.

Totto Eriksen, from Tromso, was one of the thousands who bombarded Norwegian newspapers with sightings - after nearly crashing his car on spotting the spiral overhead.

He yesterday said: "I was driving my daughter to school when this light spun and exploded in the sky.

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