A man taking time lapse images of the Milky Way also captured a series of odd light swirls in the sky, and the resulting footage has ignited talk of UFO activity off North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

Artist Wes Snyder is well known in the Southeast for his coastal photography — particularly images taken at night — but even he is at a loss for what the rotating red trails might be.

The lights are seen multiple times in his video — always along the horizon — and they appear to be circling something.