Last night's electrical fault caused a sustained electrical arc flash & transmission disturbance. There were no injuries and all the power lines serving the area are stable. We apologize for the disruption to customers. Photo: Wall Street Journal. #Queens #Astoria pic.twitter.com/c6chBF4BFL — Con Edison (@ConEdison) December 28, 2018

"The electrical fault on the 138,000-volt equipment caused a sustained electrical arc flash that was visible across a wide area," the company said in a statement to WABC. "The affected equipment was isolated to a single section within the substation."

An electrical fault is basically just an electrical current that isn't behaving as it should, and Con Edison is still investigating what caused the fault in this case. An electrical arc occurs when an electrical current passes through a non-conductive medium like air. As this electricity reacts with gasses, it creates a plasma that can span between and connect two objects serving as electrodes. It's a phenomenon utilized in welding and it's similar to what occurs in lightning, though lightning is considered an electrical spark, the different being a spark is brief while an arc is sustained.

A spokesperson told WABC that the problem likely lies with a malfunctioning relay system -- a protective measure that's supposed to stop electricity transfer when a fault is detected. Transformers, like the one that produced the bright light in Queens, change the electricity flowing through them into different voltages. As Popular Mechanics explains, sometimes the circuits can be hit with too much electricity, which is when protective devices like relays are supposed to kick in.

It's not everyday that the night sky is lit up with pulsing blue light, so naturally, the internet had a field day with this event. Many posted videos of the sky and others, with a closer view of the transformer itself, shared images of what was going on there.

View from my roof insane pic.twitter.com/ekLyolAPO5 — kjones4215 (@kjones4215) December 28, 2018

Some began looking for a scientific explanation as to why a power plant failure would produce blue light specifically.

Plasma physicist weighs in! This explains why people have seen purple and blue in the Queens explosion. https://t.co/bEtOo5A38j — Erin Biba (@erinbiba) December 28, 2018

Others used the incident to hilariously make fun of some of our worst cultural trends.

Fucking gender reveal parties pic.twitter.com/i9u0mpo4wQ — Clue Heywood (@ClueHeywood) December 28, 2018

And of course, there was talk of aliens.

Is this an alien invasion? pic.twitter.com/ED4G94tQYo — Emily C. Singer (@CahnEmily) December 28, 2018

So aliens are 100 percent invading New York City right nowhttps://t.co/Mq7MkxMxvQ pic.twitter.com/gZJ3EcLYzx — Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) December 28, 2018

I would be so upset if aliens visited New York while I was out of state — William Turton (@WilliamTurton) December 28, 2018

But rest assured, it's not aliens. Really.