It is being called a "rapture cloud" and the strange thing hovering in the Australian sky freaked a lot of people out on Monday.

With a touch of a rainbow in the middle, the cloud looks like a hole punched in the sky, as if a UFO was descending horizontally onto the Earth. But of course, it has a perfectly scientific explanation.

The Age described the thing as "a bizarre cloud hovering over Wonthaggi, a seaside town 132 kilometers south-east of Melbourne." The news outlet also noted that photos flooded social media offering their own explanations, the rapture being among them.

CLICK HERE to see photos of the fallstreak above Wonthaggi, via ABC News Australia.

"It looks like a fallstreak cloud, also known as a punch hole cloud," Michael Efron, a forecaster with Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, told Fairfax Media. "They form when the water temperature in the cloud is below freezing, but the water has not yet frozen due to a lack of ice nucleation particles.

"In this case, when the water does start to freeze, it falls down to the surface... so you're left with this cloud surrounding it, this clear area.

"This type of [cloud] iridescence occurs with high level cloud and with diffraction, [meaning] that water droplets are gathering light."

Efron also said Perth saw something similar last month, noting fallstreaks are often caused by overhead aircraft and can "persist as long as we've got high cloud around."