What exactly is the 'Eye of Aldhani' in Andor?

In Andor, the groundbreaking new Star Wars show starring mid-level bureaucrats and petty criminals, daily life inside Palpatine’s Empire is visible as never before. But for a show focused on uncharacteristically humble narratives, like a disgraced security guard’s quest for justice and the plight of workers inside an imperial prison, Andor still delivers audiences one big cosmic spectacle: A celestial fireworks show known as the “Eye of Aldhani."

It's an event of spectacular beauty. But if you're like me, the Eye also left you with an astronomical question: What the heck is it?

The event, which a group of rebels uses as cover to pull off an Ocean’s 11-style heist of an imperial base, is described as looking like “fifty meteor showers all at once.” That’s certainly an apt visual comparison, and it’s better than a “recurrent band of crystalized noctilucent microdensities,” the impenetrable technobabble explanation offered later. But the Eye has some peculiar characteristics that suggest it’s no ordinary meteor shower, and that another astronomical event — or even a biological one — might better explain it.