View of SCP-2838 from the outer edge of Site-292.
Special Containment Procedures: Site-292 has been established below SCP-2838 under the guise of a privately-run observatory. Trespassers are to be dealt with according to standard Foundation protocols. Visual concealment protocols (574-A "Curtain Call", 574-C "Clouded Mountain") are currently in place to obscure SCP-2838 from public view. Any aircraft attempting to pass through SCP-2838 are to be intercepted and redirected to a different flight path.
Description: SCP-2838 is a region of space located 820m above ground level near the Trans-Alay mountain range in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan. SCP-2838 has a base area of approximately 500m x 500m, and extends vertically to a height of 12km. When viewed from below at night, SCP-2838 resembles a patch of sky with an unusually large number of stars. SCP-2838 currently contains ████ such luminescent objects, of which ████ are visible to the naked eye.
Aerial exploration of SCP-2838 reveals that each luminescent object, hereby designated SCP-2838-1, is a mass of plasma roughly the size and shape of a human being1, suspended inside SCP-2838 via unknown means. SCP-2838-1 instances have an average surface temperature of 5000K, and an average brightness of 3000 lumens. Spectroscopy reveals that each instance is mostly composed of hydrogen and helium, with trace amounts of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. Retrieval of SCP-2838-1 instances has proven impossible thus far.
Any human corpse under SCP-2838 will dematerialise if left unobserved for more than 24 hours. A new SCP-2838-1 instance will then appear within SCP-2838, usually instantaneously.
SCP-2838 was formerly designated AO-17508 in Foundation records, only entering containment when its effects were first observed in the aftermath of [REDACTED], near the beginning of the Tajikistan Civil War. Bronze Age artifacts were unearthed beneath SCP-2838 during the construction of Site-292, indicating that the ground below SCP-2838 had been used as a prehistoric burial site. Analysis of artifacts suggests that only individuals of high societal rank and religious importance were buried underneath SCP-2838, presumably in order to transform them into SCP-2838-1 instances as a form of veneration after death.
Recent consolidation and analysis of magnetometer readings around SCP-2838-1 instances reveals that the electrical fields generated by plasma convection in the heads of SCP-2838-1 resemble patterns of human brain activity. Specifically, regions of SCP-2838-1's head corresponding to the regions of the brain responsible for thermoreception appear to be highly stimulated. Further research is pending.
1. While the average instance is the size of an adult human, instances as small as 51cm in length have been found.