Thew whole "consumed by darkness" thing may simply be explained away by the error of the human eye. Notice I said MAY.
Here is what I think about that; the human eye often perceives the moon as being closer, or farther away, at certain times of the night. Yet, the distance doesnt really vary (not enough for us to visually perceive it, anyway). Instead, it is a matter of perception due to, when it rises, being close to the horizon, thus giving a point of reference. I am sure that the atmosphere plays into it too, but the moon isnt really any closer when it rises at night then when it is high in the sky, the same night. Our eyes are easily confused.
I think a similar thing happened with that spiral. The "consuming disk of darkness" may just be what our eyes perceived-first, there was a bright spot in the sky, rendering all darkness around it a lot blacker than it likely is (think of sitting by a campfire at night, and how "dark" it looks just beyond it), and thus, the eye is fooled. Its sort of a natural trick.
This is just my own conclusion-not a theory I am putting forth. I REALLY dont think we are being invaded by aliens, nor is there some super secret teleporter technology, or any such thing as that. I simply think that it was what was reported. A missle test gone awry, and the Russians caught with their pants down. What the missle may have been CARRYING, who knows.