A mysterious “burst” of light temporarily shone in the night sky above Hawaii’s Mauna Kea. Experts believe that this is related to the launch of SpaceX.
A stunningly neat “vortex” of light, reminiscent of a spiral galaxy, was observed by residents of Hawaii in the sky last week. According to some data, the unique optical phenomenon may be a trail consisting of icy fuel thrown into the atmosphere during the launch of a rocket by SpaceX.
The video of the “unearthly” light was captured on January 18 by the Subaru-Asahi Star Camera, jointly owned by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) and Japan’s Asahi Shimbun news agency, and attached to the Subaru Telescope atop the dormant Mauna volcano.
When viewed in fast mode, the spot of light unfolds into a perfect spiral that moves across the sky for several minutes before gradually disappearing. As the NAOJ representative reported, the spiral appears to be connected with the launch of another rocket by the SpaceX company.
It is known that the Falcon 9 rocket launched that morning from the spaceport in Florida with a new GPS satellite on board, launched by order of the US space force. The rocket’s first stage, which provides the main thrust for liftoff, separated from the second stage, which carries the payload, about 3 minutes after launch and eventually returned to Earth. After separating from the first stage, the second stage used its small engine to propel itself into position to deploy the satellite. After the satellite was deployed, the remaining fuel was ejected before re-entering the atmosphere, apparently causing a second-stage spin before de-orbiting and falling to Earth in the Pacific Ocean. The result was a cloud of frozen spiral-shaped fuel crystals that were illuminated by sunlight, according to Spaceweather.com
This is not the first time that SpaceX rockets have caused amazing light shows. In April 2022, the Subaru-Asahi Star Camera captured a twinkling spiral of light after SpaceX launched a reconnaissance satellite into orbit on another Falcon 9 rocket.
The so-called “SpaceX spirals” are becoming “a common occurrence over the Pacific Ocean” because this is where most of the second stages of the Falcon 9 rocket fall back to Earth, write representatives of Spaceweather.com.
Frozen rocket fuel has also created several other stunning visual anomalies in other parts of the globe. In March 2022, frozen fuel from a Chinese rocket created a large rotating ball of light that was the backdrop to the Alaskan aurora borealis. In October 2017, an even larger blue ball was spotted in the sky over Siberia, ScienceAlert reported. Then Russian military missile tests left frozen fuel in the area.
