SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Created a Bizarre Blue Spiral That Appeared in the Night Sky Over Hawaii

A SpaceX-launched navigation satellite left a short spiral visible above Hawaii. The Japanese telescopic camera photographed the strange blue mysterious flying spiral' that appeared to be an unearthly object over the night sky of Hawaii.

As per Space.com, SpaceX launched a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) into orbit from Cape Canaveral for the US Space Force at 7:24 a.m. EST (1224 GMT) on Wednesday, January 18. Soon later, the Subaru Telescope noticed the fascinating spiral formation overhead.

(Photo : Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rises ahead of the rocket's vapor trail after launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base carrying 53 Starlink satellites as seen on October 27, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. SpaceX founder Elon Musk today reportedly competed his $44 billion effort to buy Twitter and fired CEO Parag Agrawal along with other top executives.

Mysterious Blue Spiral Looks Like a New Galaxy in Space

The Subaru-Asahi STAR Camera captured the video of a green-blue sky with white star speckles near the top of Mauna Kea volcano, Fox Weather reported. One of those "stars" began to migrate toward the left side of the video frame on Sunday, getting larger and brighter.

The white dot then pulsed, releasing a white, arc-shaped feature as it traveled over the domes of the Subaru Telescope. The dot continued to expand, but it ultimately began to change, growing from a circular form to a spiral, resembling a little galaxy in space.

Soon after, the spiral vanished into the sky as fast as it arrived and just left traces of its presence behind. The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun wrote in a tweet that the anomaly might be connected to the deployment of a Space X satellite launched earlier that day.

They also shared a photo of the stunning blue spiral over the Subaru Telescope atop Maunakea on the Big Island of Hawaii. Scott Tilley, a citizen scientist, chimed in the comment section of the thread and wrote that the position of the spiral was a close match for where the Falcon 9 rocket's second stage was expected to be in the minutes after launch. Its first stage returned to Earth and landed on a drone ship at sea.

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Falcon 9 Rocket Creating Blue Spirals

It is not the first time a similar luminous, spiral feature has been detected following a SpaceX launch. Science Times previously reported a similar event last year in New Zealand as people shared seeing similar spirals after Falcon 9 activity.

As Space.com reported, observers have previously said that the spiral appears as the top stage of the Falcon 9 dumps superfluous fuel during its protracted descent into the ocean.

Spaceweather.com wrote at that time that the upper stage was most likely spinning on its longest axis to stabilize flight orientation that resulted in the bizarre blue spiral. Similar events were also observed in the past after Falcon 9 launched.

Aside from the blue spirals, Falcon 9 is also known for leaving behind a variety of intriguing patterns after launch, including "space jellyfish" in the predawn sky over Florida's Space Coast.

Chris Combs, a professor of aerodynamics and mechanical engineering at the University of Texas in San Antonio, explained that such forms occur when gas in the rocket engine's nozzles is at a higher pressure than the atmosphere and the gas is lit by sunlight.

Watch the video below of the recent blue spiral over the night sky of Hawaii:

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