A wierd blue spiral appeared within the night time sky over Hawaii’s Mauna Kea final week, and plenty of speculated that it was some type of UFO, however in actuality, the phenomenon was because of frozen rocket gas ejected throughout a SpaceX launch. A World Positioning Satellite tv for pc (GPS) was despatched into area for the U.S. House Pressure on Wednesday (Jan. 18) at 7:24 a.m. EST, and this blue spiral was captured by the Subaru Telescope shortly after.
After the rocket’s first stage, which gives the principle propulsion for lift-off, separated from the second stage roughly 3-minutes after launch. The second stage then propelled itself into place to deploy the satellite tv for pc earlier than ejecting the remaining gas earlier than reentry, which is what almost definitely prompted the spiral phenomenon you see right here, illuminated by daylight.
The spiral appears to be associated to the SpaceX firm’s launch of a brand new satellite tv for pc. The higher stage was in all probability spinning on its longest axis to stabilize flight orientation, therefore the spiral form. Comparable spirals have been seen after earlier Falcon 9 launches,” mentioned Subaru Telescope officers from the Nationwide Astronomical Observatory of Japan.
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