0 comments
A large glowing spiral lit up the night sky on Monday in the UK, prompting onlookers to take plenty of dramatic photos that look like something straight out of Doctor Who. The Met Office says the cause is likely to be a SpaceX rocket launch in the US.
Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it’s… *checks notes* … a SpaceX rocket launch?
A glowing orb was seen in the night sky in the UK this past Monday, with many onlookers taking stunning photos and videos. It might look like something from a sci-fi flick, but the blue-tinted spiral was most likely an after effect of a SpaceX mission.
Elon Musk’s space company launched its Falcon 9 rocket at around 13:50 local time in Florida, or 17:50 GMT as part of a classified US government mission.
The Met Office says that the spiral shape was likely the result of a frozen plume of fuel from the rocket’s exhaust, which reflected the sunlight and appeared to spin in the atmosphere.
The glowing orb was only visible for a few minutes and was most clearly seen in the UK, though some did report noticing it in the EU before it faded away.
This isn’t the first time SpaceX has created dramatic night time scenes. Just a few weeks ago, we wrote about how the company’s Starship spacecraft exploded minutes after take-off, leaving debris to burn up across the Texas skyline.
Two Nasa astronauts also returned to Earth last week after spending an additional nine months abord the International Space Station after Boeing’s Starliner capsule failed due to technical issues.
Speaking to the BBC, astronomer Allan Trow said that Monday’s mysterious spiral had appeared above a national park in Wales at around 20:00 GMT. It’s not the first time an event like this has happened, but actually spotting these types of phenomena is ‘pretty rare,’ he said.
Members of the public living nearly 200 miles away also spotted the glowing orb, going so far as rural Suffolk.
