Spiral in the sky stuns Alaska dwellers

Image credit : Alaska's News Source Many Alaskans saw a bizarre spiral travelling through the state's skies late on Friday night or early on Saturday. Some people claimed it resembled an alien spacecraft or a passage to another universe. As several people on social media noted, that was probably rocket exhaust in fact. Don Hampton, a research associate professor at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Geophysical Institute and a space physicist, said that after conducting some online research, it appears that the cause of the phenomenon is rocket engine exhaust from a SpaceX Transporter-7 mission that launched on the Falcon 9 about three hours earlier in California. Hampton clarified what a lot of Alaskans observed. Also read : Astronomers Are Using Lonely Spiral Galaxy to Measure Space Distances

“Water vapor in the exhaust from the second stage engine freezes and catches high-altitude sunlight, effectively glowing and creating this spiral galaxy of a display. The payload is 51 satellites and it’s on its way to orbit,” he said.

Hampton said the rocket was still gaining altitude when “it did this pass-by over Alaska, stunning many night-watchers.”