A strange bright “vortex” has been spotted in the night sky above Hawaii’s extinct Mauna Kea volcano, which turns out to have a simple explanation.
In the sky above the extinct volcano Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii, the largest island in the Hawaiian Islands, the instrument of the Japanese Subaru telescope has captured a strange atmospheric phenomenon. A mysterious galaxy-shaped spiral, somewhat similar to the Milky Way, was briefly seen in the night sky. The scientists concluded that there was nothing extraordinary about this phenomenon and that it was caused by the launch of a SpaceX rocket, writes Live Science.
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Using a camera mounted on the Subaru telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the scientists obtained photographic and video material of a strange spiral of light in the night sky over Hawaii. This telescope is perched on an extinct volcano, Mauna Kea.
Within minutes, the tiny droplet of light turned into a perfect luminous “whirlpool” in the shape of a spiral galaxy. This phenomenon disappeared as quickly as it appeared in the sky.
Japanese scientists said the incident was linked to the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX, which is launching a new satellite into space for the US Space Force. According to scientists, the fascinating glowing spiral consisted of frozen rocket fuel ejected during launch.
The first stage of the rocket, which provided the thrust of the spacewalk, separated from the second stage with the payload and returned about 3 minutes after launch. After that, the second stage of the rocket took position, using its engine to launch the satellite into space. After the satellite split, the second stage ejected remaining propellant into the atmosphere before crashing into the Pacific Ocean. Launching the propellant caused the rocket stage to spin before it crashed. Therefore, according to scientists, a cloud of frozen fuel crystals appeared in the sky in the form of a spiral illuminated by sunlight.
This isn’t the first time SpaceX rockets have left behind glowing spirals in the sky. For example, in April last year, the Subaru Telescope camera also captured something similar in the sky after the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket, as shown in the image below.
A similar visual anomaly created by frozen rocket fuel was observed in Alaska last March. Then a large ball of light swirling in the sky appeared as a result of the launch of a Chinese rocket into space, as shown in the image below.
And in October 2017, an even larger globule of blue frozen rocket fuel was seen in the skies of Siberia as a result of Russian missile testing and can be seen in the image below.
If we talk about curious phenomena in space, then Focus He has already written that the Webb telescope has confirmed the existence of two rings like those of Saturn in an unusual asteroid.
same Focus He wrote that mysterious clouds continue to appear in the waters near the Bahamas. Researchers have been tracking this unusual effect for nearly 90 years and still don’t understand why it happens.
Source: Focus
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