A large glowing spiral was visible in the night sky over Europe on Monday, likely caused by a SpaceX rocket launch in the U.S. Weather service experts have explained how the cloud-like formation formed.
A large glowing spiral was visible in the night sky over Europe on Monday, likely caused by a SpaceX rocket launch in the U.S. Weather service experts have explained how the cloud-like formation formed.
The weather service said the shape was likely formed by a frozen plume of fuel from the rocket's exhaust, which reflected sunlight and appeared to be spinning in the atmosphere, the BBC reports .
On Monday, March 24, Elon Musk's space company's Falcon 9 rocket launched at around 1:50 p.m. local time in Florida (17:50 GMT) as part of a secret US government mission.
The Falcon 9 is a reusable rocket. After launch, the first part launches a payload, such as a satellite, into space.
While this part of the rocket returns to Earth, the second stage of the rocket continues to put the satellite into the desired orbit.
After reaching orbit, the second stage ejects the remaining fuel, which instantly freezes due to altitude and forms into a spiral due to the movement of the rocket as it falls back to Earth.
Light reflects off the solidified fuel, making it visible on Earth.
