It is believed that a great brilliant spiral that illuminated the skies of much of Europa On Monday night it was caused by a rocket SpaceX launched at 6,400 kilometers away.
The growing swirl, visible for several minutes in the British sky, was initially confused with aeronautical and even extraterrestrial activity by some, but now it has been attributed to a launch from Cabo Cañaveral in Florida, DPA reports.
Spacex, the company of the billionaire Elon Musk, made a launch for the US government shortly before 17.50 UTC and is believed that the frozen smoke column of the Falcon 9 rocket caused the show.
The British MT Office reported on the social network X: “The frozen smoke column seems to be turning in the atmosphere and reflecting sunlight, which gives it the appearance of a spiral in the sky.”
The revolving heavenly show was visible in much of Europe (from the United Kingdom to Poland, passing through Croatia), and hundreds of people turned to social networks to share images and videos.
When explaining the phenomenon, Lord Dover, senior technician of the Bayfordbury Observatory of the University of Hertfordshire, explained that the spiral was visible for about 10 minutes from 18.52 UTC, moving through the sky before disappearing on the horizon.
“The rocket (from Spacex) … released fuel in the upper atmosphere to reduce its weight before returning to Earth. This fuel formed an expanding and swollen cloud that acquired a gigant explained.