It looks like an alien spaceship or a new galaxy that has suddenly emerged in the sky.
But a mysterious blue spiral that appeared in the middle of the northern lights was actually left behind by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Experts say the spiral shape appeared when the SpaceX rocket released unnecessary fuel during its long descent into the ocean.
When the rocket fuel was ejected, it froze and crystallized into a spiral shape, which was then illuminated by the sun.
Photographers from Iceland and Norway captured this strange unnatural phenomenon, which has a spooky UFO-like appearance.
Photographer Bettina Begtoft captured the apparition on March 5 in Norway with the Barents Sea in the foreground.
Experts say the spiral shape appears to be the part of the SpaceX rocket that vented unnecessary fuel during its long descent into the ocean.
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base on Sunday, March 4 at 5:05 p.m. ET (10:05 p.m. GMT).
It carried 53 small satellites into Earth orbit, a mission known as Transporter-10.
As the rocket’s discarded second stage passed over the Barents Sea in the Arctic Ocean, it performed a deorbit burn – a firing of its engines to allow it to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere.
As it rotated, the exhaust became a spectacular spiral that caught the sunlight.
Those who were still awake in the early hours of March 5 in northern Europe were there to witness the strange spectacle.
Photographer Bettina Begtoft captured the apparition in Norway with the Barents Sea in the foreground.
“I noticed it at 2:02 a.m. local time,” Begtoft said. climatespace.com.
“At first glance it looked white, but my Nikon D750 camera revealed the beautiful blue color.”
Another shot of the same SpaceX spiral was captured by Shang Yang in the northern Icelandic city of Akureyri.
“I caught this in Akureyri around 1 a.m. local time on March 5,” Yang said.
“It seemed otherworldly compared to the Northern Lights.”
Stunning: This shot of the same SpaceX spiral was captured by Shang Yang in Iceland on March 5
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base on Sunday, March 4. It carried 53 small satellites into Earth orbit, a mission known as Transporter-10.
It’s not the first time SpaceX has left observers thinking there could be UFOs present.
In January of last year, the company left a blue-tinted spiral above Hawaii’s Maunakea following the launch of a new satellite.
It was captured by the Subaru Telescope camera in Hawaii and grew from a small point into a spiral, which gradually expanded and faded.
And in June 2022, another blue spiral traveling through the skies over New Zealand baffled viewers who thought it had extraterrestrial origins.
The spiraling gas plume lit up the sky over Nelson, a city on the tip of New Zealand’s South Island, and traveled 466 miles (750 kilometers) south to Stewart Island.
These spirals are a “routine byproduct” of SpaceX operations according to spaceweather.com, and are a common sight over the Pacific.
Olivier Staiger, an independent astronomer based in Switzerland, managed to predict that the March 5 SpaceX spiral would occur.
In January 2023, SpaceX left a blue-tinted spiral above Maunakea in Hawaii following the launch of a new satellite.
He now believes another one will occur in October during SpaceX’s Transporter-12 mission and could be accompanied by more auroras and meteor showers.
There are two major meteor showers in October: the Draconids (October 8 and 9) and the Orionids (October 21 and 22), which could coincide with Transporter-12.
What’s more, a comet called Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is expected to peak and be visible from Earth in September or October 2024.
WHAT ARE AURORAS AND WHAT TRIGGERS THE STUNNING NATURAL SHOWS?
The northern and southern lights are natural light shows unleashed in our atmosphere that are also known as ‘Auroras’.
There are two types of auroras: the aurora borealis, which means “northern dawn,” and the aurora australis, “southern dawn.”
The displays light up when electrically charged particles from the sun enter Earth’s atmosphere.
There are two types of auroras: the aurora borealis (file photo), which means “northern dawn,” and the aurora australis, “southern dawn.” The displays light up when electrically charged particles from the sun enter Earth’s atmosphere.
Normally the particles, sometimes called a solar storm, are deflected by the Earth’s magnetic field.
But during stronger storms they enter the atmosphere and collide with gas particles, including hydrogen and helium.
These collisions emit light. Auroras appear in many colors, although pale green and pink are common.