Last January 18mysterious shiny bluish spiral was painted in the sky of Hawaii. The image was taken by the Subaru Telescope, owned by the National Observatory of Japan and located near the inactive volcano Mauna Kea, on an American island. Some viewers of the live stream on YouTube discovered this before the observatory workers themselves. This could lead to many strange theories. However, as soon as the experts saw this, they realized that this was not something supernatural, but perhaps the consequences Last launch of SpaceX.
In fact, this isn’t the first time SpaceX has spotted such a spiral in the sky. already happened in June 2022. Both launches took place in Florida, although last year a curious signal appeared in Queenstown, New Zealand.
As for their origin, it seems that these spirals are formed by columns of unused fuel that are ejected from rotating second rocket stage before they fall into the sea. This happens with SpaceX, but it can actually happen with any other rocket that separates its phases after launch in a similar way.
SpaceX draws a spiral in the sky
Ichi Tanakaone of the researchers subaru telescoperecognized in statements Guardian that, despite the fact that he was working at the time when the spiral formed, he did not notice it. He had other things to do, so he didn’t see her until someone sent him a letter. Capture a broadcast on YouTube.
Since they knew the rocket had just been launched SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, he and his companions had no doubt that it must be connected. This is stated in a message on the Twitter account of the telescope. And it was in the comments to this publication that there was a satellite tracker called Scott Tillypointed out that the location of the spiral coincides with the place where rocket second stagewho flew off with a military satellite. But what are rocket phases?
Slow start engines
When a rocket is launched into space, not all of its components are launched at the same time. In fact, they are activated little by little, following the so-called phases or steps.
The first one consists of engine which was originally included to give a start to the rocket. After a certain distance, this stage separates and falls, leaving only the second phase containing new engine that lights up to continue programmed path.
Both phases can become stuck in space or fall back to Earth in a controlled manner, usually into the ocean. This is what he usually does SpaceX. However, it seems that before the fall, in some cases, the second phase is able to leave its mark in the form of a luminous spiral.
SpaceX knows how to leave footprints in the sky. At the very least, this spiral is temporary, unlike the succession of satellites that astronomers are so upset about.
Source: Hiper Textual
