This image taken from video provided by the NAOJ & Asahi Shimbun, shows spiral swirling through the night sky from Mauna Kea, Hawaii’s tallest mountain. Researchers believe it shows the after effects of a SpaceX rocket launch when the company’s Falcon 9 rocket sent a GPS satellite into orbit. The images were captured on Jan. 18, 2023, by a camera at the summit of Mauna Kea outside the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan’s Subaru telescope. Credit: NAOJ & Asahi Shimbun via AP
A camera atop Hawaii’s tallest mountain has captured what looks like a spiral swirling through the night sky.
Researchers believe it was from the launch of a military GPS satellite that lifted off earlier on a SpaceX rocket in Florida.
The images were captured on Jan. 18 by a camera at the summit of Mauna Kea outside the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan’s Subaru telescope.
A time-lapse video shows a white orb spreading out and forming a spiral as it moves across the sky. It then fades and disappears.
Ichi Tanaka, a researcher at the Subaru telescope, said he was doing other work that night and didn’t immediately see it. Then a stargazer watching the camera’s livestream on YouTube sent him a screenshot of the spiral using an online messaging platform.
“When I opened Slack, that is what I saw and it was a jaw-dropping event for me,” Tanaka said.
He saw a similar spiral last April, also after a SpaceX launch, but that one was larger and more faint.
SpaceX launched a military satellite the morning of Jan. 18 from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The location of the spiral matched where the second stage of the SpaceX rocket was expected to be after its launch.
SpaceX didn’t respond to an email sent Friday seeking comment.
Tanaka said the observatory installed the camera to…
2023-01-28 02:26:41 Camera captures night sky spiral after SpaceX rocket launch
Link from phys.org Recently, a stunning night sky spiral over Los Angeles, California was captured on camera and posted to Twitter, resulting in a wave of awe and viral internet attention.
The beautiful photos were taken shortly after SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launch took off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and sent multiple satellites into low-Earth orbit. As the rocket propelled through the sky, its blazing exhaust created the mesmerizing spiral formation.
According to astrophotographer Stan Moniz (@stanmoniz on Twitter), the Falcon 9 launch created the “most beautiful sky I have ever seen. Sometimes science can be art.” Moniz also noted the rocket trail was easily visible from the ground, making it accessible and enjoyable to the public.
Falcon 9 is the flagship spacecraft operated by SpaceX, headed by the company’s founder and CEO, Elon Musk. The launch saw the deployment of 64 satellites in one mission—the most ever sent in a single launch. SpaceX’s revolutionary and recent innovations in aerospace technology make re-usable rockets possible, resulting in minimal launch and payload costs compared with other private spaceflight companies.
The awe-inspiring photos of the heavenly display were widely shared online among other astronomy enthusiasts, becoming a trending Marvel on Twitter, and garnering much admiration. Such pictures, said one user, “show how humankind is coming together to explore and push the boundaries of space.”
As SpaceX continues to make space exploration accessible to the masses, the night sky continues to unveil its cosmic beauty.