Mysterious spirals in the sky of Alaska։ What is it and how does it occur?

A luminous spiral-shaped vortex, commonly known as a “SpaceX spiral,” recently appeared in the night sky above Alaska, attracting the attention of stargazers around the world.

The vortex was not related to the Northern Lights that were already dancing across the sky at the time. Astronomers have attributed the phenomenon to frozen rocket fuel, which gets ejected from the fast-spinning upper stages of Falcon 9 rockets during launches by SpaceX. These frozen swirls reflect sunlight back towards Earth, making them visible to observers on the ground.

According to Spaceweather.com, the spiral was spotted in the sky above Alaska on April 15 and was filmed by cameras at the University of Alaska’s Poker Flat Research Range near Fairbanks. The spiral gradually faded away after being visible for about seven minutes.

The spiral was made up of fuel ejected by a Falcon 9 rocket that launched from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base about three hours before the vortex appeared. The rocket successfully deployed 51 satellites into Earth’s orbit, boosting both SpaceX’s Starlink constellation and other private companies’ satellite networks.

These spirals have become more common in recent years as the number of SpaceX launches has increased. The same phenomenon has also been observed after rocket launches by other countries, including China and Russia.

Stargazers and astrophotographers have captured these mesmerizing spirals on camera, including an eerily-perfect spiral filmed above Hawaii by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan’s Subaru-Asahi Star Camera, mounted on Mauna Kea.

While not all SpaceX launches lead to this phenomenon, they have become more frequent in recent years due to the increase in the number of rocket launches.