• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
Mysterious blue spiral appears in the sky over Hawaii baffling onlookers

Home> Technology

Published 15:01 29 Jan 2023 GMT

Mysterious blue spiral appears in the sky over Hawaii baffling onlookers

Is Elon Musk behind the mysterious light?

Ali Condon

Ali Condon

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it an alien invasion? No, it's probably just Elon Musk again.

Astronomers were left baffled when a mysterious blue swirling shape briefly appeared in the night sky over Hawaii last week. Can you spot it?:

The unusual shape was spotted by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan's Subaru Telescope on 18 January above Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

Sharing their discovery to their official YouTube channel, the team wrote: "At first it was just a small dot at the left centre of the view.

Advert

"Then it ejected an arc-like feature. It became slightly larger...

"A bright dot appeared in the blob then it grew into a spiral."

So what was this bizarre phenomenon in the sky?

As expected, there were a lot of, shall we say, inventive guesses.

Advert

"It's a rip in the space time continuum. Duh," commented one viewer.

Another wrote: "It's obviously the Enterprise from Star Trek: First Contact."

Obviously.

It turns out, the actual cause of this mysterious blue swirl in the sky is the same cause a lot of other unusual goings on these days: Elon Musk.

Advert

Of course it was Elon.
AC NewsPhoto / Alamy Stock Photo

The Japanese space agency noted that the strange appearance in the sky seemed to be connected to SpaceX's latest satellite launch.

SpaceX successfully launched their Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida on January 18.

After a rocket shoots up into space and deploys the satellite, it will return back to earth - but not before it ejects any remaining rocket fuel.

Advert

And that would explain the swirly blue spiral.

When the rocket fuel is ejected, it freezes and crystallises in the shape of a spiral, and is then illuminated by the sun.

According to Spaceweather.com, 'SpaceX spirals' are pretty common over the Pacific.

This isn't the first time that SpaceX's missions have put some blue spirals in the sky, you see.

Advert

Back in June 2022, New Zealanders spotted the exact same phenomenon overhead shortly after another one of SpaceX's satellite launches.

The blue swirl is actually frozen rocket fuel.
Twitter

SpaceX have already executed a number of missions in January alone, and are planning to set off on their next one tomorrow (Monday 30).

According to Spaceflight Now, which keeps track of all planned orbital missions around the world, SpaceX plan to launch yet another Falcon 9 rocket on Monday, 30 January at 16.34pm GMT (8.34am PST, 11.34am EST).

Advert

The rocket will carry a number of its Starlink internet satellites in the company's seventh lift-off of 2023.

Featured Image Credit: 管理人_SubaruTel_StarCamAdmin/YouTube

Topics: Elon Musk, SpaceX, Space, Weird

Ali Condon
Ali Condon

Ali is a journalist for LADbible Group, writing on all things film, music, and entertainment across Tyla, LADbible and UNILAD. You can contact Ali at [email protected].

X

@alicondon

Advert

Advert

Advert

  • Scientist issues serious warning over Elon Musk's billion-dollar company that could threaten life on Earth
  • Elon Musk's savage two-word response as 'half the internet' goes down in major outage
  • Why Elon Musk's SpaceX plans to destroy International Space Station for $843,000,000 after NASA astronauts get stranded
  • Elon Musk successfully wins vote to construct his own city in US state as part of plan to 'colonize Mars'

Choose your content:

a day ago
2 days ago
3 days ago
  • The Adam Raine Foundation
    a day ago

    OpenAI faces shocking new allegations in case of teen who was 'coached' into suicide by ChatGPT

    The teenager's family claim the AI organization dropped safeguards when Adam Raine explored suicide methods with the chatbot

    Technology
  • Artur Plawgo/Science Photo Library/Getty Images
    2 days ago

    The truth behind Earth’s newly discovered ‘second moon’ and why it won’t be here for long

    The 'moon' went undetected for decades

    Technology
  • Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
    3 days ago

    Tesla owner exposes the three 'hidden costs' of buying electric cars

    While electric cars may be the future, there's still a lot of 'hidden costs' involved

    Technology
  • VCG/VCG via Getty Images
    3 days ago

    NASA explains best way and time to watch Orionid meteor shower and 20 shooting stars an hour

    The stunning meteor shower peaks tonight

    Technology