Britons have been left starstruck after a mysterious spinning blueish-white spiral was spotted in the sky on Monday night.
Some posted the stunning images on social media, joking that they thought it could be ‘aliens’ or a portal to another world.
But the bizarre shape was caused by illuminated frozen fuel expelled from a SpaceX rocket, experts have said.
The light blue spiral is formed when excess fuel that has been released from the fast-spinning rocket turns to ice.
It then reflects the sunlight in the upper atmosphere – giving it an otherworldly gleam – before turning to water vapour
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, launched for the US government’s classified NROL-69 mission, appears to be the cause.
Elon Musk’s company often launches rockets that can create visual effects when frozen fuel is expelled into the atmosphere.
One stunned Briton posted on X on Monday: ‘Just seen this weird spiral of light in the sky while me and little lad look at stars with his telescope.
Experts say the bizarre shape was caused by illuminated frozen fuel expelled from a SpaceX rocket – and not to do with aliens
Britons were left perplexed on Monday after the spinning blueish-white spiral was spotted in the sky
Many posted stunning photos on X. User @WarRoomIntel1 said: ‘Apparently, these are traces of rocket fuel’
‘Anyone have any idea what it is I read it could be a @SpaceX rocket but didn’t know they were visible in Yorkshire UK. There one minute gone the next!’
Another said: ‘Weird thing to see in the sky at night. What are we thinking? Bit of a rocket launch spinning off and outgassing or out…fuelling? Aliens?’
The stunning swirl was spotted from Yorkshire, Hertfordshire, Bristol, Milton Keynes, Stoke-on-Trent, Hampshire and Kent.
Someone else in Wales said: ‘Just saw a very strange object cross the night sky.
‘Bright satellite or plane which was surrounded by a thin wispy spiral cloud which radiated from the object.’
Met Office said in an X post that it had received ‘many reports of an illuminated swirl in the sky’ late on Monday.
However, it revealed a rational explanation – which had nothing to do with aliens.
‘This is likely to be caused by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launched earlier today,’ it said in its post.
One of Elon Musk’s rockets gave a spectacular sight when it dumped its fuel and created a glowing blue swirl in the night sky. Pictured, the SpaceX spiral as seen from Portsmouth
Pictured: The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches into the sky on March 24. Elon Musk ‘s company often launches rockets that can create visual effects when frozen fuel is expelled into the atmosphere
The Met Office said in an X post that it had received ‘many reports of an illuminated swirl in the sky’ late on Monday. However, it revealed the rational explanation had nothing to do with aliens
The light blue spiral is formed when excess fuel that has been released from a rocket turns to ice, and then water vapour
It’s the spinning motion of the rocket that causes the distinctive spiral shape, like a backwards ‘S’ within two brackets
‘The rocket’s frozen exhaust plume appears to be spinning in the atmosphere and reflecting the sunlight, causing it to appear as a spiral in the sky.’
In his own X post, legendary English physicist Professor Brian Cox shared SpaceX’s video of the Falcon 9 launching from Florida earlier on Monday.
‘For everyone asking about the strange spiral shape in the sky earlier – it was associated with this launch,’ Professor Cox said.
UK Astronomy also posted saying: ‘Lots asking about this! It’s the 2nd stage deorbit burn from the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.’
This isn’t the first time such a phenomenon has been spotted.
Back in 2022, New Zealanders were gifted a similar sight when Falcon 9 dumped its fuel and created a glowing blue swirl.
As the rocket spun to vent its fuel, it created a vapour trail that reflected the sunlight and produced a visible blue swirl that eyewitnesses said moved ‘serenely’ across the night sky.
In 2021, a similar sighting was linked to launching a satellite into orbit, but this time from China’s Long March 2C rocket.
Some likened it to the portal in the ‘Doctor Strange’ movie, but American astronomer Jonathan McDowell revealed the true source.
‘The spiral happens when the rocket is tumbling end over end while venting its fuel – it’s then exactly like a garden sprinkler,’ McDowell told DailyMail.com at the time.
Back in 2022, New Zealanders were gifted a similar sight when Falcon 9 dumped its fuel and created a glowing blue swirl
South Island stargazers in 2022 discovered the glowing swirl (pictured) was caused by a SpaceX rocket which had dumped its fuel
‘Except that because it is in space the spiral stays perfect over hundreds of miles because there is no air to mess up the shape.
‘That’s why it looks surprising to us, we’re not used to seeing such perfect geometries because on Earth there’s always wind or friction to distort things.’
The phenomenon is similar to what was seen over Norway in December 2009.
A blue swirling light lit up the morning sky that was caused by Russia conducting a missile test in the area.
The jinxed Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile failed at the third stage after being test-fired from a submarine in the White Sea, Russia’s military said.
Norwegians were baffled when a blue light soared up close to the country’s Arctic region, formed a giant spiral and shot a green-blue beam from its centre.
Onlookers described it as ‘like a big fireball that went around, with a great light around it’ and ‘a shooting star that spun around and around.’
