What happened in the skies of Hawaii on January 18?
As relayed by several American media such as CNN or The Sacramento Bee, a Japanese telescope named Subaru has captured images of a mysterious blue spiral in the night sky.
The strange phenomenon was immortalized atop Maunakea.
Researchers from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan posted a curious time-lapse on YouTube and social networks, while asking Internet users to understand where this spiral came from.
Access to this content has been blocked to respect your choice of consent
By clicking on "
I ACCEPT
", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to the content of our partners
I ACCEPT
A few hours later, the scientists finally explained that the celestial appearance was a priori the consequence of the launch of a new satellite by the company SpaceX.
Indeed, a Falcon 9 rocket took off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida, a few hours before the creation of the blue spiral.
gas released into the atmosphere
This isn't the first time SpaceX rockets have caused strange shapes in space.
“These shapes occur when the gas in the rocket engine nozzles is at a higher pressure than the atmosphere and the gas is illuminated by sunlight,” an American aerodynamics and mechanical engineering professor explained. , relays the Space.com site.
On Jan 18, 2023 (HST), the Subaru-Asahi Star Camera captured a mysterious flying spiral over Maunakea, Hawai`i.
The spiral seems to be related to the SpaceX company's launch of a new satellite.
Watch the video:https://t.co/851Gz7VojV#SubaruTelescope pic.twitter.com/Np58fxpX9e
— Subaru Telescope Eng (@SubaruTel_Eng) January 19, 2023
Access to this content has been blocked to respect your choice of consent
By clicking on "
I ACCEPT
", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to the content of our partners
I ACCEPT
And to better remunerate 20 Minutes, do not hesitate to accept all cookies, even for one day only, via our "I accept for today" button in the banner below.
More information on the Cookie Management Policy page.
“The upper stage was probably rotating on its longest axis to stabilize the orientation of flight, hence the spiral shape,” another specialist said in a similar event in June 2022.
Science
Hubble telescope: NASA unveils an image containing 265,000 galaxies
Science
Retro 2022: The breathtaking video of NASA's exploits this year
Did you see ?
Hawaii
Space
SpaceX
Video