In the early morning of Saturday (15th), a galaxy-shaped mysterious spiral light appeared in the sky of Alaska. This surprising and peculiar phenomenon was identified by Todd Salat, a professional aurora photographer in Delta Junction, Alaska, and an amateur in Kotzebue, Alaska. Photographed by Elizabeth Withnall, aurora activity photographer. While sharing photos on social networking sites, the two said in unison that this was the first strange sight they had ever seen in their lives, and they had no idea what it was.
Anchorage (Anchorage) professional photographer Salat went to the city of Delta Junction to photograph the aurora in the early hours of Saturday when a bright light suddenly appeared on the northern horizon from far to near. As it approached, a galaxy-shaped blue-white spiral light suddenly across the sky overhead.
Salat, who works as a professional aurora photographer under the pen name of “Aurora Hunter”, continued to shoot the aurora dancing in the sky for about two hours after shooting the strange scene, but he kept thinking about what the spiral light was in the process. He said excitedly that it was the strangest sight he had ever seen in his life.
At the same time, Withnall, a midwife and amateur photographer hundreds of miles away from Salat, was lucky enough to capture a few magical spiral light photos while photographing the aurora. She has long spotted many very unusual phenomena in the Arctic skies from time to time, including fog bows (also known as white rainbows) and moonglows around the moon, but this time the super cool spectacle she captured Completely confused.
Regarding the above spectacle, Don Hampton, a research associate professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute (University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute), said that the spiral light should be the exhaust of the SpaceX rocket engine. SpaceX was in California at the time on the Transporter-7 mission to launch a Falcon 9 rocket. The spiral light seen by people is caused by the condensation of water vapor in the exhaust gas of the rocket’s secondary engine, absorbing sunlight and then glowing.
On the Facebook aurora event enthusiasts group, where Withnall uploaded and shared photos of the arctic spiral lights, she also asked if anyone knew the truth about the phenomenon? The results sparked enthusiastic responses from many people, and the most common explanation was roughly the same as Hampton’s: the strange landscape was related to SapceX’s launch of the Falcon 9 rocket mission carrying more than 50 satellites in California in the early morning of 4/15.
(First image source: AuroraHunter)
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