The Subaru Telescope, part of the Mauna Kea astronomical observatory on the island of Hawaii, has imaged a galaxy-shaped spiral that formed in the sky following a launch by Spacex, the aerospace company of which he is CEO Elon Musk, carried out on January 18th. The position of the spiral would correspond to the point where the second stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket should have been, launched a few minutes before the sighting.
“This particular shape occurs when the gas in the rocket engine nozzles is at a higher pressure than the atmosphere and is bathed in sunlight,” Chris Combs, a professor of aerodynamics and science, explained in a tweet. mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at San Antonio.