Jellyfish are a common sight off the coast of Florida — but now, a unique “jellyfish” sight has been unexpectedly seen from the Kennedy Space Center on the latest rocket.A SpaceX launch on Friday morning produced a visual phenomenon known as a “space jellyfish,” giving early risers a striking sight to watch the Falcon 9 rocket launch: in the predawn darkness , an ethereal cloud of glowing gas is highlighted.
The space jellyfish phenomenon occurs when a rocket lifts off at dawn or dusk. As the spacecraft reached high altitude, sunlight illuminated a plume of gas on its tail. The effect is similar to the bells and tentacles of a jellyfish.
Friday’s effect varied depending on where people were standing when they saw the rocket. As images posted online show, some observers saw a horizontal silver streak, while others saw what looked like a wavy glowing cloud.
While the space jellyfish effect simply evokes animals, actual jellyfish have also visited space. In 1991, NAS put thousands of small jellyfish into orbit on the space shuttle Columbia to study their response to microgravity.