At the beginning of March, residents of Iceland and Norway noticed an unusual sight in the sky – a spiral resembling a kind of portal. It was quite large and bright, dwarfing even the northern lights. This event lasted about ten minutes and caused awe and surprise among the eyewitnesses.

Photos of this magical spiral spread rapidly among the public. Astronomers shed light on its mysterious origin.

It turns out that the reason for its emergence is not magic at all, but human technology. The spiral was formed by the reflection of sunlight in the frozen fuel cloud formed as a result of the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket produced by SpaceX.

The rocket launched from Vandenberg Space Center in California on March 4 to carry 53 small satellites into orbit for various customers. Following completion of the second stage mission, fuel was released as crystals forming the aforementioned cloud as the rocket began to descend from orbit, which caused it to burn up in the atmosphere over the Barents Sea.

This slight spiraling phenomenon is not unique to the Falcon 9. Similar events have already been recorded in Alaska and Hawaii. However, their appearance is difficult to predict because it requires the coincidence of many conditions: the appropriate time of day, the position of the rocket relative to the Earth and the Sun, as well as the orientation and rotation speed of the second stage. draining fuel.