A Strange “Spiral” Crossing the Sky Was Seen Over the Barents Sea (PHOTOS)

Northern Lights chasers witnessed “a strange spiral” crossing the sky over the Barents Sea early yesterday. X (former Twitter) users shared images of it. Some suggest that the spiral is connected to the Transporter-10 launch an hour earlier.

In particular, Shang Yang caught the view from Iceland, Dave Dickinson has written on X.

Mysterious Spiral

Some users were surprised and asked what it was. Others joked that those are aliens.

User Super Grover has shared in comments that the previous transporter mission was seen from Alaska, and it also caused the spiral in the sky crossing the Northern Lights.

Another user suggested that “Sun-illuminated exhaust gasses/vented fuel from the de-orbit burn of the rocket stage. The rocket stage spins, and this creates the spiral pattern.”

Peter Bond supported his theory about the mysterious spiral. He explained that “On 4 March a Falcon-9 rocket carried 53 small satellites to orbit on a mission called Transporter-10. When the discarded 2nd stage performed a de-orbit burn, a bit of spin turned the exhaust into a spectacular spiral.”

Last April, Transporter-7 caused a similar spiral over Alaska.

What’s The Spiral Phenomenon?

Actually, the spiral crossing the Aurora results from a SpaceX Falcon-9 launch from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Sunday at 12:27 a.m. EDT (0427 GMT). The two-stage rocket has left behind a wonderful display in the skies. The Falcon 9’s upper stage generated the spiral. It emerged in the skies of Norway and Iceland on Monday morning.

“The upper stage was probably spinning on its longest axis to stabilize flight orientation, hence the spiral shape. Similar spirals have been seen after previous Falcon 9 launches,” – SpaceWeather has written.