Blue light spiral in New Zealand night sky stuns stargazers
A photo of the spiral of blue light in New Zealand, on Jun 19, 2022. (Photo: Facebook/Jennifer Ross)
Stargazers in New Zealand were treated to a captivating night sky on Sunday (Jun 19).
The New Zealand Herald reported that a misty spiral formed over the South Island and was sighted around 7.30pm.
Many residents took to social media to share their photos of the sightings.
A Facebook user, Andrew Quinney, shared photos of the rare sighting in the Astronomy in New Zealand Facebook page.
"Just took this photo with my phone about 5 mins ago in Motupiko Tasman, just south of Nelson. Was very visable (sic) in the night sky."
The spirals of blue light were also spotted in South Auckland, which prompted Facebook user Mee Joy to share her photo.
But the rare phenomenon could be man-made.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, the New Plymouth Astronomical Society explained that the spiral was most likely caused by a "fuel dump" or "exhaust plume" from a SpaceX rocket launch.
"Similar effects have been seen before, and SpaceX's Globalstar 2 FM15 was likely to have passed New Zealand around that time," it added.
SpaceX, the company founded by tech billionaire Elon Musk, launched a new satellite - Globalstar FM15 - in the early hours of Sunday from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Like other SpaceX ventures, the launch vehicle supporting the mission - Falcon 9 - returned to Earth shortly after launch, successfully landing on the droneship, which is stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
Online space news provider, Spaceflight Now, reported that the launch was the third Falcon 9 rocket flight in 36 hours, the fastest sequence of three missions by any commercial launch company in history.
Globalstar FM15 is now on a low-Earth orbit.
This is not the first time stargazers have been treated to such a sight.
According to the New Zealand Herald, a similar spiral was spotted across the Pacific region last year, on Jun 18.
That spiral, which was brighter in some parts of the Pacific, was seen in places such as Fiji, Samoa, New Caledonia and the small island of Tokelau.
It was later explained that the spiral was from the release of gas from a Chinese rocket.
