An unusual blue swirl appears in the northern lights in Alaska

Anchorage, AK. Northern Lights watchers were amazed as they watched bands of green light dance across the Alaskan sky: a blue spiral that looked like a galaxy appeared for a few minutes among the auroras.

The cause of the event, recorded early Saturday morning, is more mundane than an alien invasion or the appearance of a portal to the ends of the universe. It simply was Excess fuel is discharged by a SpaceX rocket Launched from California About three hours before the vortex appears.

Space physicist Dan Hampton, an associate professor at the University of Alaska Geophysics Institute in Fairbanks, explains that sometimes rockets need to be defueled.

“When they do it at higher altitudes, the fuel turns into ice,” he said. “And if it’s in sunlight, when you’re in the dark on the ground, you can see it as a big cloud, and sometimes it’s spinning.”

Although This is not a regular showHampton noted that he has seen this type of event about three times.

Shuji’s appearance was there The image was captured by a Geophysical Institute panoramic camera And it was shown in a widely shared time-lapse video. “That spin created an Internet firestorm,” Hampton explained.

Photographers who participated in the Northern Lights event also posted their photos on social media.

The rocket launched Friday night from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California carrying 25 satellites.

It is a polar launch that is visible over a wide area of ​​Alaska.

“They did a kind of fuel injection at the right time to get this incredible spin.”He commented.

When it looked like a meteor passing over Alaska, Hampton said it wasn’t.

“I can tell you it’s not a galaxy,” he noted. “It’s water vapor that reflects sunlight.”