It looks like an alien world of green skies and blue spirals. But it’s only Alaska. This requires an explanation…
On April 15, photographer Todd Salat, an expert in the Northern Lights, captured a rare artificial phenomenon: a huge blue spiral that traveled the skies of Alaska for a few seconds. What is it about?
The North Pole is the best place in the world to observe the skies. There is no light pollution there, and one of the most spectacular atmospheric phenomena occurs: the Aurora borealis.
Photographer Todd Salat is a northern lights hunter, he dedicates himself to photographing them practically daily. On April 15, while he was taking photos at 2 in the morning of a Northern Lights in Donnelly Dome, a mountain located in Delta Junction, AKcaptured this spectacular photograph:
The green lights are a natural phenomenon, an aurora borealis produced by solar particles colliding with Earth’s magnetosphere. They dye the snow on the mountain green, creating a surreal effect.
But the blue spiral, which seems a galaxy out of nowhere, is even more special, although it will be more and more frequent. It was only seen in the sky for a few seconds, before disappearing. You can see it in this video in full detail, in slow motion:
What are we seeing? On this occasion, it is not a natural phenomenon. The spiral has been created by… SpaceX.
A few hours before the event, SpaceX carried out the launch of the falcon 9 rocketwith the aim of putting another batch of satellites from various companies, including The GroundBreaker from the Spanish company Sateliot.
The main part of the Falcon 9 returns to Earth and lands autonomously, but a second section is the one that takes the satellites into their orbit. When it’s done, Science Alert explains, it starts to fall to earth in a spiral.
At the same time, expels excess fuel in the upper atmosphere. The water vapor in the gases freezes into tiny crystals that reflect light, which is why we see a blue spiral.
It is a phenomenon that it will become more and more common, as rocket launches increase. A “side effect” similar to the trail of fire that was seen in Spain a few weeks ago.
The blue spiral what has been seen about Alaskahas turned out to be ejected fuel of the falcon 9 rocket of SpaceX, on its reentry to Earth. An artificial and very spectacular phenomenon.