What was the bright spiral in the sky last night? How SpaceX made celestial event
Did you spot an unusual bright light swirling around in the sky last night (March 24)?
You might be wondering what the twisting celestial display was, as many have taken to social media this morning to document the sighting with pictures and mesmerising videos.
It was first spotted in the UK at around 8pm as well as in other countries such as France, Germany and Ukraine.
How cool is this...our @bbcweather Watchers have captured the @SpaceX spiral in the skies above the UK this evening after a rocket launch in the US... *caused by illuminated frozen fuel expelled from the rocket second stage. pic.twitter.com/X7UTxGm81H
— Simon King (@SimonOKing) March 24, 2025
The blue-toned spiral was in fact believed to be the aftermath of a SpaceX rocket launch.
It's thought it was caused by illuminated frozen fuel from a launch at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the US.
Billionaire Elon Musk's company SpaceX held a launch for the US government shortly before 1.50pm local time (5.50pm GMT) and it is understood the Falcon 9 rocket's frozen exhaust plume caused the display.
The Met Office explained on X, formerly Twitter: 'The rocket's frozen exhaust plume appears to be spinning in the atmosphere and reflecting the sunlight, causing it to appear as a spiral in the sky.'
Simon King, lead BBC weather presenter and meteorologist also posted on X: 'How cool is this… our @bbcweather Watchers have captured the '@SpaceX spiral in the skies above the UK this evening after a rocket launch in the US…
'*caused by illuminated frozen fuel expelled from the rocket second stage.'
Dave from Bristol, who did not wish to share his second name, said he initially thought the blue spiral was a plane.
'It looked just like a plane with its headlight on,' he told the PA news agency.
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'It suddenly went blurry and I thought 'oh, it's gone into cloud', but then realised there weren't any clouds.
'I watched this fuzzy light for what felt like about a minute when all of a sudden it started shooting out these spiral arms and spinning.
'I realised straight away it was SpaceX because I've seen it so much on YouTube, but I can totally see how others would have been weirded out by it – it really did look alien.'
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