{"id":266004,"date":"2025-03-25T02:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T02:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/25\/glowing-spiral-appears-in-night-sky-as-met-office-reveals-likely-cause\/"},"modified":"2025-03-25T02:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T02:22:09","slug":"glowing-spiral-appears-in-night-sky-as-met-office-reveals-likely-cause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/25\/glowing-spiral-appears-in-night-sky-as-met-office-reveals-likely-cause\/","title":{"rendered":"Glowing spiral appears in night sky – as Met Office reveals likely cause"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Glowing<\/div>


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not quite, says the Met Office.<\/p>\n

This large glowing spiral was spotted in the night sky across the UK and Ireland on Monday evening.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Ivinghoe Beacon in Bedfordshire. Pic: Keeley Williams
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n \"The\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n The swirl above Castleford in West Yorkshire. Pic: Jake Gill
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Stargazers from as far north as Denmark and as far south as Milan in Italy noted the cloud-like spiral was visible for several minutes before fading.<\/p>\n

The Met Office explained in a post on X that the phenomenon was likely caused by frozen exhaust smoke from Elon Musk<\/a><\/strong>‘s SpaceX<\/a><\/strong> Falcon 9 rocket.<\/p>\n

“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,” the Met Office said.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n X<\/span>
\n
\n This content is provided by X<\/span>, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
\n To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
\n You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable X<\/span> cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
\n You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options<\/a>.
\n <\/span>
\n
\n Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to X<\/span> cookies.
\n To view this content you can use the button below to allow X<\/span> cookies for this session only.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n Enable Cookies<\/a>
\n Allow Cookies Once<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

These spirals form when ejected rocket fuel from the fast-spinning upper stages of the Falcon 9 gets frozen in space instantly because of the altitude.<\/p>\n

The frozen swirls then reflect sunlight back towards Earth, which makes them visible in the night sky.<\/p>\n

Read more:
Astronauts stranded for nine months return to Earth<\/a>
Vandals damage Tesla cars in Belfast<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

One Sky News reader from Lytham St Annes in Lancashire said the swirl “started off as a bright light, then [had] a blurry ring around it and then a spiral”.<\/p>\n

“[It] hovered over this church for about five minutes then started moving and disappeared,” the reader added.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Keeley Williams said the swirl “started off hazy, then became really bright before looking like it was spinning”.<\/p>\n

The Falcon 9 rocket launched in Florida at around 5.50pm (1.50pm local time) on Monday on a classified US government mission.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?\u00a0 Not quite, says the Met Office. This large glowing spiral was spotted in the night sky across the UK and Ireland on Monday evening. Image: Ivinghoe Beacon in Bedfordshire. Pic: Keeley Williams Image: The swirl above Castleford in West Yorkshire. Pic: Jake Gill Stargazers from as far […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/25\/03\/768x432\/skynews-bedforshire-spiral_6866223.jpg?20250325013913","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[607],"tags":[13382,38086,7109,762,1951,1185,2118,87959],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266004"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266006,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266004\/revisions\/266006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}