Spiral Blue Light Appears in European Sky... Is It Because of Musk?

A Blue Spiral Light Stirs Curiosity Across Europe
"Rocket Gas Cloud"... Traced to SpaceX Falcon 9

A mysterious spiral blue light has appeared in the European night sky, drawing attention. On the 24th (local time), the French daily Le Figaro reported, "Around 9 p.m. that night, a mysterious light appeared in the skies over several European countries, including France and Sweden."

Spiral blue light photographed by meteorologist Justin Berk. X

Regarding this, the weather forecasting platform 'M?t?o France Contouaz' posted a photo of the light on social media (SNS) and explained, "A gas cloud emitted by a rocket deviating from its orbit was observed over French airspace," adding, "This gas cloud is located at an altitude of 200 to 300 km above the ground."

Spiral blue light appearing over Croatian airspace. Photo by Shanghai Daily X

It is highly likely that this is related to SpaceX's 'Falcon 9,' the space development company led by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The 'Falcon 9' was reportedly launched at 6:48 p.m. French time from the U.S. Space Force base at Cape Canaveral, Florida, to carry out the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) military satellite launch mission 'NROL-69.' Experts explained to the media, "This phenomenon is related to the upper stage of the rocket deviating from Earth's orbit within about three hours after launch and releasing remaining fuel into space."

Previously, similar phenomena were observed after SpaceX launches in the summer of 2022 in New Zealand, January 2023 in Hawaii, and April of the same year in Alaska. At that time, Dr. Don Hampton, a space physicist at the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, told the British daily Daily Mail, "There are cases where fuel must be discarded from the rocket," adding, "When fuel is expelled at high altitude, it freezes and appears as a large swirling cloud. The expelled fuel crystallizes in a spiral shape, and the crystals reflect sunlight."

The 'Falcon 9' is SpaceX's main launch vehicle and was the first to introduce the concept of reusability in space development history. It is evaluated to have about half the launch cost and higher efficiency compared to conventional launch vehicles. NASA's next-generation space telescope 'SPHEREx,' developed with participation from Korean researchers, was also launched into space aboard the 'Falcon 9' launch vehicle on the 12th.