A Great blue spiral That rotates slowly and crosses the sky: this is the curious and suggestive show, which lasted a few minutes, to whom thousands of people have witnessed all over northern Italy (mainly Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia) last night Shortly after 9 pm. It is not a very rare astronomical phenomenon nor alien spacecraft, but of a so -called “Spiral Spacex”sometimes also called “spatial spiral” or “spiral anomaly”, or the Second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket of Spacex by Elon Musk who at high altitude was preparing for the return to the ground expected in the Pacific Ocean.
The rocket had taken off from the launch complex 40 to Cape Canaveral, Florida, a couple of hours before, at 18:48 Italian. Transported the mission Nrol-69who has placed a satellite for national security in orbit on behalf of the National Reconnaissance Office, an American spy satellites manager. Due to the military nature of the mission, the trajectory of the second stadium was not known in advance. The inhabitants of Northern Italy – but also of some regions of France and UK – could not therefore know that they could admire this bright vortex in the sky.
How the “Spacex spirals” are formed is soon said. One of the preparation phases of the second stadium of Falcon 9 on the atmospheric return is the expulsion in the high atmosphere of unused fuel and water vapor present in the tanks. Up there temperatures are very low and these glacier materials quickly, going to form crystals that reflect sunlight under the horizon, appearing thus bright. “But how, did it happen at night, how is it possible that the ice reflects the sunlight?” Could someone ask for. Simply, the ice spiral was so high that it will allow her to collect some light: it is the same reason why we can see artificial satellites at night! If we add the rotation of the second stagehere we get the “Vortex” form well recognizable in many of the photos taken last night.
The phenomenon of the “Spacex spirals” is not new: for years it has been documented in various parts of the world, by USA at the New Zealand passing through theEastern Africa and for theEuropealways below a second Spacex stadium intent on venerable fuel. The phenomenon began to acquire fame among spatial and astronautical fans in 2023 because of the beautiful photos taken in Alaska by the Aurore hunter Todd Salat.
