Photographers were left amazed as the blue spiral occurred at the same time as the aurora borealis. Luckily, space physicists were quick to explain that the phenomena was caused by an event which took place three hours earlier in California.
A baby blue spiral appeared amid the Northern Lights for a few minutes in the Alaska skies. Pic: Christopher Hayden via APNorthern Lights enthusiasts were left"bewildered" after a baby blue-coloured spiral resembling a galaxy appeared amid the aroura in the skies of Alaska.
Although it might have looked like the sudden appearance of a portal, or the beginnings of an alien invasion, the sky spiral was caused by excess fuel released from a"Sometimes rockets have fuel that needs to be jettisoned . When they do that at high altitudes, that fuel turns into ice," space physicist Don Hampton, a research associate professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute explained.
"And if it happens to be in the sunlight, when you're in the darkness on the ground, you can see it as a sort of big cloud, and sometimes it's swirly."The rocket took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Friday 14 April. Such a rare occurrence, it was no surprise the appearance of the swirl caused an"internet storm" after being caught on time-lapse on the Geophysical Institute's all-sky camera.
Professional photographer Todd Salat was also left amazed by - what he referred to as - the"really cool looking spiral thing".
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