Camera captures night sky spiral after SpaceX rocket launch
(ORDO NEWS) — A camera mounted atop Hawaii’s tallest mountain captured what appeared to be a spiral spiraling through the night sky.
Researchers believe that it appeared as a result of the launch of a military satellite, which was launched on a SpaceX rocket.
The images were taken on January 18 by a camera placed on top of Mauna Kea, next to the Subaru Telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.
The slow motion video shows the white orb forming a spiral as it moves across the sky. Then it dims and disappears.
Ichi Tanaka, a researcher at the Subaru Telescope, said he was doing other work that night and didn’t see it right away.
However, an astronomer colleague who was watching the live stream on YouTube sent him a screenshot of the spiral.
Tanaka saw a similar spiral last April, also after the SpaceX launch, but it was bigger and weaker.
SpaceX launched a military satellite on the morning of January 18 from the US Space Force station at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The spiral was in the area where the second stage of the SpaceX rocket would have been after launch.
Tanaka said the observatory has set up a camera to monitor the surroundings outside the Subaru Telescope and to share Mauna Kea’s clear skies with people around the world.
The live broadcast is in association with the Asahi Shimbun, a major Japanese newspaper, and often draws hundreds of viewers.
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