(ORDO NEWS) — Residents of Alaska can see more than just the aurora borealis. They recently witnessed a spiral galaxy. The phenomenon is quite mysterious and unusual, as for a simple earthly inhabitant. But still, what was it? Is there a scientific explanation for this? Scientists gave answers to all questions. This is reported by ScienceAlert.
Todd Salat has been photographing the aurora borealis in Alaska for a long time. This time he managed to capture something more. According to the photographer, this is the first such phenomenon in his practice. He had never encountered such amazing beauty before.
Having gone out to photograph the morning sky on April 15, the man saw a glowing spiral against the background of the aurora borealis. It was like a galaxy of stars. The specialist managed to take several unforgettable pictures. Without them, hardly anyone would have believed him.
Moreover, the spiral moved across the sky and increased in size. At the same time, it kept its symmetry and silhouettes. The pictures quickly went viral on the Internet and garnered thousands of enthusiastic comments.
Then, as always, scientists intervened in the discussion and dispelled all people‘s guesses. It turns out that about 3 hours before the appearance of this phenomenon in the sky in another state (California), a rocket was launched by a company owned by Elon Musk.
A couple of minutes after the launch, the first part of the rocket (empty fuel tank) was disconnected. But the second part still remained (it was supposed to launch another satellite into Earth‘s orbit). After the successful completion of the task, the second part detached and began to return to Earth on a spiral trajectory.
At the same time, remnants of fuel began to pour out of this component of the rocket, but in the air they began to freeze and turned into crystals. They began to refract and reflect the aurora borealis over Alaska. And then, Salat was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time.
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