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Residents spot glowing spiral above the Harrogate district

Tuesday, 25 March 2025 07:30

A glowing spiral was spotted in the sky last night. (Images: Simon Kirby, Charlotte Hutchinson)

Did you spot a mysterious glowing spiral above the Harrogate district last night?

Residents took to social media to share their photos of an apparent 'glowing spiral' that appeared in the sky yesterday (Monday).

The cloud-like spiral was seen by stargazers across the UK and Ireland, as well as in Denmark, Italy and Poland.

It was visible for several minutes before fading.

Was it an extra-terrestrial phenomenon as some are suggesting? Not quite, according to the Met Office.

They took to social media platform X (Twitter) to clear up that the spiral was likely caused by frozen exhaust smoke from Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

A spokesperson for Met Office said:

“This is likely to be caused by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launched earlier today.

“The rocket's frozen exhaust plume appears to be spinning in the atmosphere and reflecting the sunlight, causing it to appear as a spiral in the sky.”

These spirals form and are visible when ejected rocket fuel from the Falcon 9 gets frozen in space, before reflecting sunlight back towards Earth.

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