Stargazers in New Zealand were left puzzled and awestruck by a bizarre, spiral light formation in the sky on Sunday night.?
Around 7:30 pm, Kiwis caught a glimpse of an incredible sight - a huge, blue spiral of light amid the darkness,?suspiciously drifting across.?
Many people took to social media to share the photographs showing the rare phenomenon.?
Alasdair Burns, 34, who runs a star-gazing business on Stewart Island told local website Stuff?that it was by far the strangest thing he¡¯d seen in the night sky.
¡°It was absolutely bizarre. It was like a massive spiral. And it very, very slowly, serenely moving north across the night sky and then just sort of dissipating as it went,¡± he told the outlet.?
However, Richard Easther, a physics professor at the University of Auckland, explained that the spiral was, in fact, the illuminated plume of a rocket.
¡°They are ¡®clouds¡¯ created by the exhaust plumes of the rocket, which would have been illuminated by the sun,¡± he told Stuff.?
¡°It¡¯s similar to the effect you sometimes see at sunset when the setting sun lights up the underside of high clouds.¡±
According to Easther, it¡¯s plausible the rocket was?Space X¡¯s Global Star Mission, which launched earlier on Sunday and passed over New Zealand.??
People on social media had their own theories - from UFOs to foreign rockets to commercial light displays.
¡°Premonition from our orbital black hole,¡± one user said.?
¡°Aliens at it again,¡± another user commented.?
"That's a porter to another world," a third user said.?
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