A MYSTERIOUS spiral in the sky above the US had people thinking they’d spotted something alien last night.
The spiral was photographed over Oklahoma on Monday evening and looks like something out of a sci-fi film.
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Scientists have had to debunk rumors that this was an alien sighting and have been blaming Elon Musk instead.
Meteorologist Clint Boone wrote on Facebook: “Did you see the strange spiral object in the sky tonight around 7pm?
“It is a satellite that was launched from the Space X Falcon 9 rocket.”
Blueish green spirals have appeared in the sky after previous SpaceX launches.
They can happen due to a venting of excess fuel after a Falcon 9 rocket drops off its payload in space.
The venting can avoid an explosion after separation of the rocket and the item it was carrying.
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One person wrote on Facebook: “I would have freaked a little if I had seen it!”
Another said: “What is this??? Elon musk ??”
Musk’s SpaceX firm finally launched an Earth observation satellite from Florida last night after a number of delays.
The launch was part of the Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation program that’s being funded by the Italian Space Agency.
It involves two satellites that will observe Earth for “emergency prevention purposes”.
The European Space Agency explained: “COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation[‘s] purpose is to monitor the Earth for the sake of emergency prevention, strategy, scientific and commercial purposes, providing data on a global scale to support a variety of applications among which risk management, cartography, forest, and environment protection, natural resources exploration, land management, defense and security, maritime surveillance, food, and agriculture management.”
Musk’s rocket dropped the satellite off in orbit and then returned for a quick vertical touchdown.
It’s a busy week for SpaceX as it plans to launch some of its own Starlink internet satellites.
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In other news, this week marks the anniversary of the first chimpanzee in space.
Nasa has revealed stunning footage of a solar flare in action.
And, the US space agency is planning for a ‘golden asteroid’ probing mission to launch this summer.
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