Mysterious ‘Blue Swirl’ in New Zealand Explained: Where Did Stunning Light Come From?
(Photo : Red Huber/Getty Images)
A strange blue spiral whirling over the skies of New Zealand Sunday evening sparked several theories from witnesses, who believed it was caused by aliens. However, experts claim that the cause was closer to home.

A strange Blue swirl whirling over the skies of New Zealand Sunday evening sparked several theories from witnesses, who believed aliens caused it. However, experts claim that the cause was closer to home.

Around 7.30 p.m. on Sunday, the spiraling plume of gas had lighted up the sky over Nelson, a city on New Zealand's south island, and had traveled 750 kilometers south to Stewart Island, per Unilad.

People posted images and reactions to the rare Blue swirl phenomena in the sky on the country's stargazing and amateur astronomy social media groups.

Strangest Happening Up in the Sky

Alasdair Burns, a stargazer on Stewart Island, claimed the spiral was the strangest thing he had ever seen, which he described as "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," Burns said.

After reading about a similar event in 2009, when a Russian missile launch created massive blue spirals above Norway, Burns assumed the spiral would have been most likely a rocket. He remarked that it was a startling scene, even knowing the likely culprit.

"None of us had ever seen anything like that before. It was spectacular,"

Augustine Matthews, a Mapua resident, claimed she ran outdoors with her husband to see the spiral, which initially appeared to be "a planet or a star." She observed that the object was "only a small white dot with a spiral on it."

Then, within 10 minutes, it had "spanned half of the sky, and the spiral had tripled in size," she explained. "It wasn't blinking or twinkling, and it was moving fairly fast... so fascinating," Matthews noted.

However, one stargazer expressed concern about the strange phenomenon. "Premonition from our orbital black hole. Aliens at it again," he said.

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Experts Explain

Those who witnessed the mysterious spiral have different theories on what it was: from UFOs to foreign rocket ships to commercial light displays.

According to Mail Online, the rocket belonged to SpaceX, a company owned by tech mogul Elon Musk, which had just launched its third rocket voyage in 36 hours, a Falcon 9 rocket bearing a Globalstar DM15 satellite.

"SpaceX hauled a Globalstar communications satellite into orbit early Sunday from Cape Canaveral, pulling off the third Falcon 9 rocket flight in 36 hours, the fastest sequence of three missions by any commercial launch company in history," the company announced on Twitter.

But what exactly explains the glowing spiral image in the sky?

Prof Richard Easther, a physicist at Auckland University, described the occurrence as strange "but easily explained."

He added that when a rocket carried a satellite into orbit, clouds such as those could form, as per a report from The Guardian.

The expert explained: "When the propellant is ejected out the back, you have what's essentially water and carbon dioxide - that briefly forms a cloud in space that's illuminated by the sun. The geometry of the satellite's orbit and also the way that we're sitting relative to the sun - that combination of things was just right to produce these completely wacky-looking clouds that were visible from the South Island."

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