Mysterious Blue Spiral Lights Up New Zealand Night Sky
A glowing blue spiral nebula recently appeared over New Zealand's South Island, sparking excitement and alien visit rumors among locals and astronomy fans.
According to Mirror, Stewart Island star guide Alasdair Burns got a message from a friend around 7:25 PM on June 19, asking him to go outside and look up at the sky.
As soon as he stepped outside, he saw a huge, unclear spiral-shaped blue object or phenomenon in the dark night. Burns said skeptically, ‘It looked like a giant spiral galaxy hanging in the air, slowly fluttering, very strange.’
He then knocked on all his neighbors’ doors, inviting them to watch this strange astronomical sight. Standing on the shared balcony with five others, everyone was amazed by the view.
Besides Burns and his neighbors, many local witnesses shared photos online, sparking lively debates among netizens.
Many speculated this could be a sign of aliens visiting Earth.
However, physicist Richard Easther from the University of Auckland explained that although the sight was strange, it’s a common phenomenon when rockets launch and satellites enter orbit. He added that burning rockets emit exhaust, water, and carbon dioxide, briefly forming oddly shaped clouds illuminated by the sun.
On the same day, US space exploration company SpaceX launched its medium-lift Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket near Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying a Globalstar communication satellite called ‘2 FM15’ into low Earth orbit. Easther pointed out that the satellite’s orbit shape and our position relative to the sun combined to create the strange clouds seen over South Island.
