Strange Spiral Lights Appear in the Night Sky on June 19, Astonishing New Zealand Astronomers.
At around 7:25 PM, Alasdair Burns, a star-gazing guide on Stewart Island (Rakiura), received a message from a friend: “Go outside and look up at the sky.”
“As soon as we stepped outside, we understood what our friend meant,” Burns said.
He saw a gigantic blue spiral of light in the darkness.
“It looked like a massive spiral galaxy, just hanging in the sky and slowly drifting across. The spiral gave off a strange feeling,” Burns shared.
A blue light spiral seen from Stewart Island, New Zealand, on June 19. (Photo: Guardian).
Burns took several photos and recorded the spiral image with his personal phone.
“We quickly knocked on doors and called our neighbors outside. We all sat on the porch looking up. Everyone was amazed,” Burns said.
Amateur astronomy groups on social media engaged in lively discussions about the images and speculations regarding this phenomenon. Many theories were proposed, ranging from UFOs to foreign rockets or commercial light displays.
“Our orbital black hole is where aliens are,” one astronomer remarked.
Professor Richard Easther, a physicist at the University of Auckland, described the phenomenon as “strange but explainable.” He suggested that the reality was a bit sillier.
He noted that these peculiar clouds appeared when a rocket launched a satellite into orbit.
“When the propellant is expelled, water and carbon dioxide form a cloud illuminated by sunlight. The orbital shape of the satellite and our position relative to the sun are factors that create these bizarre clouds. They can be seen from the South Island,” Easther explained.
He indicated that the rocket in question was likely the Globalstar launch from SpaceX. This rocket launch was placed into low Earth orbit off Cape Canaveral in Florida on June 19.
Burns recalled reading about a similar phenomenon in 2009. He speculated that the spiral image could be from a rocket.
In 2009, a Russian rocket launch also created massive blue spiral shapes visible in Norway.
Even knowing this, Burns still couldn’t believe his eyes: “No one among us had ever seen anything like it before. It was spectacular.”
