People in Florida’s Tampa Bay area spotted a glowing, jellyfish-like figure in the sky after a SpaceX rocket launch. Kursiv LifeStyle looks at how the phenomenon occurs.
According to FOX 13 Tampa Bay, the effect was visible in the early hours after SpaceX launched its CRS-35 cargo mission. Dozens of residents saw the glowing trail of the rocket.
The phenomenon occurs when sunlight illuminates the rocket’s exhaust plume at high altitude while it is still dark on the ground. As the trail expands, it forms a bright, jellyfish-like cloud that can be seen around sunrise or sunset.
At the same time, NASA and SpaceX did not predict the appearance of the «space jellyfish» in advance. Its visibility depends on the rocket’s trajectory, lighting and atmospheric conditions.
The Falcon 9 rocket carried the Dragon cargo spacecraft, loaded with more than 2.8 metric tons of equipment and scientific supplies, toward the International Space Station (ISS). NASA said the cargo included the station’s final pair of solar arrays, along with equipment for experiments involving artificial retinas and 3D heart tissue models.