What is this mysterious light spiral that appeared in the Icelandic sky?

The Arctic night was the scene of a rare and spectacular phenomenon: a massive spiral of white light emerged, lighting up the sky above Iceland. This spectacle briefly stole the spotlight from an aurora borealis stretching over thousands of miles.

This galactic-looking phenomenon is the result of a cloud of frozen fuel, ejected into space by a SpaceX rocket during the deployment of several satellites into low Earth orbit. Astronomers, who forecast an increase in the frequency of these spirals in the future, have named them "SpaceX spirals".


On March 4, a Falcon 9 rocket was launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, carrying 53 satellites. About two hours after launch, these satellites were successfully placed in orbit around our planet. Shortly after, the upper stage of the rocket, already separated from the first reusable stage, began its descent and disintegrated in the atmosphere over the Barents Sea, in the Arctic. During this maneuver, the remaining fuel was released into space, forming frozen crystals that spread out in a spiral and reflected sunlight towards Earth.

Photographer Shang Yang captured this impressive scene near the town of Akureyri, in Iceland, around 1 a.m. on March 5. The light spiral, lasting about 10 minutes, presented a striking contrast. This spectacle was also captured during a live broadcast of the Northern Lights in Iceland, and photographed in Finland as well as in Norway, where the spiral sported a striking blue color.

"SpaceX spirals" are rare, but are becoming more frequent with the increase in the number of launches by Elon Musk's company. They do not appear after every launch; their visibility depends on several factors, such as the rotation speed of the rocket stage, the time of day, and the rocket's orientation relative to the Earth and the Sun.


Olivier Staiger, an astrophotographer, had correctly predicted the appearance of this spiral above the Arctic following the Transporter-10 launch, after analyzing the specifics of the mission. He also anticipates another impressive spiral above Iceland and other regions of the Arctic during the launch of the Transporter-12 mission in October of this year.