Jellyfish-shaped UFO flight... What is the embroidery of the night sky?
Jun 18, 2025
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Speculation that it was a UFO flight was poured out, but this turned out to be the scene of SpaceX's rocket launch.
According to foreign media such as the Daily Mail, a mysterious figure of light was captured over California at around 8:36 p.m. on the 16th (local time).
The front part was shaped like a jellyfish with a round and long tail.
This is due to a Falcon 9 rocket launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The rocket was launched to deploy the satellite in low-Earth orbit on the latest Starlink 15-9 mission from Elon Musk's space exploration company SpaceX.
The rocket launch took place shortly after sunset, and the sun's light shone on the rocket's exhaust, resulting in a so-called 'space jellyfish' phenomenon that looked like a shining cloud in the sky.
This phenomenon is the effect that the pressure and temperature drop sharply depending on the altitude as the rocket rises at a high speed, resulting in the condensation of water vapor in the rocket exhaust and spreading like a cloud visually. In addition, 'shock wave' formed during high-speed flight adds a unique shape to the exhaust cloud.
The phenomenon has spread so widely that it can be observed at a distance of more than 300 kilometers from the Mojave Desert to the southern coast of Los Angeles and Riverside.
Even SpaceX chief engineer Cameron Gable made headlines by sharing photos taken in person near LA on social media.
Such a 'Hafari' shape is a frequently seen phenomenon in space launches.
Similar images were spotted when SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 from the same base in October 2022.
The Falcon 9 rocket rises quickly emitting high-temperature exhaust gases such as water vapor and carbon dioxide, and forms a cloud that spreads in the form of a balloon as the gas meets the cold air in the upper atmosphere. These conditions are observed more prominently in the time period when the sun is below the horizon, such as immediately after sunset or just before sunrise.
Netizens who have encountered the video post comments such as "A jellyfish floating in the sky", "Unidentified Light", "UFO Appearance".
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
