Astronomer Alasdair Burns, who runs the Twinkle Dark Sky Tours star business, spotted the spectacle from Stewart Island. “It was absolutely strange,” he told the Stuff news website. “It was like a huge spiral. And very, very slowly, it was moving serenely north along the night sky and then just disappearing as it went.” He told TV3: “At first glance it looked almost like a spiral galaxy hanging there in the night sky.” Jen Ross, also from Twinkle Dark Sky Tours, said: “It was like nothing we had ever seen. Simply unbelievable. “Standing there and looking at it, I thought they were either aliens or a black hole that was opening up that we were all going to suck.” What really caused the spiral of light? Professor Richard Easther, from the University of Auckland, explained the possible cause of the amazing light show. “As far as we can tell, it is created by the sun catching the exhaust [fumes] “from the second stage of a SpaceX rocket that ignites again about an hour after it was placed in orbit on Cape Canaveral,” he told TV3. “It’s amazing, I wish I had seen it.” While Elon Musk’s SpaceX has not yet confirmed that it is behind the phenomenon, the company’s third 36-hour rocket flight – the Falcon 9 rocket carrying Globalstar DM15 satellites – is widely believed to be responsible. Mr Burns, who photographed the spiral, explained how the rockets could cause such an unusual celestial spectacle. “If this exhaust goes in a direction other than straight back, it can cause the stage of the rocket to rotate and act a bit like a rocket launcher, and this exhaust comes out spirally,” he said. Unfortunately, at least for those who hoped the spiral was evidence of alien activity, Professor Easther ruled out alien involvement. “Yes, I think we were,” he said.
