"A 'Portal' Opens in the Sky Over Norway, Thanks to SpaceX"

This time, there was no mystique.

At the beginning of March, residents of Iceland and Norway noticed an unusual spiral in the sky, resembling some kind of portal. It was quite large and bright, overshadowing even the northern lights. The phenomenon lasted about ten minutes.

Some witnesses managed to photograph this glowing spiral. Astronomers quickly determined the nature of its origin. It turned out to be quite mundane. This figure was formed by a lit cloud of frozen fuel, released from the Falcon 9 rocket of SpaceX.

The rocket was launched on March 4 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It deployed 53 small satellites for various customers into orbit. When the second stage of the rocket completed its burn, it began to descend from orbit and burned up in the atmosphere over the Barents Sea. During this maneuver, the rotating stage released fuel. Its frozen crystals formed a cloud that reflected sunlight.

This is far from the first light spiral created by the Falcon 9 rocket. Similar phenomena have been observed previously over Alaska and the Hawaiian Islands. However, predicting their occurrence is quite challenging. Not every launch of this rocket is accompanied by such a spectacle. Several factors need to align: the time of day, the rocket's position relative to the Earth and the Sun, as well as the orientation and rotation speed of the second stage that releases the fuel.