Mystery object that appeared in sky over Connecticut identified

(WFSB) - Viewers spotted a mystery object that appeared in the sky over Connecticut on Tuesday night.

Channel 3 viewers sent in photos of it through social media.

Viewers reported that the photos were taken in places like Watertown, Bristol, and Glastonbury.

Channel 3’s meteorologist went looking for answers.

Turns out, the glowing spiral everyone saw was the result of a European rocket launch thousands of miles away.

At 8:30 p.m. EDT, Tuesday night, Europe’s new Ariane 6 rocket launched from French Guiana, just north of Brazil in South America, carrying the Metop-SGA1 weather satellite. The 8,900-pound spacecraft is designed to improve global weather forecasting and atmospheric monitoring.

Nearly 2 hours after launch, the rocket’s upper stage booster, now thousands of miles from where it lifted off, passed high above the skies of Connecticut. As part of its de-orbit sequence, it vented leftover fuel into the cold upper atmosphere.

“As that fuel is leaving the aircraft it automatically turns into small crystals. And those crystals are then lighted by the sunlight at those high altitudes. So what happens is the rotation, which is throwing this dumped fuel out, and as it crystalizes you have this beautiful spiral pattern that develops around the spacecraft,” said Dr. Jay White, Director of Science at Talcott Mountain Science Center.

This near-perfect spiral was visible for several minutes from Connecticut before dissipating. Astronomers call this a “twilight phenomenon” or “space jellyfish”; a rare mix of timing, altitude, and lighting that can turn a routine rocket maneuver into a breathtaking display.

“As human creatures we spend 2/3 of our time looking at eye level and below and there is something that is just so captivating that takes just a glance up in the night sky, and to be able to capture something like this is just, yeah. So lots of people are tuning into the night sky, that’s fantastic, I love it,” said Dr. White.

Experts like Dr. White say with more launches than ever before, we might just get another surprise show in the years ahead.

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