Mysterious ‘whirlpool’ swirling in night sky is Elon Musk’s fault, experts claim

31 January 2023 , 14:19

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Mysterious ‘whirlpool’ swirling in night sky is Elon Musk’s fault, experts claim

A mysterious "whirlpool" swirling around in the night sky is thought to have been Elon Musk's fault.

The Mauna Kea Observatory, which is based in Hawaii, US, discovered a bizarre flying spiral in the early hours of January 18 which left many experts baffled.

Researches were left confused at the sighting which was captured at the summit of Mauna Kea outside the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan’s Subaru telescope.

Images captured show a mysterious 'whirlpool' move across the night at sky.

While the video shows a white orb spreading in and out and forming a spiral across the sky as it moves.

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However, it is believed the whirlpool was in fact the launch of Twitter boss Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellite.

Experts believe the phenomenon was linked to frozen rocket fuel that was ejected during the launch.

Experts believe the whirlpool was linked to frozen rocket fuel that was ejected during the launch (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)

The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan said the phenomenon was probably related to the SpaceX satellite launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Musk's company launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in order to put a GPS satellite into a medium-earth orbit for the US Space Force.

Ichi Tanaka, a researcher at the Subaru telescope, was working the evening the whirlpool appeared but missed it as he was focusing on another piece of work.

The images were captured with the Subaru-Asahi telescope at Hawaii's Mauna Kea Observatory (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)

But he was alerted of the stargaze when a YouTuber contacted him and sent a screenshot of the spiral to him on a messaging service.

He said: "When I opened Slack, that is what I saw and it was a jaw-dropping event for me."

And with the whirlpool spotted swirling around the night sky many experts said it was due to frozen fuel crystals in the shape of a spiral, which were illuminated by sunlight, according to Spaceweather.com.

It is not the first time SpaceX rockets have been seen creating mysterious lights in the sky (Joe Marino/UPI/REX/Shutterstock)

It is not the first time SpaceX rockets have been seen creating mysterious lights in the sky.

The Subaru-Asahi Star Camera caught the moment a SpaceX launched a satellite into orbit in April 2022 on a Falcon 9 rocket.

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In the past Falcon 9 launches have whipped up strange and freaky sightings in the sky.

Many have reported the seeing mysterious objects in the sky and with more than a 100 Falcon 9 launches set for this year there will be plenty more around.

Liam Buckler