A bizarre Hawaii spiral phenomena has been puzzling some local residents as well as internet communities, but it was actually just the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This whirlpool-like object was captured by the Subaru Telescope on the night of April 17th, near Mauna Kea, just hours after a SpaceX launched a spy satellite into orbit. What you’re seeing is actually the the characteristic spiral caused by the post-deorbit-burn fuel.
The Falcon 9’s upper stage was set to deorbit right over the Pacific Ocean just after the end of the first revolution. Since the first stage booster is reusable, it safely landed on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean, while the upper stage burned up in the the atmosphere. For those interested, the Subaru Telescope is basically an 8.2-meter (320-inch) Ritchey-Chretien reflecting telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, named after the open star cluster known as the Pleiades. We imagine its images rivaling those of Hubble, which took this snap of a stunning spiral galaxy
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