Mystery Solved: SpaceX Rocket Outgassing & Aurora over Denali National Park
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Photographer Zach Goldberg: "We had no idea what [the] spiral [on] the horizon was while shooting aurora at Sheldon Mountain House in Denali National Park. This was April 2023, I think . . . "
For more than a year, Zach Goldberg had been wondering what he saw. The aurora photographer was camping in Denali National Park in April 2023 when, out of nowhere, a giant blue spiral pinwheeled across the night sky. "We had no idea what it was," says Goldberg. "Fortunately, we already had our cameras out for the auroras." This is what he saw . . .
Mystery solved: It was a "SpaceX spiral." On April 15, 2023, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg in California. It carried 51 small satellites to Earth-orbit, a mission known as Transporter-7. When the rocket's discarded upper stage passed over Alaska, it vented its unused fuel.
Spirals are a common side-effect of Transporter rideshare missions. Within these rockets, numerous satellites from various clients have different destinations. SpaceX must rotate the second stage for deployment. The de-orbit burn and fuel dump naturally spirals.
Denali National Park and Preserve, formerly known as Mount McKinley National Park, is a national park and preserve located in Interior Alaska, United States, centered on Denali, the highest mountain in North America.
https://www.nps.gov/dena/index.htm
SpaceX Transporter-7 Mission Launch:
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=transporter-7-pl
Image Credit: Zach Goldberg
Zach's website: https://www.FrozenFoto.com
Caption Credit: SpaceWeather
Image Date: April 6, 2023
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