Mysterious Glow in the Sky? Don't Call It a UFO Just Yet – The SpaceX Rocket Launch Jellyfish Effect and Spiral Phenomenon Explained

Have you ever looked up at the night sky and seen a huge blue‑white spiral slowly rotating among the stars, or a strangely shaped, glowing cloud resembling a luminous jellyfish floating overhead? At that moment, many people's first thought was: "Could this be an alien spacecraft?"

In fact, it is not your imagination, nor is it a scene from science fiction – it is the "miraculous footprint" left behind by a SpaceX rocket launch jellyfish (the exhaust plume of a SpaceX rocket) in the upper atmosphere. As the frequency of global rocket launches increases year by year, such mysterious and spectacular sky phenomena are becoming more and more common in our night skies.

The Jellyfish Effect: A "Glowing Jellyfish" Lit by Spacex Jellyfish Events

The so‑called spacex jellyfish effect refers to a specific type of rocket exhaust phenomenon. When a rocket lifts off around dawn or dusk, the exhaust gases expelled by its engines are illuminated by sunlight from below the horizon, forming a huge, glowing, droplet‑shaped or jellyfish‑shaped cloud that stands out vividly against the dark sky.

To create a perfect "space jellyfish", both timing and location must align precisely. According to a report by Florida Today on a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch in March 2026, which took off at 5:52 AM local time, the ground was still dark, but the rocket had already risen high enough to catch the sunlight. Sunlight from below the horizon refracted and scattered through the rocket's exhaust (mainly water vapor and carbon dioxide), producing a brief, brilliant glowing cloud. This is a classic SpaceX rocket launch jellyfish event.

The key is a delicate interplay of altitude and solar angle. As a rocket climbs through the atmosphere, the surrounding air density drops sharply. With little air to constrain it, the exhaust rapidly expands outward, forming a huge mushroom‑ or umbrella‑shaped cloud. At the same time, even though the ground is in darkness, those high‑altitude exhaust products still receive sunlight from below the horizon, making the illuminated plume stand out against the black sky.

During that March 2026 launch, after stage separation, ice crystals in the exhaust of Falcon 9's Merlin vacuum engine were instantly illuminated by the rising sun. Within minutes, a giant, glowing spacex jellyfish appeared over Brevard County, Florida.

A similar event occurred in September 2025. Another SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off in the early evening from Vandenberg Space Force Base, carrying 28 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. With unusually clear skies, the dense exhaust plume was lit by the setting sun and spread into a huge glowing streamer visible from Los Angeles to Phoenix – hundreds of miles away. One camper in the Mojave Desert later recalled: "I had seen photos of spacex jellyfish online many times, but seeing it in person was completely different. The sunset light from below made it incredibly beautiful. I couldn't look away."

The Spacex Spiral Phenomenon: An "Extragalactic Spiral" in the Night Sky

While the jellyfish effect requires the right timing and place, the spacex spiral phenomenon triggered by rocket launches is even more science‑fictional and confusing – because it looks nothing like a man‑made object, more like a rotating galaxy suddenly appearing in the night sky.

The cause of the spacex spiral phenomenon is fundamentally different from that of the jellyfish effect. The jellyfish effect occurs during the ascent phase, whereas the spiral typically appears after the rocket's second stage has completed its mission and is preparing to re‑enter the atmosphere.

Specifically, after a SpaceX Falcon 9 delivers its satellites to their intended orbit, the second stage still contains residual unused fuel. For safety and environmental reasons, this fuel must be vented in a controlled manner before de‑orbiting – a process known as a deorbit burn. During venting, the stage rotates to maintain attitude stability, so the exhaust escaping from the nozzle expands in a spacex falcon 9 spiral pattern. At altitudes above 100 km – near the edge of space – the air is extremely thin, so these spiral structures are undisturbed by wind or air resistance and can retain nearly perfect geometric shapes, forming brilliant vortices hundreds of kilometers in diameter.

In that near‑vacuum environment, the vented fuel rapidly cools to tens of degrees below zero Celsius and condenses into tiny ice crystals. These crystals, arranged in a spiral pattern, then reflect sunlight from high altitude – even as people on the ground see only a dark sky – creating a blue‑white, rotating, galaxy‑like luminous pattern that lasts for several minutes before slowly fading. This is a perfect example of a spacex spiral.

In March 2025, such a spacex spiral startled all of Western Europe. Many people in the UK saw a bright blue‑white spiral slowly rotating and moving across the night sky. Photos and videos flooded social media, and some jokingly asked: "Has Doctor Strange's portal from the Marvel movies opened?" The UK Met Office then posted on X (formerly Twitter) explaining: "This phenomenon was likely caused by frozen exhaust from a SpaceX Falcon 9 spiral event." It turned out that earlier that day, a SpaceX Falcon 9 had launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a classified mission for the U.S. government (codenamed NROL‑69).

An even more stunning sight occurred in March 2026, when a "fantastic blue vortex" appeared in northern Europe, – right in the middle of an aurora. The overlapping images looked like something from another world, but experts confirmed the cause: once again, ice crystals formed from vented SpaceX rocket fuel, creating a spacex spiral illuminated by sunlight high above.

The "Twilight Phenomenon": Different Names, Same Physics

Whether we call it the jellyfish effect or the spacex spiral phenomenon, both rely on the same key physical mechanism – the twilight phenomenon (or rocket twilight plume). Scientists explain that when a rocket or missile is launched shortly before sunrise or after sunset, its high‑altitude exhaust plume can catch sunlight from below the horizon, making it stand out against the dark sky. In other words, while the Sun has already set for ground observers, because rocket exhaust is tens to hundreds of kilometers high, daylight is just rising from the other side of the Earth. This contrast – "dark on the ground, bright at altitude" – is the common source of all these sky phenomena.

Why Are These Events Becoming More Common?

In the past, such rocket‑induced sky displays were rare, seen only under a perfect alignment of timing and location. However, over the last two years, reports on social media, news articles, and astronomical observations all show that these events are rapidly increasing in frequency. According to long‑term observations by former National Weather Service meteorologist Brian LaMarre and NASA astronaut photography records, these high‑altitude "glowing rocket clouds" are now systematically documented after many high‑cadence spacex rocket launch jellyfish events.

The reason is simple: the number of rocket launches is climbing faster than ever. SpaceX is deploying Starlink satellites at a rate of several launches per month – the company completed over 75 launches in the first half of 2025 alone. That surge in launch frequency, combined with SpaceX's reusable first stages that often favor twilight launches for better landing conditions, has turned the rocket twilight plume from a rarity into a "routine wonder" that might be visible every month. As a result, sightings of spacex jellyfish and spacex spiral are no longer rare.

As Unger, program director at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, noted in an interview, as the night sky becomes increasingly crowded with drones, private satellites, and rockets operated by companies like SpaceX, sightings of such unusual phenomena are becoming more and more frequent. For scientists, this is good news – more sightings mean more people looking up, which helps us understand and track subtle physical changes in the upper atmosphere.

Next Time, Don't Cry UFO

So the next time you see a video online claiming an "alien fleet has arrived", don't be too quick to exclaim – what you are looking at is likely just a SpaceX Falcon 9 spiral or a SpaceX rocket launch jellyfish – the beautiful trail left by a rocket launch, possibly one carrying Starlink satellites to provide high‑speed internet for humanity. Science may have uncovered the secrets behind these wonders, but it hasn't diminished their breathtaking beauty. As one space photographer who witnessed the event firsthand, put it: "I went to the desert to watch the stars, but this glowing jellyfish came to me first – many of life's most romantic moments are hidden in phenomena that have already been fully explained."

Next time you look up and see a slowly rotating, glowing spacex spiral in the night sky, don't wonder if it's aliens – it's just SpaceX painting a picture in outer space, and you are one of the lucky few with a ticket to the show.