A camera atop Hawaii’s tallest mountain has captured what looks like a spiral swirling through the night sky.
Researchers believe it shows the aftereffects of a SpaceX rocket launch when the company’s Falcon 9 rocket sent a GPS satellite into orbit.
The images were captured on Jan. 18 by a camera at the summit of Mauna Kea outside the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan’s Subaru telescope.
The location of the Jan. 18 spiral matched where the second stage of the SpaceX rocket was expected to be after its launch.
SpaceX didn’t respond to an email sent Friday seeking comment.
Tanaka said the observatory installed the camera to monitor the surroundings outside the Subaru telescope and to share Mauna Kea’s clear skies with the people of Hawaii and the world.
Someone watching the sky in less clear conditions, for example from Tokyo, might not have seen the spiral, he said.
The livestream is jointly operated with the Asahi Shimbun, a major Japanese newspaper, and frequently gets hundreds of viewers. Some tune in to watch meteors streak across the sky.
