Kiwis gazing up into the night sky on Sunday might have spotted a strange sight: a mysterious glowing swirl high above the country.
Multiple New Zealanders captured images of the event and shared them to social media.
https://twitter.com/SarahCa72304628/status/1538436409618419713
The unusual apparition has led to much confusion over its cause, with some speculating whether it was an astronomical phenomenon - or even whether it had extraterrestrial origins.
But experts say the cause is more prosaic - a dying SpaceX rocket stage. According to spaceflightnow.com, SpaceX made three launches over Friday, Saturday and Sunday - the last one a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Globalstar FM15 satellite.
https://twitter.com/ClareRehill/status/1538434863413469185
https://twitter.com/burns_alasdair/status/1538451034346991618
https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/1538448834522750979
After releasing its payload, the upper stage of the rocket spins and vents fuel - and this vapour trail then reflects the sunlight, creating the highly-visible swirl visible from the ground.
"The 'spiral' that was seen in the sky tonight around 7:30pm was most likely a fuel dump from a SpaceX rocket launch," the New Plymouth Astronomical Society posted to Facebook.
"Similar effects have been seen before, and SpaceX's Globalstar 2 FM15 was likely to have passed New Zealand around that time."
Regardless of the cause, it's an amazing sight that has Kiwis talking.
