As a supermoon lit up the night sky Tuesday night, another strange sight caught people’s attention.
People reported seeing a swirl in the sky, asking if it was aliens or a wormhole.
It was neither.
Multiple meteorologists explained it was exhaust plume from the Ariane 6 rocket launched from French Guiana.
“What happens is they travel in the upper atmosphere and they release excess fuel. Once that fuel hits the upper atmosphere, it freezes, makes ice crystals up there. And so you get the swirl that happens,” StormTeam 5 meteorologist Mike Wankum said.
It blasted off around 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Nine missions launching on seven different rockets are happening this week. This includes three Falcon 9 missions from SpaceX, an Ariane 62, New Glenn, Atlas V, Chang Zheng 7A, Kinetica-1, and Electron.
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