A bright, white glowing object with a distinct swirl at each end was spotted by lots of people in the nighttime sky this week - but what the heck was it?
The object was spotted Tuesday night after 10 p.m. - about the time thousands of people had their eyes to the sky, hoping to see some fireballs as the summer's Perseid meteor shower was set to hit its peak. But what they saw was no shooting star.
Instead, the twisting white swirl that sent social media alight was a fuel dump from a rocket launch, EarthSky authors said. The website that features stories about all things space and the night sky did a video chat on Wednesday explaining what people had seen the night before. You can see that video below.
The swirl was visible across the northern United States, parts of the Midwest, as well in Ontario, Canada.
There were a couple rocket launches on Tuesday night. One was a ULA Vulcan rocket that lifted off from Florida. But the other launch that sparked the mystery swirl was a European Space Agency launch of the Ariane 6, which lifted off from the coast of South America.
Its "polar path" took it over the northern part of the U.S. Tuesday night, and that's when its fuel dump turned into a little sky drama, according to EarthSky.
The rocket was carrying a weather satellite that will also be used to collect climate data. Want to know more about this particular weather satellite? The ESA has some pretty detailed information, photos and videos about it here.