Mysterious spiral of light spotted in the sky over Hawaii

A Japanese telescope has captured the eerie spectacle of a ‘flying spiral’ of light in the sky over Hawaii. The Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea captured a video of the blue whirlpool on January 18 and shared the visuals on social media

While such mysterious cosmic sights usually spark a frenzy of theories, the source of this spiral was clear from the get-go. The Subaru Telescope said the “spiral seems to be related to the SpaceX company's launch of a new satellite.”

“On Jan 18, 2023 (HST), the Subaru-Asahi Star Camera captured a mysterious flying spiral over Maunakea, Hawai`i. The spiral seems to be related to the SpaceX company's launch of a new satellite,” the official Twitter account of the telescope posted on the microblogging platform.
According to media reports, SpaceX had launched a navigation satellite into space on Wednesday, January 18, at 7:24 am EST. The Japanese telescope captured the spiral of light in the sky soon thereafter.

Satellite tracker Scott Tilley said the position of the spiral was a close match for where the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was expected to be after its launch. He said the spiral could have been caused by fuel vent from the rocket.