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A long, luminous streak was visible on the Monday night sky. It was not a meteorite, but a stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket re-entering the atmosphere after a Starlink launch. During the re-entry, the rocket’s engines fired and the resulting contrails created spectacular light patterns in the sky.
A strange celestial phenomenon was observed in the sky over Hungary on Monday evening. The elongated, bluish light trail surprised many at first. The people suspected it was a meteor or an object of unknown origin. However, it later turned out that
the spectacular spiral was caused by Elon Musk’s space agency.
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from the United States on March 24, delivering Starlink satellites into orbit around the Earth. After the launch, the rocket’s first stage separated and reentered the atmosphere in a controlled descent, during which the mixture of engine ignitions and contrails created spiral-like light patterns.
Falcon 9 lifts off from pad 40 and returns to LZ-1 in Florida pic.twitter.com/zC7PlEogcE
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 24, 2025
The light trail was visible from several points in Central Europe due to the appropriate weather conditions. Many people in Hungary noticed it and a lot of photos and videos were taken of the strange celestial phenomenon, which quickly flooded social media.
The Hungarian Astronomical Association confirmed that it was not a natural celestial event, but a rocket stage.
Such spectacular re-entries will become increasingly frequent, as SpaceX launches several rockets every week. Some of them can be observed from Hungary at the right time and place, therefore it is worth looking up at the sky from time to time.
Via Világgazdaság, Mandiner; Featured picture: Facebook