Video shows mysterious whirlpool spiral flying over Hawaii night sky

A Japanese telescope spotted a glowing, whirlpool-like formation spinning through the night sky above a volcano in Hawaii earlier this month, shortly after SpaceX launched a navigation satellite into orbit.

“The Subaru-Asahi Star Camera captured a mysterious flying spiral,” tweeted the Subaru Telescope, which is mounted in Hawaii, from its English account on Jan. 20. “The spiral seems to be related to the SpaceX company’s launch of a new satellite.”

Flying over the dormant Mauna Kea volcano on Jan. 18, the formation first appeared as a small, soaring white object before emitting an arc-like wave and slowly spanning out into a spiral. The spiral then faded into a ring-like shape, ending a stunning visual transformation that was caught on video.

At about 7:24 a.m. that day, SpaceX launched a global-positioning satellite into medium orbit using a Falcon 9 rocket that took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.