How the mysterious Norwegian sky spiral might have formed

A simulation of how a piece of space junk (for instance a failed rocket booster) would behave if it was ejecting some kind of fuel, and how it would look like from the ground. It shows a remarkable agreement with the strange phenomenon seen over Norway on the 9th of December.
fjulessays...

Only one thing i don't get - how come the spiral is moving so slow? Shouldn't the gravity pull that shit down? Why is it symmetrical on both sides, shouldn't it be skewed because of gravity? Or the rocket was really that high in space? Then again - if it was, would we see THAT much fuel from THAT distance?

I know this is from rocket, I am just not a physics guy so I don't completely get how spiral is formed.

Almanildosays...

^ Yeah, it really was that high in space, from what i've heard. It must have been, since it was seen from all over Norway. It does seem strange that it would spew out that much fuel, but it was an ICBM, after all. Those things are big and burn a lot of fuel.

garmachisays...

>> ^fjules:
Only one thing i don't get - how come the spiral is moving so slow? Shouldn't the gravity pull that shit down? Why is it symmetrical on both sides, shouldn't it be skewed because of gravity? Or the rocket was really that high in space? Then again - if it was, would we see THAT much fuel from THAT distance?
I know this is from rocket, I am just not a physics guy so I don't completely get how spiral is formed.


As an amateur astronomer, I spend a lot of time in the dark looking up. I've had the good fortune to witness a fuel dump once and it was very similar. Quite surprising, although in my case it was merely a cloud, not a spiral.

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