Strange spiral in the night sky was a rocket fuel dump

Watch more about the strange spiral in the night sky that many people saw while looking for Perseid meteors on August 12, 2025. EarthSky’s Deborah Byrd talks about the rocket fuel dump and shares EarthSky community photos of the event.

Strange spiral in the night sky has the internet abuzz

Stargazers outside looking for Perseid meteors last night were treated to an unusual sight. On Tuesday, August 12, 2025, many people in the northern and eastern parts of the United States reported seeing a strange spiral in the night sky. They described it as slowly moving and rotating. Even some aviation buffs and longtime amateur astronomers were stumped by what they were seeing.

In this case, it was a fuel dump from a rocket. There were two rocket launches Tuesday. One was a ULA Vulcan from Florida and the other was Europe’s Ariane 6 launch from French Guiana in South America. The ULA rocket went east, while the Ariane 6 headed north into a polar orbit. This polar path is the one that passed over the northern tier of the United States during its fuel dumping, surprising stargazers.

Ariane 6 rocket launch

The Ariane 6 rocket was carrying a weather and climate satellite. It lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 8:37 p.m. EDT on August 12. The satellite was headed for a polar orbit. Satellites that perform earth-mapping tasks, such as weather satellites, use polar orbits in order to map the entire globe. These types of orbits require a bigger launch vehicle because the vehicle is not working with Earth’s rotational velocity. This was only the third launch of the Ariane 6 heavy-lift rocket.

Liftoff of Ariane 6 flight #VA264 launching Metop-SG-A1 and Copernicus Sentinel-5A to orbit!

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— European Space Agency (@esa.int) August 12, 2025 at 7:42 PM

The deorbit burn of the Ariane 6 upper stage occurred at 0235 UTC Aug 13 (10.35 pm EDT Aug 12). Spinup and propellant dump at about 0245 UTC was widely observed in the eastern US and Canada as Ariane 6003 headed north and downhill for reentry over the Indian Ocean half an orbit later

— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589.bsky.social) August 12, 2025 at 11:01 PM

Reports across the United States and Canada

Some of the locations that reported seeing the fuel dump include Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and New York. Places like Ontario in Canada also witnessed the unusual sight.

Did you get a photo of the strange spiral? Submit it to us!

Bottom line: On Tuesday, August 12, 2025, many people in the U.S. and Canada reported seeing a strange spiral in the night sky. It was a fuel dump from a rocket launched a couple hours earlier from South America.

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