Bright spiral appears in the sky over Russian and European cities

Residents of several Russian and European cities spotted a bright spiral in the sky and shared photos on social media. According to preliminary reports, the phenomenon was caused by a Falcon 9 rocket launched by SpaceX, which carried the US NROL-69 satellite into low Earth orbit. The spiral appears to have formed after the rocket’s upper stage was jettisoned, began spinning, and released residual fuel. Similar spirals have been observed before, such as in 2022, when a Falcon 9 rocket launched the Italian COSMO-SkyMed satellite into orbit.