Rocket Launches Reportedly Create Space Jellyfish Displays

Rocket launches have created “space jellyfish” displays when sunlight catches their exhaust plumes high above observers still in darkness or twilight. After a Rocket Lab launch from Māhia, a glowing plume was reported across New Zealand’s North Island, with one observer capturing its twisting shape over the eastern Bay of Plenty. A SpaceX Falcon 9 launch from Florida produced a shorter-lived version of the effect, visible across a wide area, as the plume briefly caught the sun’s light before dissipating. Another report described a SpaceX-related display visible over Alabama, hundreds of miles from the launch site.