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Giant ‘white streak’ appears over multiple US states as Chinese rocket dumps experimental fuel in space

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Giant ‘white streak’ appears over multiple US states as ******** rocket dumps experimental fuel in space

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The giant luminous streak was visible in at least seven different states and hung in the night sky for around 10 minutes. | Credit: Mike Lewinski

A massive streak of white, aurora-like light recently appeared in the night sky above several U.S. states after a ******** rocket released half a dozen satellites into orbit. The light show was triggered when the rocket dumped a new type of fuel into space before reentering the atmosphere, experts say.

The luminous streak appeared at around 1:24 a.m. ET on Saturday (May 17), hanging in the air for around 10 minutes before eventually fading away. It was photographed in at least seven states — Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Missouri, Nebraska, Washington and New Mexico — but may have been visible even further afield, according to

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.

Photographer Mike Lewinski snapped stunning shots of the streak from Crestone, Colorado (see above) and also managed to capture

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of the entire event. Meanwhile, photographer Jay Shaffer took a striking long-exposure photo of the streak in Taos County, New Mexico (see below).

In some places, the streak appeared alongside

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that emerged during a G2-class geomagnetic storm, which was triggered earlier in the night when a cloud of charged particles ejected by the sun, known as a
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, slammed into Earth’s magnetic field. As a result, many people who witnessed the streak assumed it was the aurora-like phenomenon known as STEVE, which creates long colored ribbons of light in the night sky.

However, what people actually saw was the aftermath of one of China’s Zhuque-2E rockets, which launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at around 12:12 a.m. ET, according to

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. The rocket released six satellites, each carrying various scientific instruments, before it burned up in Earth’s upper atmosphere upon reentry.

Related: 10 bizarre phenomena that lit up the sky (and their scientific explanations)

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There was initially some confusion about exactly how the rocket created the stunning light show. “The white streak may have been a de-orbit burn, or perhaps a circularization burn for the deploying satellites,” Spaceweather.com representatives wrote.

Others thought it may have been light from the rocket’s second stage

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, while some people suggested that it may have been an “ionospheric hole,” created when rocket fuel reacts with chemicals in the upper atmosphere, triggering streaking aurora-like lights.

However,

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, an astronomer at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who tracks satellite launches and reentries, later
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that it was caused by a “fuel dump” at an altitude of around 155 miles (250 kilometers) before the rocket de-orbited. The ejected fuel, which trailed behind the rocket, froze into a ribbon of tiny frozen crystals that then reflected sunlight toward Earth’s surface, making it shine in the night sky.

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The Zhuque-2E rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at around 12:12 a.m. ET. | Credit: LandSpace

Similar light shows often occur when SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets dump their fuel before re-entering the atmosphere. In these cases, the spacecraft is normally spinning as it dumps the fuel, creating luminous whirlpools of light. Recent examples of these structures, nicknamed SpaceX spirals, include a luminous vortex spotted above the U.K. in March, a

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in May 2024 and a distant swirl visible from Hawaii in January 2023, among others.

New type of rocket fuel

The Zhuque-2E rocket is a single-use orbital launch vehicle created by ******** company LandSpace. It stands at around 160 feet (50 meters) tall and can launch up to 13,200 pounds (6,000 kilograms) of payloads into low-Earth orbit (LEO) — the region of space up to 1,200 miles (2,000 km) above Earth’s surface, where the majority of Earth-orbiting satellites operate.

Unlike most rockets, which use hydrogen or kerosene-based fuels, Zhuque-2E uses a special hybrid of liquid oxygen and liquid methane, known as “methalox.”

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—******** astronauts make rocket fuel and oxygen in space using 1st-of-its-kind ‘artificial photosynthesis’

In July 2023, the rocket’s predecessor, Zhuque-2, became the

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, beating the likes of SpaceX, which also uses methalox fuels in its gigantic Starship rocket but is yet to successfully get the spacecraft into a full orbital flight. China has now successfully launched four methane-powered rockets into space.

Methane is a desirable fuel source for rockets because it is easier to store and burns cleaner than hydrogen or kerosene. It can also potentially be produced on other planets, such as

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, which makes it ideal for solar system exploration.



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