Oklahomans witnessed a strange, mysterious spiral in the night sky Monday.
Twitter user @HarrisonWill13 described it as a "circular cloud" that moved across the sky at around 6:30 p.m. CT. He added "there was a light in the center" of the cloud. Another user, @opedaily, said it "flew, very slowly, across the sky in Oklahoma. There are no clouds and the spirals followed it and swirled. It was gorgeous."
Was it aliens? A UFO? What could it be?
KOTV meteorologist Clint Boone explained what it was on Facebook. "It is a satellite that was launched from the Space X Falcon 9 rocket," he said, along with more photos of the spiral in the sky. SpaceX successfully launched the Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 6:11 p.m. ET, according to Florida Today.
According to The U.S. Sun, spirals can happen after a Falcon 9 launch due to a "venting of excess fuel." The venting is what avoids an explosion after the rocket separates.
Two observation satellites were launched as part of the SpaceX launch in part of the Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation program. The satellites will observe Earth for "emergency prevention purposes." According to the European Space Agency, here's what the purpose of the mission is:
COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation purpose is to monitor the Earth for the sake of emergency prevention, strategy, scientific and commercial purposes, providing data on a global scale to support a variety of applications among which risk management, cartography, forest & environment protection, natural resources exploration, land management, defense and security, maritime surveillance, food & agriculture management.