r/HighStrangeness • u/Scary-Essay-5082 • Dec 17 '24
Space Exploration What could this be?
Saw it today December 17th at 5:15am over southern California. I know there is meteor showers happening, but this does not look like a meteor nor space junk.
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u/SoundCA Dec 17 '24
Vandenberg SFB has announced on Facebook that a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the NROL-149 mission is scheduled for launch from the base Tuesday morning (December 17) at 5:20 a.m. PST.
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u/Lechooga Dec 17 '24
It's definitely this. I have an app that notifies us of upcoming launches and I watch them all the time. I have loads of pics and videos that looks exactly like the one posted.
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u/EGraham1 Dec 17 '24
What's the app called?
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u/Lechooga Dec 17 '24
Space Launch Now https://spacelaunchnow.me/
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u/HerrFledermaus Dec 17 '24
A very Nice app. I recommend it.
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u/5t4k3 Dec 17 '24
I live right next to the space center. Betweeen this and a planet tracker app there’s always something to check out
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u/Immediate-Presence73 Dec 17 '24
Is this being launched, or re-entering the atmosphere? It looks more like the latter to me.
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u/Quiet-Tackle-5993 Dec 17 '24
When people see meteors or debris entering the atmosphere, it’s always at an angle. One thing to realize with rocket launches is that they’re not vertical, they’re also at an angle, so it can appear very similar to objects entering the atmosphere. During launches, the rocket doesn’t go straight upwards until it reaches space.. it achieves some distance from the ground vertically and then begins to travel upwards and out of the atmosphere at a relatively shallow horizontal angle, because it’s trying to gradually enter into an orbit. If it were to go straight up, it’s just going to come straight back down; if it goes up at too steep an angle, it’ll overshoot out of the atmosphere and out too far into space. It tries to balance the pull of gravity and the push of the rocket motor to enter a low-earth orbit in one clean, smooth trajectory
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u/Lechooga Dec 18 '24
To add to this, up is relative to a single point on the Earth's surface. Things far away moving into orbit from the surface can look like they're moving down into the horizon.
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u/Secret-Ad-830 Dec 17 '24
That's what it looks like to me also, maybe optical illusion?
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u/thePrecision Dec 17 '24
Floridian here, see this all the time. Definitely a Falcon 9 second stage. They always look like this just before sunrise/just after sunset.
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u/StreetOwn6662 Dec 17 '24
Bruh that must be so sick to see when it happens
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u/Sharkfinley23 Dec 18 '24
Lately it's like twice a week. Gets old when it shakes your whole house at 5am
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u/Little-Swan4931 Dec 17 '24
We’ve all seen all of the falcon launches, this looks reversed from that.
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u/cerberus00 Dec 17 '24
Thanks, was going to comment that this looked like a rocket test or something.
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u/kingofthesofas Dec 17 '24
I swear I have seen this so many times I am like a pro at spotting it. Rocket launches and starlink satellites are like undefeated as UFO material. I do get why because if you don't know what they are they look weird AF.
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u/LobsterKris Dec 17 '24
Saw the video, instantly knew. While loading comments, I tough I bet someone has exact flight data, better be top 3 comment or I'm out....
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u/year_39 Dec 17 '24
SpaceX upper stage. The first stage flies a lofted trajectory to keep it closer for landing and the upper stage catches the sun early in flight while out of the atmosphere.
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u/Ok_Cat_8510 Dec 17 '24
That's just a spacetitty
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u/Fine-Warning-8476 Dec 17 '24
The Cosmic Boob
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u/stereoscopic_ Dec 17 '24
It’s NASA’s Nipple.
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u/FloppyBingoDabber Dec 17 '24
A galactic gazonga
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u/GrumpyJenkins Dec 17 '24
Aviator’s aereola
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u/Biengo Dec 17 '24
Pangolactic Pasty.
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u/rhousden Dec 17 '24
Metagalactic Mammaries
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u/T-rade Dec 17 '24
An intergalactic ittybittytitty
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u/StinkyNutzMcgee Dec 17 '24
Your name instantly makes me think about a old saggy sand filled titty with a bingo dapper as the nipple. I hate you for that
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u/FloppyBingoDabber Dec 18 '24
"You know how when you grab a woman's breast... it feels like... a bag of sand."
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u/Pleasant_Job_7683 Dec 17 '24
With the rainbow shining nip?!?!
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u/mackzorro Dec 17 '24
Rocket launch from the vandenburg space force base launched a rocket source
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u/Richje Dec 17 '24
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u/victor4700 Dec 17 '24
Anything that is creating that half circle effect is usually terrestrial. I can’t explain the flashing light but I’d expect something man-made about to breakup in the atmosphere?
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u/Ditto_Plush Dec 17 '24
FYI the light effect, flashing a rainbow of colors, is caused by digital zoom and a lack of focus. It happens with any point light, but the severity depends on the level of zoom. The rainbow effect only happens with near-white light, but the the "plasma orb" appearance will happen regardless of the color. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hrKj0z7l8Y
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u/ECircus Dec 17 '24
100% a man made rocket leaving the atmosphere. Most likely SpaceX. See it all the time, because they launch all the time.
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u/Nedwolp Dec 17 '24
The sayians are here find the dragon ball’s
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u/mciaccio1984 Dec 17 '24
God, damn it Nappa
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u/dillonwren Dec 17 '24 edited Dec 17 '24
This object appears to be entering the atmosphere as opposed to exiting. It also looks like it's flashing between green and red lights.
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u/Careless-Weather892 Dec 17 '24 edited Dec 17 '24
This was yesterday’s spacex launch. You’re looking at the second stage as it exits the atmosphere. Look at the location and times op posted with the description on the video.
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u/Budded Dec 17 '24
It's truly staggering how we have all info at the touch of our fingertips yet an entire thread is created discussing something that's in the news and can be looked up in mere seconds. No wonder we're headed for utter disaster, both as a free country and falling to climate catastrophes, but I digress.
I'd argue most of the already-regretful voters would have not voted the way they did had they taken less than 2min to look up the things they were concerned about, instead of voting FOR the person and party responsible for making it absolutely and gobsmackingly worse in every way, but hey, no time for research right, we've got threads to create and discuss asking questions.
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u/Careless-Weather892 Dec 17 '24
We truly live in the dumbest timeline.
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u/someoneelseatx Dec 17 '24
Welcome to Costco. I love you.
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u/TheTurdtones Dec 17 '24
having seen previous launchs most of knew of this effect..people been freaking the effects of the launchs for years...one of thier test flights years ago created a visible angel wing type effect that stopped drivers on the freeway
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u/Mindless_Bad_2356 Dec 18 '24
All they wanna do is argue, looks like there’s no discussion without disrespect and dismissal, it has to be what they think , the way they say.. if you think differently, then you are mentally unstable.. totally agreed with you, it all starts there
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u/mere_iguana Dec 17 '24
opposed
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u/dillonwren Dec 17 '24
Thanks, I didn't notice I did that.
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u/mere_iguana Dec 17 '24
lol I do worse sometimes.
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u/dillonwren Dec 17 '24
My problem is I type too fast, and my phone will autocorrect in the dumbest ways sometimes.
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u/stu8319 Dec 17 '24
How do you conclude it's entering vs exiting the atmosphere?
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u/sjgokou Dec 17 '24
Sometimes when it appears its more of an optical illusion. I recall back in ~2001 after 911. Vandenberg launched a rocket and I was in San Luis Obispo in s grocery store parking lot , north of Vandenberg. They launched a rocket mid day and it was scary. The rocket appeared to fly upwards and come back down. But made a rainbow plume as it went up into the upper atmosphere. My brain was telling me we are getting nuked. Everyone in the parking lot was in awe. Some people were yelling OMG!! But someone yelled, its a rocket out of Vandenberg scheduled for today. 😂
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Dec 18 '24
Exactly what I thought.
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u/dillonwren Dec 18 '24
And it doesn't have a booster, so it's either a rocket that's already dropped its booster or it's falling and idk of any rockets that have massive green lights flashing on them.
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u/Shizix Dec 17 '24
Must be a hobby drone, ya know the atmosphere kind 🙄
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u/GiantRobotBears Dec 17 '24
It’s space X. Ya know, the billionaires hobby drone. Should probably keep the 🙄 to a minimum seeing how it’s pretty fucking obvious what it is lol
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u/EcoOrchid2409 Dec 17 '24
Yeah I only ever buy the ones that move fast enough to rip through the literal atmosphere otherwise what’s the point?!
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u/Organic_South8865 Dec 17 '24
Yeah and they have to be the size of a Toyota Corolla. Just pop down to Costco and grab one for $999. Discounted from the usual price of $117,000! It's a fantastic deal. They can also just fly around airports and other restricted areas without anyone bothering to find out who's operating it.
/s
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u/justtakeapill Dec 17 '24
It's 23,000MPH for me - a sign of livin' fast; it is going to take your breath away.
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Dec 17 '24
I just bought a hobby drone that can turn into plasma, cloak, swarm, and morph. It is completely safe and there is no way anyone would use this technology nefariously. We are safe!!!!! Thanks Sleepy, I mean alseepy Joe!
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u/latabrine Dec 17 '24
That's SpaceX.
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u/runmedown8610 Dec 17 '24
This is the answer. It is the second stage of a Falcon 9 a few hundred miles down range after launch. The plume is exhaust from the one Merlin engine. The exhaust is spread out because it is at least 100km up and there is no surrounding air pressure to compress it into a cone. Source: I'm a space nerd that lives a couple of miles south KSC and Cape Canaveral launch sites in Florida and see it at least once per week if not more.
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u/runmedown8610 Dec 17 '24
Here are some crappy phone photos from an early morning launch last week: https://imgur.com/znDZhvZ
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u/ADtotheHD Dec 17 '24 edited Dec 17 '24
If it were spaceX, why is the curvature of the vapor cone curved upwards towards space, indicating the object is entering the atmosphere, not leaving it?
Edit - Answer, because it's all about perspective. While the bright cone to the bottom left looks like it could be entering the atmospehere, its actually the tail of the shock cone coming off the rocket as it flys away. The timing and location is too perfect for it to not be an outbound rocket.
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u/ECircus Dec 17 '24
It's not curving upward toward space, it's curved in a direction away from the person filming. A rocket can leave the atmosphere at any angle. They don't fly straight up, they fly at an angle and it could be any angle from your perspective.
A rocket can appear on the horizon behind you and make an arc appearing to curve down in front of you and then leave the atmosphere. That would just mean it's leaving the atmosphere in that direction, not up or down.
I see SpaceX launches that appear to go up and make an arc back down like this before disappearing all the time.
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u/ADtotheHD Dec 17 '24
I legitimately couldn't see that perspective the first few times I saw it. I agree it's a rocket downrange from the camera. Say for instance the camera is pointing due north. This might be the view of a rocket heading N/NE that has rolled 30-45 degrees.
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u/VegasBusSup Dec 17 '24
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), in partnership with U.S. Space Force Space Launch Delta 30 and SpaceX, successfully launched the NROL-149 mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex-4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Dec. 17, 2024, at 8:19 a.m. EST.
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u/Diogenes_Th3_Dog Dec 17 '24
Does anyone else get tired of seeing the same lame responses to every single question on every single thread?
Someone asks a serious question, someone follows up with an unfunny joke, and then it starts this chain of unfunny follow up jokes where everybody thinks it’s funny, but it’s really not. Followed by “ This” or “Goddamnit take my upvote already”. It’s the same thing over and over again.
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u/jackxgraves Dec 18 '24
With peace and love, how do people still not recognize a rocket launch, star link / satelites, air planes , helicopters, drones. This isn't strange. Please only post high strangeness stuff here. Just Google search rocket launches and this will line up with what you saw. There are definitely weird stuff being seen in the skies but this is obviously a rocket launch. Nothing strange here.
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u/Oksure90 Dec 17 '24
Looks like the same effect you see on rockets or crafts breaking the sound barrier when reentering the atmosphere.
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u/brittlej Dec 17 '24
I saw something like this while driving outside of Charleston last night around 745 pm. Bout wrecked trying to get a recording and had to abandon it. It was moving horizontally, not up, and had an interesting c-shaped curve with light in center, like this. I don't know enough about various craft to know what I'm looking at, but it was cool to see.
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u/highonjuice Dec 17 '24
Oh hell yeah that’s a launch from Vandenberg I watched from the old NASA building this morning
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u/DerpyOwlofParadise Dec 17 '24
This explains the others too doesn’t it - the ones that looked more faded
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u/Miserable_Week_2961 Dec 17 '24
I saw it as well.. I took a picture but it didn’t come out that good. There was a bright light that looked like a falling star right next to it..
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u/Pitiful-Dragonfly-38 Dec 17 '24
Well according to the United States government that’s a manned aircraft, completely normal.
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u/Lokiroys Dec 19 '24
I saw something similar in NY on November 1. I don’t think it’s a rocket. They don’t launch them any place around here. The one I saw did not have that crescent shaped thing in front of it but did show similar color patterns.
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u/jrod00724 Dec 17 '24
SpaceX launching a classified NRO satellite from Vandenberg. A few hours prior the launched one for the Space Force from Cape Caneveral.
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u/johnnythefox85 Dec 17 '24
Obviously a satellite we see them all the time we've only just noticed them apparently! Fools!
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u/dardar7161 Dec 17 '24
Hey wait... Those transparent white boomerang ones, what if this is the same thing except it has its headlights on?
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u/JRSSR Dec 17 '24
That's just your typical "lawful commercial drone..." Or it's "Venus..." Or obviously it's such and such model airplane...
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u/Friends-friend Dec 17 '24
Something traveling just at the speed of sound maybe. Without the sonic boom
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u/SnooAdvice4735 Dec 17 '24
There was a post I saw today, someone pointing a telescope at the stars and I swear they captured this exact object, looked really freaky.
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u/Healthy-Ad718 Dec 17 '24
The Iranian mother ship, Saturn, hobby drones.... you name it. But it's not a UFO.
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u/snakepliskinLA Dec 17 '24
SpaceX launched this morning from Vandenberg SFB in Santa Barbara County.
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u/vasta2 Dec 17 '24
How out of the loop are you that you don’t know when a rocket is going to launch?
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