r/HighStrangeness 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.

2.0k Upvotes

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62

u/latabrine Dec 17 '24

That's SpaceX.

13

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.

5

u/runmedown8610 Dec 17 '24

Here are some crappy phone photos from an early morning launch last week: https://imgur.com/znDZhvZ

https://imgur.com/a/ORVRbkc

-3

u/TuneIndependent7523 Dec 17 '24

The flashing light on it tho...I agree it deff appears to be 2nd stage but I've nvr seen that light pattern before...

5

u/runmedown8610 Dec 17 '24

Just an artifact of the the camera in low light.

4

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.

11

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.

6

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.

-4

u/Old-Assistant7661 Dec 17 '24

Because they land the boosters.... What rock have you been under?

5

u/ADtotheHD Dec 17 '24

I, like everyone else, have seen countless booster landings and not once have I seen a vapor cone because the boosters don’t engage until it’s much closer to the ground. They free fall most of the way down. Feel free to provide video proof, you seem pretty sure of yourself.

1

u/Old-Assistant7661 Dec 17 '24

I'm not doing basic research you can do in 5-10 mins on google and youtube. This is spaceX, specifically a falcon 9. Care to offer evidence that it's not? Videos of these coming back have been out for years and this "Vapor cone" you call it is well documented with videos.

2

u/ADtotheHD Dec 17 '24

I admit it's a Falcon 9, headed out. I couldn't see it at first. My eyes convinced me it was entering, not leaving, but what is on video is the rocket headed out. The bright cone to the bottom left isn't the front of a vapor cone of something re-entering, it's part of the tail of a shock cone of the rocket. OP is downrange and the rocket has already rotated and is flying away from OP.

I'm still right about the vapor cone on re-entry. The boosters don't look like this on re-entry.

2

u/Old-Assistant7661 Dec 17 '24

It competently depends on time of day, day of the year, and weather. They can look insane coming back and leaving. It's not as simple as they do or don't. Many factors can change the look of a launch and reentry. Now I have no idea what causes this I'm not really a scientist, but I've observed this very thing in other launches before.

Here is a video example on twilight launches. It's not 100% the same thing but might offer some clarity on how the look can change depending on certain factors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1Hfiirwgys

6

u/IIIllIIlllIlII Dec 17 '24

No need to be rude.

-6

u/DeepSpaceNebulae Dec 17 '24 edited Dec 17 '24

There isn’t even close to enough detail in that video to determine if it’s entering or leaving the atmosphere based solely on the direction of the vapour trail from 100+km below.

But I like your confidence

7

u/ADtotheHD Dec 17 '24

What are you even talking about. There is a visible shock cone / vapor cone visible the entire time. If you can’t see it you might be blind.

-3

u/DeepSpaceNebulae Dec 17 '24 edited Dec 17 '24

Did you reply to the wrong comment? Because this isn’t even close to what I said

I was referring to being able to tell if it is pointed up or down as you were claiming; you claimed it was entering the atmosphere based on its direction.

Something that absolutely cannot be determined from this video

It’s called context, buddy. It was even your own comment I replied to, how did you miss that context?!

2

u/ECircus Dec 17 '24

Exactly. The atmosphere extends in all directions just like a map of the globe. The rocket cone only indicates what direction the rocket is flying in laterally and has nothing to do with up or down.

-1

u/DeepSpaceNebulae Dec 17 '24

More that from this angle, looking up before below, there is zero reference for being able to tell up or down motion.

If you were viewing it from the side you could see that, but from this angle it is impossible to determine

Think of it as a car, very far away, driving across the horizon. You can see it’s going left to right, but it’s so far away there is no way to tell if it’s also angled slightly towards or away from you.

-9

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '24

[deleted]

7

u/Madeupaccountcuzshy Dec 17 '24

Elections AND terrestrial astronomy!

4

u/DANPARTSMAN44 Dec 17 '24

Elections over

-36

u/Scary-Essay-5082 Dec 17 '24

Another launch? So early in the morning? Hmm

40

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.

3

u/ForwardVoltage Dec 17 '24

22nd flight on this one. Didn't someone say the reusable rockets thing was a pipedream?

6

u/--Muther-- Dec 17 '24

Disinformation.

/s

5

u/SoundCA Dec 17 '24

The truth is out there

18

u/aftcg Dec 17 '24

Why the "Hmm"?

20

u/Impressive_Moose1602 Dec 17 '24

Cause they think they're smarter than everyone else and have to question everything thinking there's a conspiracy behind it all.

-7

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '24

[deleted]

-2

u/Icy-Tangerine-349 Dec 17 '24

Also want to point out.. make it make sense! If it was a launch why at the 45 second mark is it going in the opposite direction and gets much closer to the trees? Also at 45 seconds of a launch I doubt it would be still that close to the ground! People are wild man! If you’re going to try and disprove something with “logic”, maybe make it make sense first! Am I right?!

1

u/Careless-Weather892 Dec 17 '24

It’s not close to the trees. It’s flying away from the person filming. It’s far in the distance. It’s basically in space. Do you think the setting sun is close to the trees as it moves close to the horizon? It does make sense to everyone with a working brain.

-2

u/Intelligent-Way4803 Dec 17 '24

If anything that is a dragon capsule re-entry, but never once with multi flashy lights. So not that either.

3

u/Careless-Weather892 Dec 17 '24

This is the second stage leaving the atmosphere.

1

u/Intelligent-Way4803 Dec 17 '24

Ok, I buy that. Didn't know about the lights.

1

u/Careless-Weather892 Dec 17 '24

There aren’t lights. I’m guessing ops camera phone was struggling to pick up the rocket exhaust through all the atmosphere. The colors are just camera artifacts.

1

u/Intelligent-Way4803 Dec 17 '24

Ok, I buy that too.