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UFO sightings across Eastern Australia launch of new rocket?

Post updated 5pm AEST

Reports have been coming in from across Eastern Australia about a strange light which spun as it traveled across the sky this morning. A photograph of the light and interviews with eyewitnesses can be found here on the ABC News website. A video of the object spinning can be found here. A photograph of the object taken from Broadbeach on the Gold Coast can be found here.

At this stage, the object is thought most likely to be the just launched Falcon 9 rocket. The Falcon 9 rocket was launched this morning from the Cape Canaveral U.S. Air Force base at 5.29 am AEST. Members of the See-Sat L observers list have confirmed that this is the object seen.

A similiar spiral was seen on 9 December 2009 when the Russian military launched a Bulava ICBM. The same spiral shape was seen as the rocket progressed through its flight. The interesting thing though is that the spiral was caused by the rocket going out of control.

The most likely explanation is that the second stage of Falcon 9 was commanded to vent excess fuel once it had separated from the payload. This is usually done to reduce the threat of the fuel tanks exploding (so that there is only one extra piece of space junk in space rather than many).

A news story about the 9 December 2009 spiral can be found on Youtube.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hrWjkn_DHs

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