In a haunting display, a crimson void appeared in the nighttime heavens above Texas following SpaceX’s launch of 23 Starlink satellites on April 10. This eerie sight, known as a “SpaceX aurora,” is becoming more frequent and is attributed to the remnants of SpaceX’s faltering rockets.
Photographer Abdur Anwar captured the striking phenomenon around 3:15 a.m. EDT above Big Bend National Park in southern Texas. Although fleeting to the naked eye, Anwar managed to immortalize the enigmatic orb using a smartphone camera. However, even he was at a loss to explain its origin.
What Anwar witnessed was the aftermath of an atmospheric disturbance caused by a breach in the ionosphere—an upper atmospheric layer—between 50 and 370 miles above Earth’s surface. This breach, not naturally occurring, was induced by the descent of one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets, as reported by Spaceweather.com.
The Falcon 9, ferrying the Starlink payload, departed from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida roughly 90 minutes prior to Anwar’s sighting. Following satellite deployment, the spent rocket initiated a deorbit burn, culminating in a controlled descent into the Pacific Ocean to mitigate space debris.
During this deorbit burn, the rocket released water and carbon dioxide, triggering a chemical reaction with ionized oxygen atoms in the ionosphere. This reaction briefly diminished plasma levels, causing excited oxygen molecules to emit red light akin to auroras. However, this luminescence swiftly dissipates as the molecules regain ionization.
Such occurrences are becoming commonplace, particularly above Texas and neighboring states, as rockets returning from Florida execute deorbit burns. Astronomers at the McDonald Observatory in West Texas observe multiple incidents monthly, highlighting the frequency of these events.
SpaceX rockets have also been implicated in larger ionospheric disruptions, evidenced by a massive red streak over Arizona in July 2023 following a Vandenberg Space Force Base launch.
While visually captivating, these phenomena pose no immediate threat. However, concerns persist regarding the proliferation of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites and other space debris, which could impede astronomical observations and potentially impact Earth’s atmosphere upon reentry.