'Spiral in the Sky' Caused by Failed Russian Rocket

Merely two days ago, the citizens in the northern parts of Norway could see a very peculiar, spiral-like formation glowing on the night sky. Viewed from a lot of angles, it immediately began to raise suspicions that it was a UFO, and many conspiracy theorists began to hypothesize as to its origins and purpose there. But skeptics were by far the best off of all people. They said from the get-go that a structure as regular and as close to the ground as the glowing spiral could have only been caused by human activity, regardless of how strange it looked.

Indeed, Russian authorities have confirmed for the BBC News that the glowing light patterns were in fact caused by the misfiring of a Bulava rocket. The piece of equipment was launched from a submarine as part of some military tests, but its engines misfired in mid-air, leading to the creation of the peculiar shapes as it climbed. The ITAR-TASS news agency was told by the Russian Defense Ministry that the Dmitry Donskoi submarine was navigating through the White Sea as the incident happened.

The Russian authorities also admitted that this was not the first time their Bulava tests ended in failure. Of the 13 recent tests, six did not accomplish their objectives. This is bad news for the Kremlin, as the rocket, which boasts a range of no less than 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles), is widely touted as one of the equipments that strongly support the country's nuclear deterrent. The Bulava can carry up to six individually targeted nuclear warheads. Officials also added that the location in the White Sea where the missile was fired from was regularly used to conduct such tests.

They added that the reason why the spirals appeared too clear on the night sky was the fact that the rocket's third stage gave way. This means that the projectile was already high in the atmosphere when its engines started swirling and generating the spiral-like structure, as viewed from below.

“This cloud was very spectacular, and when we looked at the videos people submitted to the media, we quickly concluded that it looked like a rocket or missile out of control, thus the spiraling effect, I think this is the first time we have seen such a display from a launch failure. It was a fairly stunning display, and we were really surprised to see it so well observed,” Senior Advisor Paal Brekke, from the Oslo-based Norwegian Space Center, told Space.

“It consisted initially of a green beam of light similar in color to the aurora with a mysterious rotating spiral at one end. This spiral then got bigger and bigger until it turned into a huge halo in the sky with the green beam extending down to Earth. We are used to seeing lots of auroras here in Norway, but this was different,” space observer Nick Banbury added. Most people saw the light in the sky between 0650 and 0700 GMT, he added.