Spinning Spiral Formation in Norwegian Sky Possibly Caused By Russian Rocket

Apparently, this moving spiraling cloud actually did appear in the sky and this image is not photoshopped.

ABC News says that the scene was probably caused by a failed Russian rocket experiment:

It was known that Russia was conducting tests from nuclear submarines in the White Sea to the east.

The mystery was all but solved Thursday afternoon when Russia’s Defense Ministry released a statement admitting that a test of a sea-based Bulava rocket failed. They refused to comment on whether the light show and the test were connected.

Discover Magazine had some more information on the suject:

But then I saw lots of pictures of this on a bunch of different Norwegian media, so I don’t think it’s a digital hoax. Then videos started surfacing, like this one, which clearly show the spiral spinning. It’s not just a static picture, whatever this thing was; it was really in the sky.

However, after a moment, I realized this must be a rocket, most likely spiraling out of control. I don’t understand all the details — I don’t have all the info yet — but a rocket fits what we’re seeing here. First, this was seen all over Norway, so it must have been at a high altitude to be so visible. Second, the blue spiral angling down to the right is clearly due to perspective. A rocket spiraling around, and coming up from the lower right, would appear to make tight spirals when it was far away and bigger ones as it got closer.

 

The Sun says the spiral could be seen for hundreds of miles:

Theories ranging from a misfired Russian missile, meteor fireball, never-before-seen type of northern light, ‘black hole’ and even alien activity were all proposed.

Witnesses across Norway, who first glimpsed the space show at 8.45am, all described seeing a spinning ‘Catherine wheel-style’ spiral of white light, centred around a bright moon-like star.

A blue “streaming tail” appeared to anchor the spiral to earth, before the light “exploded” into a rotating ring of white fire.

The Daily Mail obtained some interviews that were translated from Norwegian, including an astronomer:

Totto Eriksen, from Tromsø, told VG Nett: ‘It spun and exploded in the sky,’

 

He spotted the lights as he walked his daughter Amalie to school.

He said: ‘We saw it from the Inner Harbor in Tromsø. It was absolutely fantastic.

‘It almost looked like a rocket that spun around and around and then went diagonally down the heavens.

‘It looked like the moon was coming over the mountain, but then came something completely different.’

Celebrity astronomer Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard said he had never seen anything like the lights.

He said: ‘My first thought was that it was a fireball meteor, but it has lasted far too long.

‘It may have been a missile in Russia, but I can not guarantee that it is the answer.’

Air traffic control in Tromsō claimed the light show lasted ‘far too long to be an astronomical phenomenon’.