SpaceX fuel spiral 'looked like jellyfish' in sky

Michael Coates, from Northumberland, said the shape looked like a "jellyfish"

A man who saw a large glowing spiral in the night sky on Monday, believed to have been caused by a SpaceX rocket launch, has said it "almost looked like a jellyfish".

Michael Coates, from Hexham in Northumberland, was with his dog in his garden at about 19:55 GMT when he noticed what looked like a "really, really bright star".

The object was very slow moving, he said, and morphed into a cloud-like shape about five minutes in.

The Met Office said it was likely produced by a frozen plume of fuel from the rocket's exhaust, which reflected the sunlight and appeared to spin in the atmosphere.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at about 13:50 local time in Florida (17:50 GMT) on a US government mission.

After launching, the rocket splits and leftover fuel is ejected.

This freezes instantly due to the altitude and forms into a spiral pattern because of the rocket's movement as it falls back to Earth.

Light reflected off the frozen fuel is then visible on Earth.

SpaceX said the launch was carried out on behalf of the US government National Reconnaissance Office.

The Kennedy Space Center also said the launch was a classified mission for that office.

Michael Coates said the object eventually faded away

When the spiral shape appeared in the sky, Mr Coates said he shouted for his wife and son to come out.

He said: "To be fair to my wife she called it straight away."

The bright spiral, which he also described as like an "hourglass on its side", eventually lost its shape and "faded away".

The whole event, which Mr Coates took several photos of using his phone, was visible for about 10 minutes.

"I'm quite a rational person but also there's that bit of excitement - woah... what is that," he said.