{"id":158110,"date":"2022-04-26T14:06:59","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T00:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=158110"},"modified":"2022-04-26T14:06:59","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T00:06:59","slug":"mysterious-swirl-maunakea-telescope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2022\/04\/26\/mysterious-swirl-maunakea-telescope\/","title":{"rendered":"&lsquo;Mysterious&rsquo; swirl captured by Maunakea telescope"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_40984\"  width=\"676\" height=\"676\"  data-origwidth=\"676\" data-origheight=\"676\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2Vpp6jxaV84?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"\u2018Mysterious\u2019 swirl captured by Maunakea telescope\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>Social media went awry on Sunday, April 17, after thousands reshared a video clip of what looked like a swirling ball of light gliding over the summit of Maunakea. The eerie footage was captured just after 5 p.m. <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> time by a livestream camera mounted on the <a href=\"https:\/\/subarutelescope.org\/en\/\">Subaru Telescope<\/a>. Many onlookers labeled the strange sighting a &ldquo;flying whirlpool&rdquo; and pondered whether it was connected to some sort of extraterrestrial spacecraft.<\/p>\n<p>Experts like J.D. Armstrong, an education and outreach specialist at the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ifa.hawaii.edu\/\">Institute for Astronomy<\/a> (<abbr>IfA<\/abbr>) quickly put E.T. theories and hoopla to rest after explaining the object was in fact part of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched earlier that day from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. SpaceX was founded in 2002 by Tesla <abbr title=\"chief executive officer\">CEO<\/abbr> Elon Musk with the goal of decreasing space transportation costs.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This is the upper stage of the rocket, it\u2019s like the second section up and as they\u2019re burning off fuel looks like this upper stage is spiraling end over end and it\u2019s tumbling and it\u2019s creating a spiral pattern similar to a pinwheel firework,&rdquo; Armstrong explained.<\/p>\n<h2><abbr title=\"Unidentified flying object\">UFO<\/abbr> or meteor shower<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_158114\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-158114\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/manoa-ifa-subaru-telescope-naoj-2-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"telescope on Maunakea\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-158114\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/manoa-ifa-subaru-telescope-naoj-2-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/manoa-ifa-subaru-telescope-naoj-2-130x130.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/manoa-ifa-subaru-telescope-naoj-2.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-158114\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Courtesy: Subaru Telescope\/<abbr>NAOJ<\/abbr>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In October 2020, thousands were mesmerized by a mysterious flurry of lights that appeared to float across <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\u2019s\">Hawai&#699;i\u2019s<\/span> evening sky. Photos and videos flooded social media, leaving many to believe the sighting could be anything from a spaceship to a meteor shower. According to <abbr>IfA<\/abbr> astronomers and experts across the globe, what onlookers were actually witnessing was the reentry of a spent rocket booster used to launch a Venezualan satellite.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Related <em><abbr title=\"东精影业\">东精影业<\/abbr> News<\/em> story: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/10\/26\/ufo-spotted-over-hawaii\/\"><abbr>UFO<\/abbr> spotted over <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> likely spent rocket<\/a>, October 26, 2020<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Astronomical phenomena caught on Subaru\u2019s Asahi Sky Camera have captivated virtual stargazing audiences before. In August 2021, the camera, installed to give the globe a glimpse of the skies over Maunakea, captured livestream footage of more than a dozen meteors streaming from the same direction within a 10-second window. Astronomers from Subaru\u2019s 8.2-meter telescope described the non-hazardous event as a rare meteor outburst associated with a &ldquo;meteoroid cluster.&rdquo; Only a few cases have been reported since the phenomenon was first identified during the Leonid meteor shower in 1997.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Related <em><abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> News<\/em> story: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/08\/03\/meteor-outburst-captured-maunakea-telescope\/\">Rare meteor outburst captured by Maunakea telescope<\/a>, August 3, 2021<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Tracking asteroids<\/h2>\n<p>Telescopes on Maunakea and Haleakal&#257; also play a critical role in tracking potentially hazardous asteroids and assist with rapid follow-up observations to verify an asteroid\u2019s orbit and if it poses any threat to Earth.<\/p>\n<p>This effort is an example of <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> M&#257;noa\u2019s goal of Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise (<span class=\"small-text\"><abbr title=\"Portable Document Format\">PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), one of four goals identified in the 2015&#8211;25 Strategic Plan (<span class=\"small-text\"><abbr title=\"Portable Document Format\">PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), updated in December 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Onlookers labeled the sighting a &ldquo;flying whirlpool&rdquo; and pondered whether it was connected to eerie extraterrestrial spacecraft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,12],"tags":[34,35,1363,9,56],"class_list":["post-158110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-video","tag-astronomy","tag-institute-for-astronomy","tag-manoa-research","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158110"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158172,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158110\/revisions\/158172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}