If you stepped outside this morning and spotted an eerie, glowing cloud spreading across the South Florida sky, you weren't imagining things — and you definitely weren't alone in doing a double take.
The spectacle was the handiwork of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral. As the rocket climbed through the upper atmosphere, its exhaust plume interacted with sunlight at high altitude, producing a luminous, jellyfish-shaped cloud that was visible across a wide stretch of the region.
The timing of the launch played a big role in how dramatic the display appeared. Because the rocket reached the upper atmosphere right around sunrise, sunlight was able to illuminate the ice crystals and exhaust particles in the plume while the ground below was still relatively dark — a recipe for a truly eye-catching effect.
These kinds of clouds are sometimes compared to noctilucent clouds, the high-altitude phenomena more commonly seen in polar regions. The combination of the launch angle, atmospheric conditions, and that golden-hour lighting made this particular sighting especially vivid for Florida observers.
This story was originally reported by CBS12.
