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NEED TO KNOW
- People in upstate New York observed an unusual white light that they thought was a UFO in the night’s sky on Aug. 12
- The light was from the tail and plume of the Vulcan Centaur rocket, which launched from Florida
- The spacecraft is designed to provide data similar to that of a GPS system and will test a variety of new technologies
Residents of upstate New York were recently met with an unusual sight — a bright white light in the night sky with a strange-looking aura.
The mysterious light appeared the evening of Tuesday, Aug. 12, per local news outlet the Times Union.
A number of area residents posted about the sighting on social media, with several speculating it might be a UFO, according to the New York Post.
However, it turns out that the source of the light had a much more earthly explanation: Local residents were observing the tail and plume of the Vulcan Centaur rocket, which was launched on Aug. 12 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at around 9 p.m. local time, per Space.com.
The rocket carried an experimental navigation satellite and was launched by the United Launch Alliance (ULA) on behalf of the U.S. military, per the outlet. It launched with four side-mounted rocket boosters in order to send the satellite directly into geosynchronous orbit.
Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty
Additionally, it was the U.S. military’s first experimental navigation satellite to be launched in 48 years, per Space.com. The spacecraft is designed to provide data similar to that of a GPS system and will test a variety of new technologies.
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This was the Vulcan’s third successful flight. The 202-foot rocket took flight in January 2024 and again in October of the same year.
The most recent launch marked one of ULA’s longest flights ever, at seven hours and 22,000 miles, according to the ULA blog.
Upstate New York residents were looking up at the sky for good reason the night of the launch: It coincided with the peak night of the Perseids meteor shower, which lights up the sky each summer.
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The Perseids are especially famous for their brilliant fireballs. These exceptionally bright meteors burst with intense light and often linger longer than a typical shooting star.
NASA considers it “the best meteor shower of the year,” producing “swift, bright meteors that frequently leave long wakes of light and color.”
