The view from Mahia, where Rocket Lab launches its ships. Photo \/ Liam Clayton<\/p>\n
Robinson said he first noticed the phenomenon after casting his fishing rod and turning to look inland.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked at the sky and went, \u2018Wow, what\u2019s that? That looks cool\u2019. Then realised, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s something a bit different. I\u2019ll grab my camera and take a few photos\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The images show a bright, twisting plume stretching across the evening sky.<\/p>\n
Robinson said he initially wondered whether it could have been space junk or a meteor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just thought, \u2018What is it? Is it space junk? Is it a meteor? What\u2019s in the sky\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n
He later learned it may have been connected to the Rocket Lab launch from M\u0101hia, an explanation he said made sense given he had been looking south from the eastern Bay of Plenty coast.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just looks spectacular. I just stood there and gazed at it thinking, \u2018This is amazing. This is really cool\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
A view from Omaio Bay, East Cape. Photo \/ Murray Robinson<\/p>\n
Reports of the phenomenon came from across the North Island, including Tokoroa, Rotorua, Hastings, Dannevirke, Manawat\u016b, Masterton and communities along the East Coast.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, the Tauranga Astronomical Society had given followers a heads-up that there was a chance of a so-called \u201cspace jellyfish\u201d appearing if launch conditions lined up.<\/p>\n
The society described the phenomenon as a \u201cspectacular apparition caused by sunlight illuminating the exhaust plume from the rocket\u201d.<\/p>\n
A space jellyfish occurs when a rocket\u2019s exhaust plume is illuminated by sunlight at high altitude while observers on the ground are already in darkness.<\/p>\n
The glowing plume can create a striking jellyfish-shaped appearance often mistaken for a UFO or other unexplained object.<\/p>\n
Rocket Lab told the Herald it was their 98th Electron rocket launched from the M\u0101hia site.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have shared their photos and reported seeing the launch from Tauranga through to Wellington,\u201d a Rocket Lab spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always great to see such strong support for our missions from across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The view from Mahia, where Rocket Lab launches its ships. Photo \/ Liam Clayton Robinson said he first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,38820,435161,3016,39598,17358,84166,8165,134867,33714,10360,22625,35062,47,8936,247436,47866,124700,22924,128,24237,285,154659,12531,51776,51775],"class_list":["post-938118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-coast","tag-creates","tag-east","tag-friday","tag-island","tag-islands","tag-jellyfish","tag-known","tag-lab","tag-launch","tag-looking","tag-night","tag-north","tag-over","tag-phenomenon","tag-produced","tag-rare","tag-rocket","tag-science","tag-sight","tag-space","tag-spectacular","tag-those","tag-treated","tag-were"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}