If you looked up in the early morning, a weird-shaped cloud could be seen after it was formed by SpaceX’s early morning launch from Cape Canaveral.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla — Noticed something strange in the sky Wednesday morning over Tampa Bay?
If you looked up in the early morning, a weird-shaped cloud could be seen after it was formed by SpaceX’s early morning launch from Cape Canaveral.
The launch, which happened at around 5:52 a.m., created a unique form in the sky before eventually being shaped like a heart.
10 Tampa Bay News Meteorologist Courteney Jacobazzi explains this was a noctilucent cloud, which happens when a rocket launches around sunrise, causing the exhaust to be illuminated from the sun’s early rays.
“The higher up in the atmosphere you go, the colder it gets,” she explained. “And of course, naturally, temperatures get sub-freezing as high as that rocket goes.”
Not only is the atmosphere very cold higher up, but it is also less dense, which allows the clouds to move more freely, creating the different and ever-changing shapes.