The perfect conditions Both the jellyfish and the spiral require specific lighting conditions to be visible to human eyes. A viewer must be standing in darkness while the rocket is high up, catching glints of sunshine beyond the horizon.

“It tends to be early evening or dawn, not the middle of the night,” when the phenomena appear, McDowell said. kyberswap And, McDowell noted, the light shows can trick our brains into thinking the rockets are closer to the ground than they actually are. “We’re so used to seeing airplanes, subconsciously, when we see this thing in the sky; we’re thinking that it’s not that much higher than an airplane,” McDowell said of the spiral phenomenon. Onlookers may think the rocket is “maybe 10 or 20 miles up, when it’s really 200 miles up.”

How to see a rocket’s glare Catching a glimpse of a rocket-related light show can be tough since it requires precise timing and a bit of luck.

But the number of launches has already increased rapidly — rising from a peak of less than 150 per year in the 20th century to more than 250 last year, according to statistics McDowell has compiled.

And Combs said he hopes audiences will continue to be drawn in by the strange light shows the rockets produce.

“I love it when people are taking an interest in space,” he said. “I encourage folks to keep asking questions.”