The Ariane 6 rocket caused a light show in the Quebec sky

It was around 6 p.m. Eastern time that a luminous whirlwind could be observed for a few minutes in the sky of Quebec, causing a stir on social networks.

“I am not at all someone who believes in UFOs, but I have just seen a rather curious object in the sky,” was surprised by an astronomy enthusiast on the Facebook group of Amateur Astronomers of Quebec. “There must be a logical reason, any ideas?” »

“You shouldn’t be afraid, they’re not extraterrestrials,” laughs Nathalie Ouellette, an astrophysicist at the University of Montreal, in an interview with The Press.

It is in fact the detachment of one of the stages of the Ariane 6 rocket, which took off Tuesday evening from the Kourou space center, in French Guiana. This detachment caused the release of fuel into the atmosphere which, because of the movement of the rocket, formed this spiral visible from Earth, explains the expert.

“We were lucky to see him,” she emphasizes. All Ariane rockets take off from French Guiana, but their trajectory does not always allow this spectacle to be admired from Quebec. The same phenomenon could already be observed in mid-August, during the takeoff of another Ariane 6 rocket.

Tuesday evening, the rocket took off with a new satellite, the Sentinel-1D, on board. Manufactured by Thales Alenia Space as part of the Copernicus program, this satellite will make it possible to monitor the evolution of sea ice, icebergs and glaciers, as well as detect oil spills, deforestation and the effects of climate change such as floods or landslides, for example.

The expected lifespan of Sentinel-1D is seven and a half years. It must join Sentinel-1C, launched in December 2024, and replace Sentinel-1A, launched in 2014 and which is approaching the end of its operational life.

At least a fourth commercial Ariane 6 flight is planned by the end of 2025.

With Agence France-Presse