Understanding a rocket’s jellyfish impact

FLORIDA — It shouldn’t be unusual to see a SpaceX launch, however what provides many a stunned delight is when the corporate’s famed Falcon 9 rocket creates the jellyfish impact.

This was seen Thursday morning in lots of elements of the Space Coast and so far as the Tampa Bay space throughout a Starlink launch.

The jellyfish impact is when the Falcon 9 rocket’s (or any rocket’s) exhaust plume grows and creates a jellyfish-like “cloud” from the exhaust that has a glowing look if the launch is close to daybreak and nightfall.

Spectrum News 13’s morning meteorologist Maureen McCann described how the circumstances have been good for Thursday’s jellyfish impact.

“We had mainly clear skies this morning, which led to great visibility of this morning’s rocket launch. Skies remained clear closer to sunrise, so it was easy to see an unusual cloud left in the sky that resulted from the residual exhaust plume from the rocket. It was illuminated by the sun, which was still below the horizon at the time,” she said.