Is it a space jellyfish? Is it an alien? No, it's the aftermath of a SpaceX rocket launch!

What is it?

Have you ever looked up and thought, "Why is there a giant glowing jellyfish cloud in the sky?" If so, chances are that you've seen the remnants of a rocket launch, and not a surprise alien visitor.

In the early hours of July 9, SpaceX launched 29 of its Starlink broadband satellites from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to low Earth orbit. It was the rocket's 36th flight, a record.

The rocket lifted off at 5:25 a.m. EDT (0925 GMT), and the scene it painted in the dark early-morning sky looks truly out of this world. But there is a practical, Earthly explanation.

When a Falcon 9 rocket takes off, its engines expel water vapor and carbon dioxide. As it climbs higher into the sky, the temperature drops and the water vapor quickly freezes, forming ice crystals that trail behind the rocket in the spectacular plume we're seeing here. And this view is made more colorful and striking by the sunlight of early morning.

Why is it incredible?

While this photograph's beauty speaks for itself, it is also a colorful example of how real scientific moments can spark the imagination.

Do you think it looks like a jellyfish? I think it looks like a comb jelly, which isn't actually a jellyfish but rather a different type of transparent, squishy invertebrate that drifts through the ocean. It could also look like a glowing football or even a mythological monster.

Whatever you think it looks like, while we have a real scientific explanation for why this rocket launch was followed by a giant, glowing, uniquely shaped cloud, it's still fun to use our imagination.

A SpaceX Starlink launch put on a stunning sky show this morning (March 4), as its high-altitude plume was lit by the yet-to-rise sun.

Sometimes likened to a jellyfish given its bulbous, translucent appearance, the effect could be seen over Florida today after the 5:52 a.m. EST (1052 GMT) launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The Falcon 9 rocket lofted 29 Starlink satellites (Group 10-40) into low Earth orbit for SpaceX's broadband internet service.

The Falcon 9's first stage, Booster 1080, completed its 25th flight to space and back with a landing on the droneship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" positioned off the coast of Florida in the Atlantic Ocean. According to SpaceX, it was the 580th landing in the company's history.

The 29 Starlink satellites added to SpaceX's megaconstellation, which is quickly approaching 10,000 units in orbit.

Today's launch was SpaceX's 28th mission of the year, out of more than 600 in the company's history. Twenty-three of the 28 launches in 2026 have been dedicated to building out the Starlink megaconstellation.

Space "jellyfish" aren't all that uncommon; they appear fairly regularly when Falcon 9 rockets launch around dusk or dawn.

At these times, sunlight illuminates exhaust from the rocket's upper stage, which is composed primarily of water vapor and carbon dioxide. The skies, meanwhile, are still relatively dark, allowing these glowing clouds to be seen by observers on the ground.

Parts of the Western United States were treated to a cosmic spectacle Sunday evening, as a giant streak illuminated the skies from Los Angeles to Phoenix.

Minutes after SpaceX's Sept. 28 Starlink launch lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Station (VSFS), in California, the Falcon 9 rocket supporting the mission reached the upper atmosphere to create a phenomenon often referred to as a "jellyfish" effect.

Falcon 9 launched at 11:04 p.m. EDT (7:04 p.m. local PDT; 0204 GMT, Sept. 29). The rocket carried 28 new Starlink satellites to join SpaceX's growing wireless internet megaconstellation of over 8,000 networked spacecraft. The dusk liftoff provided ideal conditions for the setting sun to illuminate Falcon 9's expanding engine exhaust against the darkening sky, as onlookers for hundreds of miles gazed in amazement.

The density of Earth's upper atmosphere causes the exhaust plume of a rocket's engines to expand as it ascends. The launch site at Vandenberg Space Force Base is notorious for its overcast and extremely foggy conditions, but Sunday's clear skies created the ideal conditions for Falcon 9's jellyfish to emerge.

Among the many treated to the skyward spectacle, Space.com's Managing Editor Brett Tingley managed to snap a photo of the phenomenon as the rocket flew over Afton Canyon, in the Mojave Desert.

"I was camping in Afton Canyon in the Mojave National Preserve when I noticed a colorful streak of light in the sky. I've seen plenty of Falcon 9 'jellyfish' online but never in person." Tingley said. "It was lit up gorgeously from below by the setting sun and made for a surprising start to a night of dark sky stargazing."

Posts to X also highlighted the spectacle as it crossed the sky, like these photos and video from West Coast spaceflight photographer, @spacecoastwest:

Sightings were also reported to the American Meteor Society (AMC), which tracks and triangulates anomalies in the sky (usually meteorites) using witness submission data.

Last night's launch prompted seven different fireball reports to the website, with a video from spectators in Phoenix, Arizona, wondering if the long streak moving across the sky might be a comet.

Sunday's launch was the 28th mission for this particular Falcon 9 first stage, which landed downrange on SpaceX's droneship "Of Course I Still Love You," in the Pacific Ocean about 8.5 minutes after liftoff. The rocket's second stage continued to orbit, successfully deploying the satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO).

Sights like last night's aren't super rare, but can sometimes be hard to predict. Launches near dawn and dusk most often create the conditions for the jellyfish phenomenon, so if you live within a few hundred miles of a launchpad, keep your eyes to the skies.

When SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from California on Monday evening (Feb. 10), it was just another flight for the company to boost its growing Starlink internet satellite constellation. For spectators on the ground, however, it was night sky art.

The Falcon 9 rocket, which lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, took flight during evening twilight, when light from the recently set sun reflects off the exhaust plume of the rocket to create a spectacular effect that has been dubbed a "space jellyfish" by some observers.

"Absolutely stunning!" wrote one photographer, who goes by FirePhotoGirl on the social media site X, of the sight while sharing a photo and video of the launch. The view show the bright rocket plume over an illuminated pool.

The Falcon 9 rocket launched 23 Starlink satellites into orbit from Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex 4 East pad, with its first stage returning to Earth for a landing on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. It was the 18th Falcon 9 launch of 2025 for SpaceX.

Skywatcher Dima Zeniuk shared a video on X of the Starlink launch as it appeared to arc over Los Angeles, then created a stunning timelapse that showed the dramatic moments of stage separation between the Falcon 9's first stage booster from its upper stage.

"Stunning timelapse of a SpaceX launch over downtown Los Angeles," Zeniuk wrote in a post with the video.

SpaceX's rocket "jellyfish" even managed to photobomb one of the company's future passengers, a private space station module called Haven-1 built by Vast, as it was undergoing testing in California's Mojave Desert.

"Haven-1 primary structure qualification article at Vast’s Mojave test site, with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 lighting up the evening sky—Haven-1’s future ride," Vast representatives wrote in a social media post accompanying the photo.

Vast's Haven-1 module is a prototype for a commercial space station the company hopes to build in low Earth orbit. The company has tapped SpaceX to launch the module into orbit by May 2026.

For its part, SpaceX released a trio of photographs of the Starlink launch, including one view of the "jellyfish" effect, an image of the rocket ascending toward space and a long-exposure view that showed the launch as a brilliant arc of light across the cloudy sky.

SpaceX is off to a fast clip with its rocket launch pace. Monday's rocket launch was the first of two back-to-back Starlink missions on Falcon 9 boosters. The second flight, which launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, delivered 21 Starlink satellites to orbit on Tuesday (Feb. 11).

SpaceX currently has about 6.990 operational Starlink satellites in orbit today, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist and satellite tracker who regularly monitors Starlink launches.

A SpaceX Starlink launch lit up skies across the U.S. West Coast on Monday evening (March 18), leaving a dazzling trail seen for hundreds of miles. 

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on California's central coast Monday at 10:28 p.m. EDT (7:28 p.m. local time; 0228 GMT on March 19). The launch vehicle carried a batch of 22 Starlink satellites to add to SpaceX's ever-expanding wireless internet megaconstellation.

In what's come to be known as the "jellyfish" effect, the dusk launch provided ideal conditions for the setting sun to light up the rocket's expanding engine plume against the darkening sky, as the vehicle climbed high into Earth's atmosphere.

Related: SpaceX launches 22 Starlink satellites from California in dusky evening liftoff (video)

The launch site at Vandenberg Space Force Base is notorious for its overcast and extremely foggy conditions, so Monday's clear skies were a relatively rare treat for onlookers.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, SpaceX shared photos of the launch. 

Many X users responded to SpaceX's post, sharing their photos of the Falcon 9 jellyfish, which could be seen in neighboring states. "I can see it from my rooftop in Arizona," wrote Brandon D. Schilling (@BrandoSchil).

Observers at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles were also treated to the sky site, as the Falcon 9's trail stretched above the busy city low on the horizon.

Monday's launch was the 10th mission for this particular Falcon 9 first stage, which landed downrange on SpaceX's droneship "Of Course I Still Love You" in the Pacific Ocean shortly after liftoff. The rocket's second stage continued to orbit, successfully deploying the 22-satellite payload in low Earth orbit (LEO). 

SpaceX's Starlink megaconstellation currently consists of more than 5,500 satellites, and continues to grow. A recent test launch of the company's giant Starship vehicle included a payload bay door designed to deploy SpaceX's next-generation Starlink satellites, expected to add thousands more to the network once in operation. 

An odd array of 30 newly released images from the Hubble Space Telescope reveal planetary systems in the making.

The blobs and smudges, as astronomers described them, sit in the widely photographed Orion Nebula. Each object is known as a proplyds, or protoplanetary discs, and could be forming planets as you read this.

Among the images is one astronomers called a "space jellyfish." Its odd shape is created by shock waves that form when a wind of particles from a nearby massive star collides with the material of the proplyd.

The Orion Nebula is known to be a hotbed of star formation. Our own sun might have developed in a similar dense cloud of gas and dust, before being kicked out to its current lonely existence.

In the nebula, newborn stars emerge from the nebula's mixture of gas and dust, and the proplyds form around them. The center of a disc, which is rotating, heats up and becomes a new star, but remnants around the outskirts of the disc attract other bits of dust and clump together, astronomers explained.

Each developing planetary system has its own look. Some of the discs appear face-on, and others edge-on. Some have emerging jets of material.

Visible to the naked eye under very dark sky conditions, the Orion Nebula has been known since ancient times and was first described in the early 17th century by the French astronomer Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc. At 1,500 light-years away, it is the closest star-forming region to Earth.

The new collection of photographs will help astronomers better understand the planet-formation process, researchers said in a statement today.

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