It seems the aliens have, once again, decided to give us a miss. Following a truly dazzling light show over Queensland and northern New South Wales, countless Australians were convinced they’d finally made contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence. Turns out, it was just China’s version of a glorified bin lorry, but for satellites.
The whole thing went viral faster than a Kardashian scandal. Residents from the Gold Coast all the way down to northern NSW were posting videos of three glowing, pulsating orbs that were supposedly “out of this world.” Comments flooded in with the usual, “It’s a UFO, it has to be!” and “Maybe three UFOs or a Big Star ship.” Bless their cotton socks. A “Big Star ship” is such a wonderfully optimistic take on a space launch.
But, as with most things that look cool on the internet, the truth is far less exciting. Experts have swooped in to burst our little bubble of hope. According to astrobiologist Professor Jonti Horner and astrophysicist Dr. Brad Tucker (who probably get a kick out of this), the mysterious orbs were actually the exhaust from a Chinese rocket.
Dr. Tucker, clearly a man who knows how to ruin a good conspiracy theory, explained that what people saw was a “rocket plume.” That’s the technical term for “gases coming out of a rocket.” He even added that these plumes are sometimes called “space jellyfish.” I’m not sure if that’s supposed to make it sound cooler, but it just sounds like a slightly less intimidating alien species.
So, for all those budding astronomers and curious minds, it was just the Long March 8A rocket doing its job: launching satellites for China’s internet network. The rocket, which was a good few hundred kilometres offshore, was just shedding its outer layers like a snake. The spectacle was all a bit of a happy coincidence.
So, while we were all staring at the sky hoping for an intergalactic visitor, we were really just looking at some very expensive, high altitude litter. It seems the only thing “out of this world” was the collective imagination of a nation. Better luck next time, Australia. And maybe next time, let’s just stick to stargazing instead of alien hunting.
