HELENA — Big Sky Country had a big night on Friday. The Aurora Borealis made an impressive appearance for some, but it was not the only shimmering object in the night sky - a very strange white plume bisected the sky, appearing for a few minutes, long enough for some skywatchers to marvel at.
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Some amateur space watchers thought it might be a STEVE. If you have not been introduced yet, STEVE stands for "Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement" and is an aurora-like glow that often accompanies the Northern Lights.
STEVE was only discovered between 2015 and 2016 by citizen scientists in Canada chasing the aurora. Like the aurora, STEVE is a glowing atmospheric phenomenon and occurs simultaneously with the northern lights. While the aurora is created by charged particles that glow, STEVE is created by heated gas that lights up in a white-ish, slightly purple line oriented on an east-west axis.
But alas, the plume on Friday night was not a STEVE. It is now known that the line was related to a rocket launch from China. Chinese launch startup "LandSpace" sent a new rocket to space carrying six satellites. The white streak may have been a de-orbit burn or a circularization burn for the deployment of the satellites.
SpaceWeather.com reports: "About an hour before the plume appeared (5:39 UTC), Chinese launch startup Landspace launched the ZhuQue-2E rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (4:12 UTC). It carried 6 satellites to orbit including a synthetic aperture radar and multiple space science spacecraft. The white streak may have been a de-orbit burn, or perhaps a circularization burn for the deploying satellites."
New technology that is powered by liquid oxygen and liquid methane likely left a mark similar to a STEVE.
Other companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX will also be using similar rockets, so more "fake STEVEs" could be showing up.
