A spiral formation what looked like a “mini” galaxy appeared in her night sky Alaska in the early hours of saturday.

Enthusiasts of night observation recording the Northern Lights were surprised at the sight of the strange celestial formation.

Todd Salat has been photographing the northern lights for years, even taking the name “The Aurora Hunter”. But just before 2 a.m., he experienced a “first bright wheel in the sky” that he said floated through the lights and over Donnelly Dome near Delta Junction, just southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska.

He photographed the mysterious shape, which appeared to be a giant and glowing spiral galaxy hovering just above a mountain in the middle of green auroras. And he wasn’t the only one.

Miles away in northwest Alaska, Elizabeth Withnall had a similar sight.

“I saw the craziest thing in the sky,” he wrote on Facebook. “I always see strange things in the sky, but this was uncanny.”

He also captured images showing the same massive object in stark contrast to the night sky.

Withnall said she hoped the mysterious spiral would lead to the appearance of a spaceship and aliens, but according to Don Hampton of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, this event is not exactly related to UFOs.

Instead, he told The Associated Press it was actually something he’s seen about three times himself — fuel being ejected from a rocket.

“When they do this at high altitudes, that fuel turns into ice. And if it happens to be in the sunlight, when you’re in the dark on the ground, you can see it as a kind of big cloud and sometimes they’re swirling,” he said, adding: “It’s not a galaxy…It’s just water vapor that it reflects sunlight.”

This is the result of excess fuel released from a SpaceX rocket that launched from California about three hours earlier from Vandenberg Space Base. According to Space.com, the Falcon 9 rocket was carrying more than 50 satellites and lifted off at 2:48 am. ET.

The fuel dump happened at just the right time for it to be visible over Alaska, Hampton said, “and we have this really nice spiral thing.”

Photo Source: AuroraHunter Facebook