A luminous object in the sky
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On Sunday evening, January 11, Internet users began mass publishing photos of a large, luminous ball that appeared in the sky over all of Poland. Some of them were received by the tvn24.pl editorial office. One of the reports was sent by Mrs. Justyna from Szczecin, who around 5.35 p.m she observed an unusual phenomenon in the sky. – You could see with the naked eye something flashing in the sky and then continuing to fly – the Internet user wrote, attaching a photo and a video. Her uncertainty and curiosity were shared by a large group of people.
What was the mysterious object over Poland?
The explanation appeared on social media thanks to Karol Wójcicki, popularizer of astronomy and author of the profile “With your head in the stars”. He said that the observed phenomenon was an effect launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Twilight mission. The rocket was launched on January 11, 2026 at 5:44 a.m. Pacific time, i.e. 2:44 p.m. Polish time, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
An impressive flight of the upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket
The launch was into a sun-synchronous orbit of the dusk-to-dawn type, in which satellites spend most of the time remain illuminated by sunlight. After launch, the upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket flew over Europe, including Poland. “During orbital maneuvers – including venting tanks and preparing for further operations – released a cloud of gases. This was illuminated by the Sun already below the horizon, which created the well-known, but always spectacular effect of a bright, spreading structure in the sky. This is the phenomenon we observed from Poland,” Karol Wójcicki explained on his profile.
Twilight mission and 40 satellites in orbit
The author of the profile also explained that the Twilight mission was a smallsat rideshare flight, i.e 40 small satellites were put into orbit in one launch belonging to different operators. This type of missions allows you to significantly reduce the costs of launching cargo into space and is now a standard in commercial space flights. Karol Wójcicki added that the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket safely returned to Earth and landed at Landing Zone 4 in Vandenberg. This was his fifth flight – previously he took part in, among others, in the Sentinel-6B mission and three Starlink satellite launches.
A spectacular but harmless phenomenon
Although the sight may have looked mysterious to many observers, experts emphasize that this type of phenomena are a known and completely harmless effect of space rocket launches. Under favorable conditions, they can be seen even hundreds of kilometers from the place of flight.
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Sources: tvn24.pl, Head in the stars (Facebook)
