Strange white streak of light was photographed for 10 minutes in U.S. skies

A bright white streak cut across the night above the western and central United States on May 17, 2025, resembling a massive smoke plume.

But smoke plumes don’t glow, and this strange event lingered for about 10 minutes, showing up in long exposure images from Colorado to New Mexico and beyond.

The display arrived on a night when a geomagnetic storm energized the skies, following a coronal mass ejection (CME) that grazed Earth and pushed auroras unusually far south.

“Fuel dump from the upper stage, at about 250 km altitude,” wrote Astronomer Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CFA), identifying the culprit as exhaust from a Chinese rocket’s upper stage.

Rocket exhaust smoke plume

The exhaust plume looked like a smooth ribbon of smoke with crisp edges, not the rippling curtains that people associate with auroras.

It stood still to the eye because it was so high that small changes in position were hard to notice over short periods.

At that altitude, the sky was already sunlit even though observers stood in darkness. Tiny crystals and droplets in the plume scattered sunlight back to the ground, so the streak glowed white instead of green or red.

Upper stages often vent leftover propellant before reentry, a routine procedure called a fuel dump.

The vented gases rapidly expand in vacuum, cool, and condense into a cloud of microscopic particles that can reflect sunlight long after local sunset.

At roughly 155 miles up, the cloud spread along the rocket’s path. The geometry lined up so that sunlight struck the particles and bounced toward viewers across several states.

Not “Steve,” and why it matters

Some skywatchers guessed the plume was STEVE, a narrow band sometimes seen alongside auroras. STEVE is not a classic aurora, and its color and timing differ from the common green arcs seen at high latitudes.

Peer reviewed work has shown that STEVE’s optical behavior, including its characteristic purple band and brief life, is distinct from stable red arcs and other auroral forms. The white, sunlit rocket plume did not match those properties.

Rocket exhaust smoke made the plume

Hours before the plume appeared over the U.S., LandSpace’s Zhuque-2E lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. The mission carried six satellites to low-Earth orbit.

The Zhuque-2 family became notable in 2023 when a predecessor reached orbit using methane and liquid oxygen.

The current E variant is an upgraded, expendable launcher designed to place medium payloads into precise orbits without leaving large debris.

Methane matters for rockets

LandSpace powers the Zhuque-2E with methalox, a mix of liquid methane and liquid oxygen.

This choice reduces soot formation compared with kerosene, simplifies engine reuse, and enables long coast phases without propellant degradation.

Methane is attractive for future exploration because it can be synthesized from carbon dioxide and hydrogen on other worlds.

Engineers highlight that flexibility for missions that may rely on local resources rather than hauling all fuel from Earth.

The plume showed up during active conditions that pushed auroras far south into the continental U.S.

Aurora visibility shifts when solar particles disturb Earth’s magnetic field and ionosphere, raising the chance of unusual sky events.

A G2 classification corresponds to a Kp index of about 6. That level is strong enough to bring auroras to mid latitudes and trigger power grid adjustments, yet it rarely causes widespread disruptions.

Didn’t resemble a smoke plume

At first glance, the white band looked like an odd auroral form because it crossed the sky near active northern lights.

The confusion was reasonable, since STEVE often appears alongside auroras and lasts less than an hour.

The timeline settled the question. The launch occurred earlier that night in China, the upper stage dumped propellant near orbital altitude, and sunlight caught the plume while the ground remained dark, matching the observation sequence.

Commercial rockets fly often, and each mission has its own flight plan and disposal method. Fuel venting protects satellites and debris from residual pressure and reduces the chance of fragmentation.

People notice these plumes more today because cameras are better, social media spreads alerts quickly, and space traffic has increased.

Crowdsourced photos help researchers and forecasters verify what satellites and radar already detect.

Smoke plumes vs. auroras

Color and motion offer simple clues. Auroras tend to glow green or red and shimmer as charged particles excite atmospheric gases, while sunlit plumes look white and change slowly.

Context matters too. If a recent launch placed satellites into low-Earth orbit, and a narrow, static band shows up near twilight, a sunlit exhaust plume is a good bet.

Observatories, amateur networks, and official alerts can provide quick corroboration after the fact.

These events are harmless to people on the ground. They can, however, briefly affect radio propagation when exhaust interacts with the upper atmosphere, though the effect is usually localized and short-lived.

For satellite operators, fuel management and disposal remain part of responsible mission design. Transparent notices help the public understand unusual sights without mistaking them for hazards.

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