Skywatchers along Florida’s Space Coast got an eyeful last week when they spotted what appeared to be glowing, multicolored sea creatures drifting overhead. More “space jellyfish” could be coming soon.

The stunning sight was thanks to a visual phenomenon where sunlight brightly illuminates high-altitude rocket plumes around sunrise or sunset, creating undulating shapes akin to giant jellyfish.

“What looks like a sea creature drifting through the night sky is actually rocket exhaust interacting with the thin upper atmosphere and catching sunlight before the sun rises or sets over the horizon,” NASA said on Instagram .

The space jellyfish with wispy trails that shimmered above Florida on Tuesday resulted from a Falcon rocket headed to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s 35th commercial resupply services mission for NASA. The Falcon 9 exhaust plumes could be seen across the eastern and southeastern United States.

The CRS-35 mission lifted off at 6:33 a.m. ET from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, carrying an uncrewed Dragon spacecraft loaded with more than 6,300 pounds of scientific investigations, supplies and equipment for the ISS. The Dragon craft docked on October 15 after a flight of about 52 hours and will spend approximately a month on the space station before departing and splashing down off the California coast.

While the mission launch could advance science, it also delivered a spectacular show.

“Moments like these remind us that spaceflight is not only about exploration and science, but also about inspiring awe in everyone who looks up,” NASA said when releasing images of the effect several days after the CRS-35 mission launch.

The response to the space jellyfish on social media made it clear just how much awe the sight inspired.

“That was one of the most spectacular things I’ve ever seen,” Theo Jordan of St. Augustine, Florida, wrote on X “Wow!!”

“The space jellyfish is one of the most beautiful things to witness,” wrote Christopher Stanley . “What’s even cooler is the science behind it.”

More Space Jellyfish On The Way?

Poor weather conditions for booster recovery scrapped another Falcon 9 rocket launch scheduled for Monday morning. The launch set for the Bandwagon-5 mission is now set for Tuesday, which potentially means more space jellyfish to spark wonder soon. Keep an eye on the Space Jellyfish Predictor , a website created by photographer John Kraus, for forecasts of when and where the phenomenon might be visible.

The model evaluates the positions of the observer, rocket and sun to estimate whether a rocket plume will catch sunlight, how high it will appear above the horizon and how visible it will be against the surrounding sky. As of this writing, the site rates the chances as “very likely” that the Bandwagon-5 mission’s Falcon 9 rocket will produce another round of these otherworldly formations.