Apparently, I live in a Starship flight path. During spring, my son and I saw a half doz launch artifacts during our nightly walks. There were long trails and a sort of slow-forming starburst that persisted for a minute or so.
Polizeiposaune•42m ago
Starship has only launched four times this year (January 16, March 6, May 27, and August 26) at around 23:00 UTC (5pm CST/6pm CDT) each time.
It is likely that you saw other rockets (Falcon 9 being the most frequently launched). The "slow-forming starburst" is most likely from the exhaust plume in vacuum; once the rocket is high enough to no longer be in earth's shadow the plume catches sunlight and becomes very visible on the ground to an observer in darkness. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_jellyfish
WarOnPrivacy•1h ago
Polizeiposaune•42m ago
It is likely that you saw other rockets (Falcon 9 being the most frequently launched). The "slow-forming starburst" is most likely from the exhaust plume in vacuum; once the rocket is high enough to no longer be in earth's shadow the plume catches sunlight and becomes very visible on the ground to an observer in darkness. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_jellyfish