‘Wormhole’ Spotted Over Alaska Was Actually a Science Experiment

Apr 10, 2025

Matt Growcoot

A glowing, ring-shaped phenomenon appears in the night sky, surrounded by scattered stars. The ring emits a soft white light, creating a striking contrast against the dark background. — Vapor tracers from a rocket, launched March 29, 2025, formed a halo visible over central Alaska. | UAF photo by Eric Marshall

A giant “wormhole” that appeared in the skies of Alaska a couple of weekends ago may have worried some folks on the ground. They needn’t have feared, it was actually a successful science experiment.

Photographers on the ground captured the enormous swirling ring that measured roughly 70 miles high and 15 miles wide.

A snowy landscape with silhouetted trees under the green glow of the Northern Lights. A bright spiral pattern appears in the sky. A camera on a tripod is in the foreground, capturing the scene. — Vapor tracers as seen from Venetie, Alaska, ground observation station.

Silhouetted pine trees under a night sky featuring ethereal streaks and orbs of blue and green light. Stars are faintly visible in the background, adding to the serene and mystical atmosphere. — Vapor tracers as seen from Venetie, Alaska, ground observation station.

The wormhole came from a sounding rocket launched in Fairbank on March 28. The launch came from a mission called “AWESOME” — which stands for Auroral Waves Excited by Substorm Onset Magnetic Events. Space Weather reports that the team has launched three sounding rockets into the aurora borealis.

“The ring was spectacular. It was extremely bright and absolutely unmissable,” Mark Conde, a space physics professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, says on AWESOME’s interactive mission website.

“Anyone who was outside at the time and looked up would have been treated to a visually, stunning and appealing display in the sky.”

A night sky featuring the aurora borealis with green and red hues, stars scattered throughout. Faint, colorful lights are visible near the center of the image above the silhouetted horizon of rolling hills. — Vapor tracers as seen from Eagle, Alaska, ground observation station.

A vivid green aurora borealis shines in the night sky, with delicate curtains of light stretching across the scene. A few stars are visible, adding to the celestial display. — Vapor tracers as seen from Eagle, Alaska, ground observation station.

Night sky featuring auroras and bright, mysterious light formations resembling jellyfish. The foreground shows equipment set up on a snowy landscape, likely for sky observation or photography. — Vapor tracers as seen from Toolik, Alaska, ground observation station.

“This very clean ring shape was easy to track. Looking at the way it distorted over time gives us a detailed view of local-scale motions in the atmosphere,” Conde adds.

The AWESOME project aims to learn how auroras make the upper atmosphere move like boiling water. Usually, the top layer of the atmosphere — the thermosphere — doesn’t have convection because it’s hotter at the top and cooler below, which stops that kind of motion.

But when auroras appear, they can heat the lower part of the thermosphere, shaking things up like a pot on a stove. The AWESOME rockets release vapors to track this movement, which can affect satellites and navigation systems.

A glowing white circular object and a faint arc shape are visible against a starry night sky. The surrounding area is dark, highlighting the mysterious illuminated forms. — UAF photo by Eric Marshall

“Change in composition of the atmosphere has consequences for communication, navigation, and spacecraft operations,” Conde says on the AWESOME website. “And we need to know the extent of those consequences.”

Conde tells Space Weather that the mission has been a success and the team is now combing through the data.

Image credits: University of Alaska Fairbanks