This clip of Sheffield’s night sky shows the large, glowing spiral that appeared over parts of the UK yesterday evening.

The eerie, brightly-lit cloud-like shape appeared for several minutes at around 8pm before fading and is believed to have been caused by leftover fuel by a SpaceX rocket launch in the US.

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The spiral, believed to be from a SpaceX rocket launch, was spotted in the skies above Doncaster. Photo: Amy Bird/Video: Al West).

placeholder image — The spiral, believed to be from a SpaceX rocket launch, was spotted in the skies above Doncaster. Photo: Amy Bird/Video: Al West).

The BBC reports the Falcon 9 rocket from Elon Musk's space company lifted off around 13:50 local time in Florida (17:50 GMT) on a classified US government mission.

The Falcon 9 rocket, which is reusable, is designed to return to Earth and ejects any leftover fuel as it does so. The fuel freezes instantly due to the altitude, creating a spiral pattern caused by the rocket's movement.

Watch the clip from Sheffield resident Nathan Walsh, who said his eldest lad Harry spotted and filmed the spiral.