The jellyfish: rocket plumes at twilight (Florida, California, Texas, and far beyond)

A launch 20–40 minutes after sunset or before sunrise puts the rocket's exhaust in sunlight high above a dark ground. The expanding plume glows white and blue, spreads into a cone or a "jellyfish" with trailing tendrils, and drifts for 10–20 minutes. It is visible for a thousand kilometers or more, so people in Georgia, the Carolinas and the Bahamas regularly see Cape Canaveral launches, and Arizona and Nevada see Vandenberg.

What people report: a glowing cloud, a comet, a spotlight in the sky, "a portal". What it is: a Falcon 9 second stage, most nights.

Every case checks Launch Library 2 for launches within 90 minutes and 2,500 km, with the pad's direction from you and whether twilight geometry allowed the plume. The stamp is "Rocket, not Roswell".