The lack of deformation of the pattern is where I balk too. Growing up in southern california we viewed *lots* of rocket and missile trails from Vandenburg AFB and none ever came even close to maintaining a shape for more than an instant.
If someone wants to propose that this still image was taken at the most incredibly opportune instant then I could maybe buy it after having seen the youtube explanation, etc. But I'm still having trouble accepting this completely. It just seems too perfect over too long a time. But....?
It does deform, with the larger (earlier and closer) loops blowing away.
*shrug* The contortions of the smoke trails at Vandeland are due to high altitude winds.
I recall watching one during the boost phase and it formed a perfect cone once it left the atmosphere, so much so that for a moment I thought it was the diverging beam of a spotlight.
No idea what it would have looked like from something close to directly behind.
I read somewhere that this is a timed exposure, dunno if that is accurate, but if it is the longer exposure should have blurred the spiral into a featureless disc.
As for The Comedian’s excellent point about the pinwheel not being distorted by the down range motion of the missile?
Good point. The only way I can save my beautiful theory from ugly facts is to insist that all the spinning happened over a very short time...