|
Credit & Copyright: Jerry Lodriguss
(Catching the Light)
Explanation:
On March 27, five
sounding
rockets leapt into early morning skies from NASA's
Wallops
Flight Facility in Virginia.
Part of the Anomalous Transport Rocket EXperiment
(ATREX),
begining at 4:58 am EDT the
rockets launched consecutively
at 80 second intervals.
Releasing a chemical tracer they created luminous white clouds
within Earth's
ionosphere
at altitudes above 60 to 65 miles, swept along by the poorly understood
high-altitude jet stream.
(Not the same jet stream that airliners fly through at altitudes of 5
to 6 miles.)
Seen along
the mid-atlantic region of the United States,
the clouds drifted through starry skies,
captured in this clear photograph from East Point, New Jersey.
Looking
south toward the launch site, the tantalizing
celestial background includes the stars of Sagittarius, Scorpius, and
the more permanent faint, white, luminous clouds of
the Milky Way.
|
January February March April May June July August September October November December |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day