Rocket Trail at Sunset
Explanation:
Bright light from a setting Sun and pale glow from a rising Moon
both contribute to this stunning picture of a rocket exhaust trail
twisting
and drifting in the evening sky.
Looking west, the digital telephoto view was recorded from
Table Mountain Observatory
near Wrightwood California,
USA on September 19, four days before the autumnal
equinox.
The rocket, a
Minuteman III
solid fuel missle, was far down range when image was taken.
Launched from
Vandenberg Airforce Base it carried
its test payload thousand of miles out over the Pacific Ocean.
The red/orange color
from the setting Sun dramatically intensifies
near the top of the rocket trail, but below the sunset line,
the very bottom of the trail is faintly illuminated from the
east by a nearly
full Moon.
Still in full sunlight, the bright diffuse cloud at the top of the
trail, the result of a rocket stage separation, is tinged with
rainbows likely produced by high altitude ice crystals forming
in the exhaust plume.
Astronomer
James Young
comments that the cloud takes on the
appearance of a white dove flying from right to left
across the sky.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
