Astonishing new video from NASA shows a rather incredible sight in the night sky off the coast of Virginia recently.
If you looked to the east toward the Atlantic Ocean anywhere from New York all the way down to North Carolina, you probably witnessed something truly remarkable. NASA launched a rocket that spewed out gigantic colorful clouds, and the spectacular show was visible in the early morning hours from a wide range of the East Coast on Jun e29.
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility released video, embedded at the bottom of this post, that shows some incredible imagery of colorful vapor puffs that were either red or bluish green released from small canisters the size of soda cans. The colorful clouds were meant to probe two large holes in the magnetic field of Earth that scientists call cuffs.
The 10 canisters produced what are called “tracer vapors” and they were visible from many miles away. Scientists were able to track where the particles moved in space thanks to the vibrant colors.
“July 4 fireworks came early when a NASA Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket was successfully launched at 4:25 a.m., Thursday, June 29, from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia,” NASA said in a statement. “During the 8-minute flight, 10 canisters about the size of a soft drink can were ejected in space, 6 to 12 miles away from the 670-pound main payload. The canisters deployed blue-green and red vapor that formed artificial clouds visible from New York to North Carolina. During an ionosphere or aurora science mission, these clouds, or vapor tracers, allow scientists on the ground to visually track particle motions in space.”
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