An eerie blood-red ball of light was recently photographed in the night sky over Texas after SpaceX launched a rocket carrying a satellite into space. An increasingly common phenomenon, Known as “SpaceX Aurora” It’s the result of a dying rocket tearing a hole in the atmosphere.
On April 10, at around 3:15 a.m. EST, photographer Abdur Anwar spotted a bright sky over Big Bend National Park in southern Texas. of light. The light quickly disappeared from the view of the naked eye. But Anwar used a smartphone camera to take a long-exposure image, capturing the faint blob before it disappeared completely. However, according to him, he “can’t explain” what it was. Instagram post.
Anwar successfully captured the tail end of an aurora-like phenomenon caused by a hole in the ionosphere, the upper layer of the atmosphere 50 to 370 miles (80 to 600 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface where gases This transformation occurs via solar radiation into plasma. But the hole is not naturally formed. According to reports, it was born when one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets fell back to Earth. Space Weather Network.
The rocket carrying 23 Starlink satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at about 1:40 a.m. ET, about 90 minutes before Anwar spotted the light. Space Network reports.
After separation from the rocket’s reusable booster, the remainder of the spacecraft deployed the satellite into low Earth orbit. According to Spaceweather.com, the now-decommissioned rocket then began to deorbit and burn, landing in the Pacific Ocean. This is done to minimize the amount of space debris in Earth’s orbit.
During the deorbit burn, the rocket releases water and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which react with ionized oxygen atoms to produce conventional oxygen, temporarily reducing the amount of plasma in the ionosphere. This transformation excites these molecules and causes them to emit light. This light has the same red wavelength as the aurora emitted by oxygen atoms, but quickly disappears as the molecules reionize.
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The phenomenon is becoming increasingly common, especially over Texas and surrounding states, where rockets launched from Florida begin to deorbit and burn up.
Astronomers observe “two to five of these phenomena every month” above McDonald Observatory in West Texas, says observatory researcher Stephen Hummel previously told Spaceweather.com.
SpaceX rockets can also create larger ionospheric holes when launched into space.For example, in July 2023, the Falcon 9 rocket Creates a giant red streak over Arizona after launching from Space Force Base Vandenberg, California.
When rockets deorbit, they can create other visually stunning light shows, such as the “SpaceX Spiral.” These glowing vortices are created when fuel dumped by a spacecraft freezes outside the atmosphere, forming a swirl of ice crystals that reflect sunlight back to the surface.One of these striking wonders is Taken from the air in Iceland in March this year.
As far as we know, these visual phenomena are harmless and have no long-term effects on our atmosphere. However, researchers are concerned about the rocket’s frequent deployment of payloads in space.
Starlink satellites have proven to be a nuisance for astronomers because of their ability to light-bomb telescopes, disrupting radio astronomy.This problem is also could get worse As more and more satellites enter orbit.
There are also concerns about what impact these satellites and other space debris may have on our atmosphere when they inevitably fall back to Earth. Researchers have noticed that The amount of metal particles left in our skies As spacecraft burns up as it re-enters the atmosphere, some are even warning of this pollution May destabilize our planet’s magnetic fieldalthough this has not yet been confirmed.
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Image Source : www.livescience.com