March 12, 2024
You share your birthday with the light of distant galaxies that has been traveling for millions of years just to arrive here, now, alongside...
A Galaxy-Shaped Rocket Exhaust Spiral
Birthday · March 12, 2024
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APOD published March 12, 2024. Credit: Seung Hye Yang. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
What's that over the horizon? What may look like a strangely nearby galaxy is actually a normal rocket's exhaust plume -- but unusually backlit. Although the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, USA, its burned propellant was visible over a much wider area, with the featured photograph being taken from Akureyri, Iceland. The huge spaceship was lifted off a week ago, and the resulting spectacle was captured soon afterward with a single 10-second smartphone exposure, before it quickly dissipated. Like noctilucent clouds, the plume's brightness is caused by the Twilight Effect, where an object is high enough to be illuminated by the twilight Sun, even when the observer on the ground experiences the darkness of night. The spiral shape is caused by the Falcon rocket reorienting to release satellites in different directions. Stars and faint green and red aurora appear in the background of this extraordinary image.
Image credit: Seung Hye Yang