For the last month, NASA had been waiting for the right moment to launch clouds of red and blue-green vapor out into space.
On June 29, that moment finally came. A NASA sounding rocket launched at 4:25 a.m. EST from the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, and shot out 10 canisters about the size of a soda can, according to the agency.
The cans deployed blue-green and red vapor, which brightly colored puffs of " tracer vapors " that were seen from New York to North Carolina. These clouds allow scientists on the ground to visually track how and where particles move in space.
Here's what the clouds looked like:
The rocket was originally supposed to launch on May 31, but poor visibility and bad weather conditions delayed the mission a number of times. These space clouds weren't merely for show, however.
The experiment was one of many missions in an international " Grand Challenge " initiative aimed at helping scientists probe two gaping holes in Earth's protective magnetic shield, called cusps.
The two holes in our invisible shield leak nearly 100 tons of air per day, according to Astronomy Now. Read more...
On June 29, that moment finally came. A NASA sounding rocket launched at 4:25 a.m. EST from the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, and shot out 10 canisters about the size of a soda can, according to the agency.
The cans deployed blue-green and red vapor, which brightly colored puffs of " tracer vapors " that were seen from New York to North Carolina. These clouds allow scientists on the ground to visually track how and where particles move in space.
Here's what the clouds looked like:
The rocket was originally supposed to launch on May 31, but poor visibility and bad weather conditions delayed the mission a number of times. These space clouds weren't merely for show, however.
The experiment was one of many missions in an international " Grand Challenge " initiative aimed at helping scientists probe two gaping holes in Earth's protective magnetic shield, called cusps.
The two holes in our invisible shield leak nearly 100 tons of air per day, according to Astronomy Now. Read more...