Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket lights up California sky
15 replies, posted
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45782510
It's always fun to immediately search 'UFO' in Twitter after the ones that cause a light show.
https://twitter.com/annakonk/status/1049124123274764288?s=19
https://twitter.com/edgarangel98/status/1049125095011020800?s=19
Was visible all the way in Arizona.
https://twitter.com/stephonsjd/status/1049127186773377024?s=19
https://imgur.com/UDS9eiQ
One of the best shots of the whole thing. Looks amazing.
I saw it from my apartment. I wasn't expecting the huge burst of light when the second stage separated, shit was awesome to see. got a picture too
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/57926/932a35fe-f8df-4c2c-905f-68f6ff32dba5/photo_2018-10-07_19-31-51.jpg
Why does it look the way it does?
As the vehicle ascends over the Pacific it transcends the shadow of the Earth and the sun illuminates the exhaust as if it were day. The exhaust and attitude control gasses are moving at hypersonic velocities (read: really fucking fast) and fan out across the sky.
copied from reddit:
You're seeing condensation trails from the rocket exhaust. As the rocket fuel burns, it creates water vapor. That water vapor condenses and freezes in the upper atmosphere. It happened to show up very well in this launch because of the time of the launch. It was past sunset & dark on the ground, but the sunlight was still visible at the launch altitudes so you could see the faint reflections of the setting sun off the ice crystals. The colors were from the same reason sunsets give you crazy colors, the sunlight is filtered through much more atmosphere.
Same thing happened when the gov tested a ballistic missile over LA (or SF can't remember) and people panicked thinking it was a UFO.
Could barely see it because of nearby wildfires
Reminds me of this other cool shit
https://twitter.com/thejackbeyer/status/1026703531762315265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1026703531762315265&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fthejackbeyer%2Fstatus%2F1026703531762315265
A similar thing happens in nature around where I live. It's called polar stratospheric clouds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_stratospheric_cloud
Basically super high-altitude clouds that consist of ice crystals
Here's a photo of the phenomenon I took in 2015
https://www.flickr.com/photos/paul_simon/23474836099/in/dateposted-public/
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1049194290176352256
Landing pics like that first one are still seem like science fiction to me.
Here's the whole launch in 60 seconds:
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1049383091683319808
Just imagine when such amazing sights will be seen monthly or even weekly! It will be our civilization's own aurora.
That's whats really weird, if commercial space ever takes off for the private sector, it will be weird knowing when I was a kid, a rocket launch was seen as a testament to the bleeding edge of travel. But to a newer generation it would be an every day occurrence.
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