獨特的發射：
UNIQUE LIFTOFF:
Veteran observers agree, yesterday's launch of space shuttle Discovery was something special. "I've seen some truly spectacular shuttle launches since Columbia first rocketed into space in 1981, but the launch of STS-131 was in a whole new category," says Jonathan Sabin of Ellenton, Florida. He took this picture and explains the elements of it below:
"Standing alone at the edge of a deserted cow pasture, I watched in awe as the craft first appeared over a line of trees about a quarter mile away. I was transfixed by the towering, backlit exhaust plume," says Sabin. "Next, something happened that I had never witnessed before. About half-minute or so after the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) separated, a plume appeared around the craft itself. A moving, nebulous 'blob' expanded and twisted as Discovery arched its way back toward the horizon en route to orbit."
The show continued even after the shuttle was out of sight. Ice crystals in Discovery's lingering exhaust caught the rays of the rising sun and formed a noctilucent cloud of startling brightness. "In all my 30 years of watching noctilucent clouds, I never have seen one like this," says astronomer Jacob Kuiper, who got a close-up view of the phenomenon from the Kennedy Space Center's Press Site. "The shuttle exhaust plume turned into a magnificent panorama of color."
more images: from Doug Shytle, PhD of Cape Canaveral, Florida; from Pete Lardizabal of Canaveral National Seashore Park, FL; from Dan Gore of Titusville, Florida; from William Hartenstein of Kennedy Space Center, FL; from Chuck Pek of Cocoa Beach, Florida; from Jacob Kuiper at the Kennedy Space Center's press site; from Mark Staples of Waldo, Florida; from George Fleenor of Bradenton, FL; from Anna Herbst on the NASA Causeway, Titusville, FL; from Terry Allshouse of Leesburg, Florida; from Jim Burchfield of Saint Cloud, Florida; from Adam Bojanowski of Oviedo, Florida; from Jeremy Judkins of Clearwater, Florida;
http://spaceweather.com/
發現號穿梭機的夜光雲
Shuttle Discovery's Noctilucent Clouds
Jacob Kuiper
Image taken:
Apr. 5, 2010
Location:
Cape Canaveral, Press-site Kennedy Space Center
Details:
What an impressive sight!!! In all the 30 years of watching noctilucent clouds, I never have seen something like this. The Shuttle exhaust plume turned into a magnificent colorful panorama. Still under immense impressions of the Shuttle launch some minutes before at the Press-site of Kennedy Space Center, this new chapter in events developed for our eyes. The lowest clouds, turned pink and orange, because of the first rays of sunlight. The higher in the sky the more the colors transferred into yellow, white and blue. The enormous amount of water vapor produced in the burning processes of the Shuttles external tank (oxygen and hydrogen) very rapidly formed a tremendous mass of ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. And thes
e crystals reflected the solar rays so efficiently that many had the show of their life! in the background the famous countdown clock.
http://www.spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Jacob-Kuiper-SpaceShuttle-noctilucent-and-mother-of-perl-clouds_1270508002.jpg
http://www.spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Doug-Shytle-Ph.D.-serpent-eating-tail-following-04_05_10-shuttle-p1_1270519614.jpg
http://www.spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Jeremy-Judkins-04050647a_1270474314.jpg在發射時的STS -119夜光雲
STS-119 NOCTILUCENT CLOUD AT LAUNCH
http://aim.hamptonu.edu/outreach/sts119.html
怪雲
末日雲
墨西哥和以色列天空中的怪現象
怪雲8：海嘯跟隨著死亡之雲
甚麼來的9： 雲結構抑或是人造的？
怪雲11：黑龍江出現恐怖奇異天象
怪雲12：兩個太陽和真假雲在倫敦上空
怪雲14：極移怪雲
發現號開始絕唱之旅 人類首個太空機器人升空
1 則留言:
Rocket launch prompts calls of strange lights in sky
September 20, 2009 -- Updated 0935 GMT (1735 HKT)
CNN affiliate stations from New Jersey to Massachusetts heard from dozens of callers who reported that the lights appeared as a cone shape shining down from the sky.
However, the lights were the result of an experimental rocket launch by NASA from the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, a spokesman told CNN.
Keith Koehler said the Black Brant XII Suborbital Sounding Rocket was launched to study the Earth's highest clouds. The light came from an artificial noctilucent cloud formed by the exhaust particles of the rocket's fourth stage about 173 miles high.
Natural noctilucent clouds, also called "polar mesospheric clouds," are "found in the upper atmosphere as spectacular displays that are most easily seen just after sunset," according to a NASA statement published earlier in September. "The clouds are the highest clouds in Earth's atmosphere, located in the mesosphere around 50 miles altitude."
Normally, noctilucent clouds are not visible to the naked eye and can only be seen when illuminated by sunlight below the horizon. The launch took place at 7:46 p.m. Saturday, just as the sun was setting for the day.
Observation stations on the ground and in satellites will track the artificial noctilucent clouds created by the rocket for months, NASA said.
"Data collected during the experiment will provide insight into the formation, evolution, and properties of noctilucent clouds, which are typically observed naturally at high latitudes.
"In addition to the understanding of noctilucent clouds, scientists will use the experiment to validate and develop simulation models that predict the distribution of dust particles from rocket motors in the upper atmosphere," the NASA statement said.
Source::
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/09/20/strange.lights/index.html?eref=edition_us&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fedition_us+%28RSS%3A+U.S.%29
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