SPACE– A SpaceX rocket that was not in orbit punched a hole in the upper atmosphere, creating a bright blob of light in the sky. Scientists have warned that the ‘SpaceX aurora’, which looks like a ball of blood-red light, could cause unknown problems.
Over decades, rocket launches into space punched holes in the upper ionosphere. The ionosphere is the part of the atmosphere between 80 and 644 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, where gases ionize, or release electrons. Ionospheric holes can stimulate gas molecules in the atmosphere and trigger bright red streaks like aurora lights.
For example, in July, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying Starlink satellites into orbit, blew a hole over Arizona that bloodied the sky. And, in September, a US Space Force rocket accidentally blew a hole in the ionosphere over California, which created a faint red glow.
Now, astronomers at the McDonald Observatory in Texas have seen a red glow similar to m that appeared after SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket left Earth’s atmosphere. This light is the result of an ionospheric hole created by the rocket’s secondary booster as it falls back to Earth.
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“Astronomers saw SpaceX’s first aurora above the observatory in February, and now they see 2 to 5 auroras each month,” said Stephen Hummel, astronomer and outreach program coordinator at McDonald Observatory. “The red ball, he said, was very bright and easily visible to the naked eye,” he said.
Rising rockets and non-orbiting boosters trigger ionospheric holes by releasing fuel into the ionosphere. This causes the ionized oxygen atoms to recombine, or change back into regular gas molecules.
This transformation excites the molecules so that they release red light, similar to when gas is excited by solar radiation during aurora displays. This essentially creates a hole in the surrounding plasma, or ionized gas. But the recombined molecules will ionize, which closes the hole within 10 to 20 minutes.
SpaceX’s de-orbit thruster releases fuel during a brief burn. This is to direct falling debris to land in the Atlantic Ocean.
Just like larger light shows, ionospheric holes pose no danger to life on the Earth’s surface. “However, its impact on astronomy is still being evaluated. As a result, it is becoming an increasing concern among researchers,” he said.
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Changes in the ionosphere can also interfere with shortwave radio communications and interfere with GPS signals, Spaceweather.com.
The red blob isn’t the only light show created by SpaceX’s rocket. The company’s rocket booster rotates and dumps its remaining fuel into space before de-orbiting, creating a cloud of tiny ice crystals.
These crystals can sometimes reflect sunlight back to Earth. The flaming fuel also creates bright spirals in the night sky, known as SpaceX spirals.
2023-11-29 23:00:00
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