NASA experiment to colour the skies over the US East Coast
A high-flying science
experiment may colour the skies above the US mid-Atlantic coast with bluish
green and red clouds on Sunday evening, as NASA seeks to learn more about
charged particles at the top of Earth's atmosphere.
A small rocket carrying 10
canisters of barium and other chemicals is due to lift off from Wallops Island,
Virginia between 9:04 and 9:19 p.m. EDT.
About five minutes after
launch the canisters, which are about the size of soda cans, will release
blue-green and red vapours that will gather into artificial clouds potentially
visible from New York to North Carolina.
The luminescent colours are
due to sunlight interacting with the chemicals barium, strontium and
cupric-oxide, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration said on its
website.
Although the flight will
last about eight minutes, the colourful clouds could linger for 20 minutes,
depending on atmospheric conditions.
NASA ground stations at
Wallops Island and Duck, N.C., will track the clouds so scientists can learn
more Earth's ionosphere, a layer at the top of the atmosphere of charged
particles that shoot out into space, creating effects including auroral
displays over the planet's polar regions.
Scientists want to learn
more about how the ionosphere interacts with other layers of the atmosphere.
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