A SpaceX Starlink launch on July 19, 2023, punched a gap within the ionosphere, a layer of Earth’s ambiance. Whereas that is nothing new within the space age, the pink glow created within the aftermath drew the eye of astrophotographers. The SpaceX Starlink launch in query left Vandenberg Area Pressure Base in California at 9:09 p.m. PDT on July 19, 2023. The rocket plume at launch made for fairly a sight because it lit up a portion of the darkening sky (see picture under). Shortly after the rocket disappeared, a pink glowing blob appeared. As Tony Phillips at Spaceweather.com defined, punching a gap within the ionosphere is one thing SpaceX and others have been doing for years.
SpaceX launch creates fairly a sight
SpaceX Starlink launches are controversial, as they fill near-Earth orbit with ever extra satellites. However there’s no denying they placed on fairly a present. From the brilliant plume that trails behind the night rocket launches to the train of lights that cross the sky because the satellites journey to greater orbit, they garner quite a lot of consideration.
And you may add a pink, glowing blob to the record of phenomena that astrophotographers would possibly seize after a SpaceX launch. Simply final summer time, a SpaceX launch from Florida punched a gap within the ionosphere that photographers on the East Coast caught in their images. Some at first thought their cameras have been choosing up an aurora.
What does it imply to punch a gap within the ionosphere?
Spaceweather.com talked with Jeff Baumgardner of Boston College for a radical clarification of what the rocket is doing to the ionosphere. Baumgardner told Spaceweather.com:
It is a well-studied phenomenon when rockets are burning their engines 200 to 300 kilometers [125 to 185 miles] above Earth’s floor. The pink glow seems when exhaust gases from the rocket’s 2nd stage trigger the ionosphere to recombine rapidly.
Spaceweather.com elaborated:
Rocket engines spray water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) into the ionosphere, quenching native ionization by as a lot as 70%. A sophisticated sequence of cost trade reactions between oxygen ions (O+) and molecules from the rocket exhaust produce photons at a wavelength of 6300 Å … the identical shade as pink auroras.
Baumgardner additionally mentioned:
I reviewed footage from the July nineteenth launch. It exhibits the second stage engine burning at 286 kilometers [177 mi] close to the ionosphere’s F-region peak for that point of day. So, it’s fairly doable that an ionospheric ‘gap’ was made.
Is punching a gap within the ionosphere dangerous? Once more, Spaceweather.com had the reply:
Ham radio operators could discover [holes in the ionosphere] when shortwave alerts fail to skip over the horizon, taking pictures by way of holes as a substitute of bouncing again to Earth. Sudden GPS errors also can outcome from the anomalies. These results could also be troublesome, however they’re short-lived; re-ionization happens as quickly because the sun comes up once more.
Extra SpaceX launch pictures from the EarthSky Group
Marybeth Kiczenski additionally captured each the white glow from the SpaceX launch and the pink blob within the ionosphere afterward.
Right here’s the shot that Kamala captured of Starlink rocketing into space earlier than the pink blob appeared on her pictures.
Backside line: On July 19, 2023, astrophotographers captured an odd pink blob of their pictures, which turned out to be a SpaceX launch punching a gap within the ionosphere.
