NASA rocket going to blast colored clouds into space

Don't be alarmed if you see colorful clouds in the sky!
Business Insider

If the skies are clear enough, the sounding rocket carrying the experiment will launch from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. In that case, many people on the US East Coast — as far north as New York City — may see brightly colored puffs of "tracer vapors" more than 90 miles above Earth. The psychedelic space clouds should appear low on the southern horizon about 5 minutes after the rocket launch.

We'll have to wait and see how many extra-terrestrial post ATS gets tomorrow. The science behind this is pretty interesting.

The experiment is one of many missions in an international "Grand Challenge" initiative aimed at helping scientists probe two gaping holes in Earth's protective magnetic shield, called cusps.

Wow, you mean we're leaking air? Who knew?

The two holes in our invisible shield leak nearly 100 tons of air per day, according to Astronomy Now. The magnetic bubble that surrounds our planet is vital to life, since it deflects the sun's constant wind of high-energy particles — and protects against the occasional solar storm. Without this invisible force field, Earth may have gone the way of Mars, which lost its magnetic dynamo billions of years ago. That allowed the sun to blow most of the Martian atmosphere into deep space, turning a once wet and potentially habitable world into a dry and nearly airless global desert.

But, before you panic...

We won't run out of air anytime soon (thankfully, our planet has quadrillions of tons left), but scientists are still struggling to understand how the cusps work. In particular, they want to make them visible — which is where the colored clouds come into play.

Live feed:

If the launch does happen (though we don't necessarily recommend getting your hopes up), you can watch NASA Wallops' live video stream in the player below starting around 8:30 p.m. EDT.

See the article for a live feed.

a reply to: LogicalGraphitti

Cool thread thank you.

What will this do the the flat earthers?

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: LogicalGraphitti

Cool thread thank you.

What will this do the the flat earthers?

I think they're color blind. The sky will still be just shades of grey.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: LogicalGraphitti

Cool thread thank you.

What will this do the the flat earthers?

what will this do to the 'chemtrail people' is the real question.

Oh, I think the chemtrail folks will love it. I can think of all kinds of conspiracies in this. However, I believe this is research and not something nefarious.

a reply to: LogicalGraphitti

Update: Due to poor weather conditions, NASA delayed the launch to Sunday, June 18, between 9:05 and 9:20 p.m. EDT.

Oh well, maybe they want it done a night so people don't freak out?? I just noticed it is raining in virginia though, maybe it would have cause colored rain??

a reply to: worldstarcountry

They're doing it at night so it's easier to see the tracer. And no, it's going to be far above the level rain forms at.

I had my kids out front to watch twice during the past week.
Each time, the countdown went to T minus 3 minutes and held because of clouds.
I hope it works out soon.
We have watched other Wallops Island launches before from our home in eastern PA.

To bad Obama's out or they'd be rainbow colored clouds with actual unicorns trotting across them.

It didn't make it last night. Next launch window will be from 9:05 to 9:20 p.m. ET. tonight. Let's hope it makes it.
CNN

Four to five minutes after launch, the sounding rocket is expected to deploy 10 canisters about the size of soft drink cans, each containing a colored vapor that forms artificial, luminescent clouds.

The whole mission will last about eight minutes before the payload lands in the Atlantic Ocean, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) out to sea from its launch point in Virginia. "The vapor tracers could be visible from New York to North Carolina and westward to Charlottesville, Virginia," NASA said.

Wish I was in the the area to see it.

Red dye #?

a reply to: BigBangWasAnEcho

No, lithium and tri-methyl aluminum into the upper stratosphere.

Warming up for Project Blue Beam?

/gazes around

/throws onion

/runs

I'm watching the movie Supervalcano linked from the Yellowstone thread. It must have me spooked. I'm all of a sudden getting bad feelings about colored clouds. Ridiculous, I know!