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Astronomy Picture of the Day - Rocket Transits Rippling Moon
NASA ^ | 2 Jan, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: Steven Madow

Posted on 01/02/2024 1:13:55 PM PST by MtnClimber

Explanation: Can a rocket make the Moon ripple? No, but it can make a background moon appear wavy. The rocket, in this case, was a SpaceX Falcon Heavy that blasted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center last week. In the featured launch picture, the rocket's exhaust plume glows beyond its projection onto the distant, rising, and nearly full moon. Oddly, the Moon's lower edge shows unusual drip-like ripples. The Moon itself, far in the distance, was really unchanged. The physical cause of these apparent ripples was pockets of relatively hot or rarefied air deflecting moonlight less strongly than pockets of relatively cool or compressed air: refraction. Although the shot was planned, the timing of the launch had to be just right for the rocket to be transiting the Moon during this single exposure.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; astronomy; falcon9; nasa; science; spacex
To be added or removed from the Astronomy Picture of the Day ping list please send me a request via "Private Reply" (Mail).

For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

1 posted on 01/02/2024 1:13:55 PM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 01/02/2024 1:14:10 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; Agatsu77; America_Right; ...
Pinging the APOD list.

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔


3 posted on 01/02/2024 1:14:51 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Why is the moon rippling? That’s not normal is it?

Why does the moon have hair on it’s bottom in that picture?

Is the cheese growing mold?


4 posted on 01/02/2024 1:20:13 PM PST by DannyTN
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To: MtnClimber

Eerie.


5 posted on 01/02/2024 1:25:57 PM PST by No name given (Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: DannyTN

thermal waves

You have to realize that this shot was taken zoom wayyy in on the moon. There is a LOT of heat coming off the rocket in the foreground and because of the high mangification it’s bleeding over the light coming from the moon.


6 posted on 01/02/2024 1:26:18 PM PST by z3n (Kakistocracy)
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To: z3n

No, the old thing just needs a shave...


7 posted on 01/02/2024 1:33:46 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: DannyTN

I guess I could have read the excerpt.

The moon is rippling because Fred Sanford has been drinking ripple.

It’s got hair on it’s bottom for the same reason.


8 posted on 01/02/2024 1:35:27 PM PST by DannyTN
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To: DannyTN

The cheese is melting.


9 posted on 01/02/2024 2:06:52 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

The connections of the boosters to main body hardly look strong enough to lift it all.

I wonder if the main engine has to be lifting part of the weight to hold it all together?


10 posted on 01/02/2024 3:02:58 PM PST by doorgunner69 (When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty)
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To: MtnClimber

Making the Moon drip sweat!


11 posted on 01/02/2024 3:04:52 PM PST by Nateman (If the Pedo Profit Mad Moe (pig pee upon him!) was not the Antichrist then he comes in second.)
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To: MtnClimber

As Robert Zimmerman of http://behindtheblack.com likes to point out, SpaceX has become as reliable as the airline industry. The European Space Agency, NASA, the United States Department of Defense, and even Amazon has hired SpaceX to deliver people, cargo, satellites, etc to space. If the Hussein/Biden Regime would get out of the way, Starship and Superheavy might be operational by now. During the first President Trump administration, SpaceX was testing aspects of Starship and Superheavy almost monthly. The FAA, FCC, even the Federal Fish & Game departments are delaying much of it. Hussein/Biden Regime even sued SpaceX for NOT HIRING non-citizens and illegals. The DOD & State Department contracts with SpaceX FORBID hiring such persons, but the Feds sued anyway.


12 posted on 01/02/2024 3:41:31 PM PST by Ronaldus Magnus III (Do, or do not, there is no try)
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To: MtnClimber

THAT is a cool picture. Thank you.


13 posted on 01/02/2024 9:28:48 PM PST by HeadOn (Love God. Lead your family. Be a man.)
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