SpaceX launches look strange enough that people think aliens are invading. We asked a professor why that is.
PHOENIX — Without fail, when a SpaceX rocket launches around sunset from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the 12News phones will start ringing."There was something that looked like a comet or an asteroid," said another voicemail.
He told 12News the reason those rockets light up the sky is not because the engines burn brightly , it's because of something called the Twilight Phenomenon. Basically, the rocket launches far away, in California. but it goes so high that we can see it in Arizona. And when we see it, it's not in the shadow of nightfall, even though Arizona is. The"glow" is sunlight hitting the exhaust trail, even while we perceive the sky to be black.
SpaceX typically launches to the southwest of Los Angeles at an angle to take it away from populated areas. The rockets tip at a certain point and fly more horizontally to the ground than vertically, almost in a dogleg path.
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