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NASA’s Daredevil Rockets Hunt the Aurora’s Dark Side

In a bold mission launching this January, NASA scientists are sending rockets straight into one of nature’s most mesmerizing phenomena – the northern lights. Their goal? To solve the mysteries of flickering auroras and their enigmatic dark patches that seemingly swallow the light.

Two separate missions will launch from Alaska’s Poker Flat Research Range, targeting different types of aurora behavior that have long puzzled scientists. The missions aim to understand why some auroras flash like an old television set while others develop mysterious dark holes.

“It looks like the flickering of an old TV,” explains Robert Michell, a space physicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center who leads the GIRAFF mission. His team will investigate two distinct types of aurora: fast-pulsating auroras that flash several times per second, and flickering auroras that can pulse up to 15 times each second.

The serene ribbons of light that dance across northern skies actually result from countless tiny collisions, as electrons crash into atmospheric gases, leaving them glowing in their wake. The scientists aim to trace these electrons back to their source, much like investigators at a crash scene.

The missions face a unique challenge – hitting a moving target in the vast Alaskan sky. “We’ll be watching these structures moving in the all-sky camera, trying to time it just right,” says Michell. The rockets need about five minutes to reach their target altitude, requiring the team to predict where the aurora will be, not where it is when they launch.

A second mission, led by space physicist Marilia Samara, will investigate an even stranger phenomenon – the “black aurora,” where patches of darkness appear within the glowing lights. Recent research suggests these dark spots might form where electrons reverse course and escape back into space, but confirming this requires precise measurements.

“Otherwise that’s not black aurora, it is just the lack of aurora,” notes Samara, emphasizing the importance of detecting these escaping electrons to confirm the phenomenon.

The timing and execution of these launches demand both scientific precision and seasoned intuition. “You do the best you can, but there’s a certain mix of intuition and determination you need,” Samara explains. The teams will track aurora movements using ground-based cameras at the launch site and at an observatory in Venetie, Alaska, about 130 miles northeast.

These missions serve a greater purpose than pure scientific curiosity. Understanding these auroral behaviors helps NASA better comprehend the space environment surrounding Earth, which can affect both spacecraft and astronauts.

The launch window opens January 21, 2025, when these scientific detectives will take to the Alaskan skies, aiming to unravel some of nature’s most captivating mysteries. Their findings could reshape our understanding of Earth’s interaction with space and help protect our increasingly space-dependent civilization.


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