NASA Rocket Catches Night Sky Viewers' Attention In NJ

If you were outside Wednesday around 10 p.m. you may have seen an odd squiggle in the sky as a NASA rocket launched from Virginia soared into the atmosphere.

That weird squiggle was the TOMEX+ — the Turbulent Oxygen Mixing Experiment Plus Vehicle — a sounding rocket that was sent into the sky on a mission to investigate what NASA officials referred to as one of Earth’s most turbulent atmospheric regions, called the mesopause.

The mesopause is a portion of the atmosphere from about 53 to 65 miles above the Earth's surface, and is the coldest layer of the Earth's atmosphere, NASA officials said. There, clouds called icy noctilucent, or "night-shining" form, and temperatures drop to nearly minus-148 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 100 degrees Celsius).

"The mesopause is a mixing ground where weather patterns from the lower atmosphere transfer energy upward into space, fueling turbulence that can increase drag on satellites," NASA's description of the mission said.

"This layer’s role linking Earth to space makes it a priority for research," NASA said, but "it is difficult to access, too high for weather balloons and too low for satellites. Many of its mysteries can only be explored using sounding rockets, which can be precisely aimed to reach specific altitudes."

The rocket, which was launched about 10:40 p.m. captured the attention of people in southern New Jersey. Paul Jeffrey of Toms River shared photos he captured of the rocket from Ortley Beach.

Social media posters shared images of the rocket from as far inland as Marlton, where Timmy Smith captured the rocket's circular trail in the sky.

"It was amazing to see this Rocket Launch from Marlton NJ," Smith wrote. "The vapor tracers in the sky looked like fireworks traces."

Andrew Gibson shared video of the rocket on Facebook, noting that it appeared like it was going to crash. "That was scary if you weren't expecting it," he wrote.

Jackie Varner shared photos from the Salem County Fairgrounds in Pittsgrove, and Marty Racioppi shared ones from Port Murray in Mansfield Township, Warren County, showing the rocket doing nearly a complete circle.

NASA said the mission was focused on a layer of atomic sodium in the atmosphere that peaks at about 56 miles altitude.

"This sodium layer forms from the constant influx of dust grain-sized meteors that burn up in the sky," NASA said. "A specialized laser aboard the TOMEX+ rocket, tuned to a wavelength that excites sodium atoms, will cause the sodium layer to fluoresce. This glowing band then becomes a natural tracer for atmospheric motions, allowing scientists to track its bends, ripples, and swirls as energy moves through the upper atmosphere."

The launch consisted of three rockets, with one carrying a lidar (light detection and ranging) instrument. That was launched after the first two rockets, launched within one minute of each other, that released the vapor tracers that created the patterns New Jersey residents saw.

And just like residents across New Jersey, the scientists were photographing the resulting patterns from the ground to map upper-atmospheric wind patterns.

The rocket with the lidar was launched about 5 minutes after the two vapor tracing rockets, with the lidar instrument sending out short pulses of visible light at a wavelength absorbed and re-emitted by atomic sodium.

"By analyzing the returned light, scientists can measure atmospheric density and motion over time," NASA said, providing "the clearest 3D view yet of turbulence at the edge of space, improving our understanding of high-altitude cloud formation, satellite drag, and even atmospheric processes on other planets."