The American area agency, NASA, just lately shared an image of Earth’s airglow outlining the planet’s horizon with the Moon above. Within the picture shared on Instagram, the Earth seemed to be radiating the ‘airglow’ with the Moon laid almost at the middle above the surface.
The image was taken on November 14, from the International Area Station as it orbited 260 miles (418 km) above the mid-western United States.
“A view of Earth from the area station throughout orbital night time. The Moon is above earth almost centered above the floor. An airglow outlines the environment above Earth’s floor in a yellow shade,” wrote NASA whereas describing the image on Instagram.
Aside from the radiating Earth’s horizon, the citylights of Denver and Chicago lit up a wonderful sample of lights on the Earth’s surface.
“Lights from cities dot Earth’s floor – among them, a concentration of lights near the horizon determine the town of Chicago, whereas the focus of lights closer to the underside left determine Denve,” it added.
What’s airglow?
NASA describes ‘airglow’ as a phenomenon that occurs when atoms and molecules within the higher environment emit mild to shed their extra power.
It could possibly occur when atoms and molecules which were ionized by daylight collide with and capture a free electron. Because of constant collision, these atoms eject a particle of sunshine, referred to as a photon, making the phenomenon look just like that of auroras.
Nevertheless, auroras are the results of excessive-power particles originating from the solar wind, airglow is energized by strange, day-to-day photo voltaic radiation.
“Just like auroras, besides auroras are pushed by high-power particles originating from the photo voltaic wind – airglow is sparked by day-to-day photo voltaic radiation,” stated NASA in its Instagram publish.
Research of the Earth’s airglow supplies particulars of the upper environment’s temperature, density, and composition. It additionally helps in building an understanding of the motion of particles within the region.
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Up to date: 20 Nov 2023, 03:54 PM IST