The luminous trail from SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, launched on July 23rd carrying NASA’s twin Tracers mission satellites, lit up the skies over Italy’s Abruzzo region. Italian landscape and astrophotographer Andrea Curzi captured the glowing cone left by the rocket’s second stage from Campo Imperatore (L’Aquila), hours after its departure from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
“The trajectory and high-altitude solar illumination made the phenomenon visible as a luminous cone extending as far as Italy, where I took this image,” noted Curzi. “Additionally, the Milky Way is visible on the right, with the Andromeda galaxy and Polestar perfectly centered in the photograph.”
The Tracers mission will study Earth’s magnetic field and its disruption during geomagnetic storms. The twin satellites will specifically monitor magnetic reconnection – a process occurring when solar wind triggers the breaking and reconnecting of magnetic field lines. The research aims to mitigate impacts of solar activity, which can disrupt satellite navigation, power grids, radio communications, and Earth-orbiting satellites.
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