APOD: Launch of the IXPE Observatory (2021 Dec 22)

[APOD Robot]

Launch of the IXPE Observatory

Explanation: Birds don't fly this high. Airplanes don't go this fast. The Statue of Liberty weighs less. No species other than human can even comprehend what is going on, nor could any human just a millennium ago. The launch of a rocket bound for space is an event that inspires awe and challenges description. Pictured here, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida earlier this month carrying the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). IXPE is scheduled to observe high-energy objects such as neutron stars, black holes, and the centers of distant galaxies to better determine the physics and geometries that create and control them. From a standing start, the 300,000+ kilogram rocket ship lifted IXPE up to circle the Earth, where the outside air is too thin to breathe. Rockets bound for space are now launched from somewhere on Earth every few days.

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[Ann]

Ann

[Blastov]

I LOVE the ripples creating the squiggles. i wonder if the bigger squiggles in any way represent the sound pressure arriving from the rocket roar

[trumanmc]

It could be the sound from the rocket shacking the camera. I saw STS-87 Shuttle launch from 2 miles away and it was like something was pounding my chest!

[sir_oki]

APOD 22 December 2021 satellite launch annotated.png

Hello Ann, I'm the original photographer.

1. I'm not sure what star that is, I might be able to determine that based on my coordinates and time. I'll look into it.
2. Yes, the first stage of Falcon 9 is separated there. After Main Engine Cutoff (MECO), the first stage separates and the gridfins guide it towards the droneship. The fainter trail is Falcon's second stage, which is a single vacuum engine.
3. The ripples were caused by me moving out of the water and fish swimming around. The ripples were discrete, so there wasn't a lot of interaction to produce a blur that you might be used to seeing. The lack of wind helped with that as well.

[orin stepanek]

Nice photo of rocket launch! A Lot to watch here

Explanation: Birds don't fly this high. Airplanes don't go this fast. The Statue of Liberty weighs less. No species other than human can even comprehend what is going on, nor could any human just a millennium ago. The launch of a rocket bound for space is an event that inspires awe and challenges description. Pictured here, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida earlier this month carrying the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). IXPE is scheduled to observe high-energy objects such as neutron stars, black holes, and the centers of distant galaxies to better determine the physics and geometries that create and control them. From a standing start, the 300,000+ kilogram rocket ship lifted IXPE up to circle the Earth, where the outside air is too thin to breathe. Rockets bound for space are now launched from somewhere on Earth every few days.

Very interesting APOD today

[neufer]

APOD 22 December 2021 satellite launch annotated.png

Hello Ann, I'm the original photographer.

1. I'm not sure what star that is, I might be able to determine that based on my coordinates and time. I'll look into it.

2. Yes, the first stage of Falcon 9 is separated there. After Main Engine Cutoff (MECO), the first stage separates and the gridfins guide it towards the droneship. The fainter trail is Falcon's second stage, which is a single vacuum engine.

3. The ripples were caused by me moving out of the water and fish swimming around. The ripples were discrete, so there wasn't a lot of interaction to produce a blur that you might be used to seeing. The lack of wind helped with that as well.

(daughter) Judith Shakespeare's mark: a squiggle with two loops.

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Shakespeare's six surviving signatures

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Why do Will & daughter Judith Shakespeare's
. signatures look so strange & wiggly
--------------------------------------------------------
Shakespeare's REAL literate daughters:
............................................
Aemelia (The Comedy of Errors)
Anne Page (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing)
Bianca (The Taming of the Shrew)
Calpurnia (Julius Caesar)
Celia (As You Like It)
Cleopatra (Antony and Cleopatra)
Cordelia (King Lear)
Desdemona (Othello)
Eleanor (King John)
Emilia (Othello)
Gertrude (Hamlet)
Gonerill (King Lear)
Helena (A Midsummer Night's Dream; All's Well That Ends Well)
Hermia (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
Hermione (The Winter's Tale)
Hero (Much Ado About Nothing)
Imogen (Cymbeline)
Isabella (Henry V; Measure for Measure)
Jacquenetta (Love's Labour's Lost)
Julia (The Two Gentlemen of Verona)
Juliet (Romeo and Juliet; Measure for Measure)
Katharina (The Taming of the Shrew)
Lavinia (Titus Andronicus)
Luciana (The Comedy of Errors)
Mab (Romeo and Juliet)
Margaret (Much Ado About Nothing; Henry VI. 1-3, Rich3)
Maria (Twelfth Night)
Miranda (The Tempest)
Nerissa (The Merchant of Venice)
Nell (The Merry Wives of Windsor; Henry IV: 1-2; Henry V)
Octavia (Antony and Cleopatra)
Olivia (Twelfth Night)
Ophelia (Hamlet)
Paulina (The Winter's Tale)
Perdita (The Winter's Tale)
Phebe (As You Like It)
Portia (The Merchant of Venice; Julius Ceasar)
Quickly (Henry IV 1; The Merry Wives of Windsor)
Regan (King Lear)
Rosalind (As You Like It)
Silvia (The Two Gentlemen of Verona)
Tamora (Titus Andronicus)
Thaisa (Pericles, Prince of Tyre)
Titania (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
Ursula (Much Ado About Nothing)
Viola (Twelfth Night)
Virgilia (Coriolanus)
Volumnia (Coriolanus)
-------------------------------------

[Ann]

APOD 22 December 2021 satellite launch annotated.png

Hello Ann, I'm the original photographer.

1. I'm not sure what star that is, I might be able to determine that based on my coordinates and time. I'll look into it.
2. Yes, the first stage of Falcon 9 is separated there. After Main Engine Cutoff (MECO), the first stage separates and the gridfins guide it towards the droneship. The fainter trail is Falcon's second stage, which is a single vacuum engine.
3. The ripples were caused by me moving out of the water and fish swimming around. The ripples were discrete, so there wasn't a lot of interaction to produce a blur that you might be used to seeing. The lack of wind helped with that as well.

Thank you for your explanation!

Ann

[johnnydeep]

APOD 22 December 2021 satellite launch annotated.png

Hello Ann, I'm the original photographer.

1. I'm not sure what star that is, I might be able to determine that based on my coordinates and time. I'll look into it.
2. Yes, the first stage of Falcon 9 is separated there. After Main Engine Cutoff (MECO), the first stage separates and the gridfins guide it towards the droneship. The fainter trail is Falcon's second stage, which is a single vacuum engine.
3. The ripples were caused by me moving out of the water and fish swimming around. The ripples were discrete, so there wasn't a lot of interaction to produce a blur that you might be used to seeing. The lack of wind helped with that as well.

Thank you for your explanation!

Ann

Yes, though I still don't understand the statement about the ripples: "The ripples were discrete, so there wasn't a lot of interaction to produce a blur that you might be used to seeing." What would the reflection look like if the water was a solid mirror instead? Wouldn't it be just as blurry as the rocket trail in the air?

[Fred the Cat]

Actually quite apropos! The bright area looks like an eye. The reflection is what we see now and above; a clearer view.

[neufer]

I still don't understand the statement about the ripples: "The ripples were discrete, so there wasn't a lot of interaction to produce a blur that you might be used to seeing." What would the reflection look like if the water was a solid mirror instead? Wouldn't it be just as blurry as the rocket trail in the air?

The reflection off a solid mirror would be just as blurry as the rocket trail in the air.

• By spreading the brightest part of the rocket nozzle flame rapidly around
  as well a dimming it by ineffective water reflection the moving streak is less saturated
  and less obscured by the more lasting but dimmer parts of the flame.
  
  The ripple structure is probably mostly the result of two discrete surface waves
  propagating in perpendicular directions as in a "Blackburn double pendulum":

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

<<A Blackburn pendulum is a device for illustrating simple harmonic motion, it was named after Hugh Blackburn, who described it in 1844. This was first discussed by James Dean in 1815 and analyzed mathematically by Nathaniel Bowditch in the same year. A bob is suspended from a string that in turn hangs from a V-shaped pair of strings, so that the pendulum oscillates simultaneously in two perpendicular directions with different periods. The bob consequently follows a path resembling a Lissajous curve; it belongs to the family of mechanical devices known as harmonographs. The drawings created typically are Lissajous curves or related drawings of greater complexity. Mid-20th century physics textbooks sometimes refer to this type of pendulum as a double pendulum.>>

Blackburn double pendulum in slow-mo.

[johnnydeep]

I still don't understand the statement about the ripples: "The ripples were discrete, so there wasn't a lot of interaction to produce a blur that you might be used to seeing." What would the reflection look like if the water was a solid mirror instead? Wouldn't it be just as blurry as the rocket trail in the air?

The reflection off a solid mirror would be just as blurry as the rocket trail in the air.

• By spreading the brightest part of the rocket nozzle flame rapidly around
  as well a dimming it by ineffective water reflection the moving streak is less saturated
  and less obscured by the more lasting but dimmer parts of the flame.
  
  The ripple structure is probably mostly the result of two discrete surface waves
  propagating in perpendicular directions as in a "Blackburn double pendulum":

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

<<A Blackburn pendulum is a device for illustrating simple harmonic motion, it was named after Hugh Blackburn, who described it in 1844. This was first discussed by James Dean in 1815 and analyzed mathematically by Nathaniel Bowditch in the same year. A bob is suspended from a string that in turn hangs from a V-shaped pair of strings, so that the pendulum oscillates simultaneously in two perpendicular directions with different periods. The bob consequently follows a path resembling a Lissajous curve; it belongs to the family of mechanical devices known as harmonographs. The drawings created typically are Lissajous curves or related drawings of greater complexity. Mid-20th century physics textbooks sometimes refer to this type of pendulum as a double pendulum.>>

Blackburn double pendulum in slow-mo.

Cool. Very interesting similar effect and probable cause of the squiggles in the APOD!