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By USH
Some time ago, while visiting the Grand Canyon in Arizona, a photographer captured several short video clips of the landscape. In one of those clips, an unusual anomaly was discovered.
The original footage is only 1.9 seconds long, but within that moment, something remarkable was caught on camera. An unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) flashed across the frame, visible for less than a second, only noticeable when the video was paused and analyzed frame by frame.
The object was moving at an astonishing speed, covering an estimated two to three miles in under a second, far beyond the capabilities of any conventional aircraft, drone, or helicopter.
This isn’t the first time such anomalous flying objects have been observed. Their characteristics defy comparison with known aerial technology.
Some skeptics have proposed that the object might have been a rock thrown into the canyon from behind the camera. However, that explanation seems unlikely. Most people can only throw objects at speeds of 10 to 20 meters per second (approximately 22 to 45 mph). The velocity of this object far exceeded that range, and its near-invisibility in the unedited video suggests it was moving much faster.
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By NASA
5 min read
NASA Launching Rockets Into Radio-Disrupting Clouds
NASA is launching rockets from a remote Pacific island to study mysterious, high-altitude cloud-like structures that can disrupt critical communication systems. The mission, called Sporadic-E ElectroDynamics, or SEED, opens its three-week launch window from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands on Friday, June 13.
The atmospheric features SEED is studying are known as Sporadic-E layers, and they create a host of problems for radio communications. When they are present, air traffic controllers and marine radio users may pick up signals from unusually distant regions, mistaking them for nearby sources. Military operators using radar to see beyond the horizon may detect false targets — nicknamed “ghosts” — or receive garbled signals that are tricky to decipher. Sporadic-E layers are constantly forming, moving, and dissipating, so these disruptions can be difficult to anticipate.
An animated illustration depicts Sporadic-E layers forming in the lower portions of the ionosphere, causing radio signals to reflect back to Earth before reaching higher layers of the ionosphere. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab Sporadic-E layers form in the ionosphere, a layer of Earth’s atmosphere that stretches from about 40 to 600 miles (60 to 1,000 kilometers) above sea level. Home to the International Space Station and most Earth-orbiting satellites, the ionosphere is also where we see the greatest impacts of space weather. Primarily driven by the Sun, space weather causes myriad problems for our communications with satellites and between ground systems. A better understanding of the ionosphere is key to keeping critical infrastructure running smoothly.
The ionosphere is named for the charged particles, or ions, that reside there. Some of these ions come from meteors, which burn up in the atmosphere and leave traces of ionized iron, magnesium, calcium, sodium, and potassium suspended in the sky. These “heavy metals” are more massive than the ionosphere’s typical residents and tend to sink to lower altitudes, below 90 miles (140 kilometers). Occasionally, they clump together to create dense clusters known as Sporadic-E layers.
The Perseids meteor shower peaks in mid-August. Meteors like these can deposit metals into Earth’s ionosphere that can help create cloud-like structures called Sporadic-E layers. NASA/Preston Dyches “These Sporadic-E layers are not visible to naked eye, and can only be seen by radars. In the radar plots, some layers appear like patchy and puffy clouds, while others spread out, similar to an overcast sky, which we call blanketing Sporadic-E layer” said Aroh Barjatya, the SEED mission’s principal investigator and a professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. The SEED team includes scientists from Embry-Riddle, Boston College in Massachusetts, and Clemson University in South Carolina.
“There’s a lot of interest in predicting these layers and understanding their dynamics because of how they interfere with communications,” Barjatya said.
A Mystery at the Equator
Scientists can explain Sporadic-E layers when they form at midlatitudes but not when they appear close to Earth’s equator — such as near Kwajalein Atoll, where the SEED mission will launch.
In the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, Sporadic-E layers can be thought of as particle traffic jams.
Think of ions in the atmosphere as miniature cars traveling single file in lanes defined by Earth’s magnetic field lines. These lanes connect Earth end to end — emerging near the South Pole, bowing around the equator, and plunging back into the North Pole.
A conceptual animation shows Earth’s magnetic field. The blue lines radiating from Earth represent the magnetic field lines that charged particles travel along. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab At Earth’s midlatitudes, the field lines angle toward the ground, descending through atmospheric layers with varying wind speeds and directions. As the ions pass through these layers, they experience wind shear — turbulent gusts that cause their orderly line to clump together. These particle pileups form Sporadic-E layers.
But near the magnetic equator, this explanation doesn’t work. There, Earth’s magnetic field lines run parallel to the surface and do not intersect atmospheric layers with differing winds, so Sporadic-E layers shouldn’t form. Yet, they do — though less frequently.
“We’re launching from the closest place NASA can to the magnetic equator,” Barjatya said, “to study the physics that existing theory doesn’t fully explain.”
Taking to the Skies
To investigate, Barjatya developed SEED to study low-latitude Sporadic-E layers from the inside. The mission relies on sounding rockets — uncrewed suborbital spacecraft carrying scientific instruments. Their flights last only a few minutes but can be launched precisely at fleeting targets.
Beginning the night of June 13, Barjatya and his team will monitor ALTAIR (ARPA Long-Range Tracking and Instrumentation Radar), a high-powered, ground-based radar system at the launch site, for signs of developing Sporadic-E layers. When conditions are right, Barjatya will give the launch command. A few minutes later, the rocket will be in flight.
The SEED science team and mission management team in front of the ARPA Long-Range Tracking and Instrumentation Radar (ALTAIR). The SEED team will use ALTAIR to monitor the ionosphere for signs of Sporadic-E layers and time the launch. U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command On ascent, the rocket will release colorful vapor tracers. Ground-based cameras will track the tracers to measure wind patterns in three dimensions. Once inside the Sporadic-E layer, the rocket will deploy four subpayloads — miniature detectors that will measure particle density and magnetic field strength at multiple points. The data will be transmitted back to the ground as the rocket descends.
On another night during the launch window, the team will launch a second, nearly identical rocket to collect additional data under potentially different conditions.
Barjatya and his team will use the data to improve computer models of the ionosphere, aiming to explain how Sporadic-E layers form so close to the equator.
“Sporadic-E layers are part of a much larger, more complicated physical system that is home to space-based assets we rely on every day,” Barjatya said. “This launch gets us closer to understanding another key piece of Earth’s interface to space.”
By Miles Hatfield
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Jun 12, 2025 Related Terms
Heliophysics Goddard Space Flight Center Heliophysics Division Ionosphere Missions NASA Centers & Facilities NASA Directorates Science & Research Science Mission Directorate Sounding Rockets Sounding Rockets Program The Solar System The Sun Uncategorized Wallops Flight Facility Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics Explore More
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By NASA
ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a sparkling cloudscape from one of the Milky Way’s galactic neighbors, a dwarf galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud. Located 160,000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa, the Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest of the Milky Way’s many small satellite galaxies.
This view of dusty gas clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud is possible thanks to Hubble’s cameras, such as the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) that collected the observations for this image. WFC3 holds a variety of filters, and each lets through specific wavelengths, or colors, of light. This image combines observations made with five different filters, including some that capture ultraviolet and infrared light that the human eye cannot see.
The wispy gas clouds in this image resemble brightly colored cotton candy. When viewing such a vividly colored cosmic scene, it is natural to wonder whether the colors are ‘real’. After all, Hubble, with its 7.8-foot-wide (2.4 m) mirror and advanced scientific instruments, doesn’t bear resemblance to a typical camera! When image-processing specialists combine raw filtered data into a multi-colored image like this one, they assign a color to each filter. Visible-light observations typically correspond to the color that the filter allows through. Shorter wavelengths of light such as ultraviolet are usually assigned blue or purple, while longer wavelengths like infrared are typically red.
This color scheme closely represents reality while adding new information from the portions of the electromagnetic spectrum that humans cannot see. However, there are endless possible color combinations that can be employed to achieve an especially aesthetically pleasing or scientifically insightful image.
Learn how Hubble images are taken and processed.
Text credit: ESA/Hubble
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray
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By NASA
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 4 min read
Sols 4549-4552: Keeping Busy Over the Long Weekend
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on May 23, 2025 — Sol 4548, or Martian day 4,548 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 07:17:19 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University
Earth planning date: Friday, May 23, 2025
In Wednesday’s mission update, Alex mentioned that this past Monday’s plan included a “marathon” drive of 45 meters (148 feet). Today, we found ourselves almost 70 meters (230 feet) from where we were on Wednesday. This was our longest drive since the truly enormous 97-meter (318-foot) drive back on sol 3744.
Today’s plan looks a little different from our usual weekend plans. Because of the U.S. Memorial Day holiday on Monday, the team will next assemble on Tuesday, so an extra sol had to be appended to the weekend plan. This extra sol is mostly being used for our next drive (about 42 meters or 138 feet), which means that all of the science that we have planned today can be done “targeted,” i.e., we know exactly where the rover is. As a result, we can use the instruments on our arm to poke at specific targets close to the rover, rather than filling our science time exclusively with remote sensing activities of farther-away features.
The rover’s power needs are continuing to dominate planning. Although we passed aphelion (the farthest distance Mars is from the Sun) a bit over a month ago and so are now getting closer to the Sun, we’re just about a week away from winter solstice in the southern hemisphere. This is the time of year when Gale Crater receives the least amount of light from the Sun, leading to particularly cold temperatures even during the day, and thus more power being needed to keep the rover and its instruments warm. On the bright side, being at the coldest time of the year means that we have only warmer sols to look forward to!
Given the need to keep strictly to our allotted power budget, everyone did a phenomenal job finding optimizations to ensure that we could fit as much science into this plan as possible. All together, we have over four hours of our usual targeted and remote sensing activities, as well as over 12 hours of overnight APXS integrations.
Mastcam is spending much of its time today looking off in the distance, particularly focusing on the potential boxwork structures that we’re driving towards. These structures get two dedicated mosaics, totaling 42 images between the two of them. Mastcam will also observe “Mishe Mokwa” (a small butte about 15 meters, or 49 feet, to our south) and some bedrock troughs in our workspace, and will take two tau observations to characterize the amount of dust in the atmosphere.
ChemCam has just one solo imaging-only observation in this plan: an RMI mosaic of Texoli butte off to our east. ChemCam will be collaborating with APXS to take some passive spectral observations (i.e., no LIBS) to measure the composition of the atmosphere. Mastcam and ChemCam will also be working together on observations of LIBS activities. This plan includes an extravagant three LIBS, on “Orocopia Mountains,” “Dripping Springs,” and “Mountain Center.” Both Mastcam and ChemCam also have a set of “dark” observations intended to characterize the performance of the instruments with no light on their sensors, something that’s very important for properly calibrating their measurements.
Our single set of arm activities includes APXS, DRT, and MAHLI activities on “Camino Del Mar” and “Mount Baden-Powell,” both of which are bedrock targets in our workspace.
Of course, I can’t forget to mention the collection of Navcam observations that we have in this plan to monitor the environment. These include a 360-degree survey looking for dust devils, two line-of-sight activities to measure the amount of dust in the air within Gale, and three cloud movies. As always, we’ve also got a typical collection of REMS, RAD, and DAN activities throughout.
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Last Updated May 27, 2025 Related Terms
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By USH
On the night of Friday, May 16, something extraordinary lit up the skies over the American Southwest. A brilliant, fast-moving streak of light that captivated onlookers from Arizona to Colorado.
Witnesses in towns such as Safford, Fountain Hills, and Payson, as well as regions of New Mexico and Colorado, were left asking the same question: What exactly did we just see?
Speculation spread rapidly. Some suggested a Chinese rocket launch earlier that day could be responsible, possibly placing satellites into orbit. Others floated more exotic theories: perhaps STEVE, a rare atmospheric light phenomenon similar to the aurora borealis, or even a “light pillar,” formed when light reflects off high-altitude ice crystals.
Attempts to reach officials at Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in southern Arizona, and Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque have so far yielded no response.
What if it wasn’t a rocket plume from a Chinese launch at all? What if something entirely different passed near our planet, like a comet or UFO, or perhaps it was a test of a space-based weapon or a directed-energy system?
Whatever it may have been, it remains a strange phenomenon, leaving many to wonder what truly streaked across the sky.
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