Captured in style! SpaceX's dying Falcon 9 rocket appeared as 'dashed' line of a luminous streak

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is on a rocket launching spree with dozens of rockets being launched in the past week over the skies of the United States. In one such occurrence, a fascinatingphoto of a rocket’s trail while falling back to Earth was captured in the night sky over Arizona.

With some clever photo tricks, the rocket’s trail in the sky looked like a perfect dashed line of luminous streak, a treat to the eyes.

On Saturday (Mar 30), SpaceX launched two of their Falcon 9 rockets in less than four hours, as reported by Space.com. Both the rockets were carrying Starlink satellites. The first rocket was launched at 5:52 EDT from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and another took off at 9:30 pm EDT from Cape Canaveral Space Force Center.

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After the launch, rockets deploy their payloads and start for their second phase, in which the main part of the rocket separates from its reusable boosters. During this stage, the rockets went in a controlled deorbit burn, which caused them to fall back toward Earth and burn up in the planet’s upper atmosphere.

It was at this moment that photographer Jeremy Perez was ready with his camera to capture the deorbit burns. Though he missed the fall of the first rocket as it was heavily clouded in Arizona at that time, he managed to capture the second rocket. As the second rocket started its manoeuvre, Perez captured this stunning image of the deorbiting debris (as sent to Spaceweather.com).

Dashed lines of a luminous streak captured in the sky

In the image, as you can see, a dashed continuous line of luminous streak can be seen. This was not how the rocket looked in reality, but Perez’s multiple long-exposure shots of the ignited second stage made them look like this. The breaks seen in the luminous streak are the points where the camera’s shutter was closed.

In real-time, the appearance was somewhat different. "It looked like a delicate, cometary dandelion poof drifting overhead," Perez told Spaceweather.com. The light also appeared white in real-time instead of the bright blues seen in the photos, he added.

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If you zoom in close enough, you can also see a second simmer line alongside the falling space junk. This streak is made up of light from the satellites developed by the rocket, which were drifting alongside it before it started its final manoeuvre.

With SpaceX’s back-to-back launches in the recent past, these visuals are becoming a common sight for people in the States. Some people have also spotted SpaceX spirals, which are swirls of light created by the frozen rocket fuel ejected from one of the deorbiting Falcon 9 boosters.

(With inputs from agencies)