Space fireworks

[reyfer]

People in Japan this Sunday evening were treated to a “space fireworks” show consisting of three balls of red light in the sky, each glowing as bright as the moon.

These luminous orbs were the result of three clouds of lithium vapor released into the ionosphere by a rocket launched in an experiment to study the atmosphere. The red glow was caused by sunlight striking the lithium vapor clouds as they disperse. “In the first few seconds after each lithium release, the light should become as large and bright as the moon,” says team member Masayuki Yamamoto, a professor at Kochi University of Technology.

Here are some photos of the event, and an animation, taken from the Tokushima-Kainan Observatory

[nop]

This is cool.  Does Space Shuttle have something similar?  May be they mostly lift off during daytime?

[bokunosonzai]

One could have easily mistaken this as an alien invasion. Well...maybe

[reyfer]

One could have easily mistaken this as an alien invasion. Well...maybe

LOL!!!!

It was announced on radio, TV and newspapers well in advance just to avoid people panicking, and the experiment was originally scheduled for saturday and was moved to sunday and it was announced all friday, saturday and sunday morning. Otherwise people would have really thought something strange was going on.

[frblckstr1]

This is cool.  Does Space Shuttle have something similar?  May be they mostly lift off during daytime?

They are also lifting-off at night time, I have a very nice HD-TV capture of one of the latest of that.

The space shuttle make a trail, not seperate clouds so no it will not do the same.

[kwanleekwan]

so cool!

[aginor]

It's The Aliens !!    That was looks like their main laser canon !!! They are coming to eat our brains !!!

[RatBastich]

Helluva display to light up the night.
Must have really been something to see in person.