New NASA video shows dazzling details of a rocket test as never before
The power of a rocket booster firing is a sight to behold, but even the most keen-eyed rocket launch viewer won't be able to pick out the intricate details of a rocket's plume.
Now, a video from NASA shows those details in a dazzling new fashion.
To the naked eye and most cameras, a rocket plume looks something like yellow-tinted fire coming from a booster's engine, but this new video reveals something much more dramatic.
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The video, taken by a new, advanced NASA camera, shows an almost purple plume emanating from the booster of NASA's Space Launch System rocket during a test on Jun 28.
The rocket motor NASA tested is designed to be part of the world's most powerful rocket system ever built.
On the ground, and via webcast, the plume looked something like this:
But the new camera -- named NASA’s High Dynamic Range Stereo X (HiDyRS-X) project -- took "multiple, slow motion video exposures" of the rocket test at the same time, allowing scientists to combine that footage into something much more "dynamic," according to a NASA press release.
"Rocket motor plumes, in addition to being extremely loud, are also extremely bright, making them difficult to record without drastically cutting down the exposure settings on the camera," NASA said in a statement.
"Doing so, however, darkens the rest of the image, obscuring other important components on the motor."
The new method HiDyRS-X employs allows all parts of the image to be exposed perfectly, giving scientists and engineers a more complete look at what the rocket plume is doing -- and therefore how a rocket is performing -- during a test.
NASA is hoping to eventually use this booster and others like it to send people farther into the solar system than ever before.
The rocket is powerful enough to bring people to the moon, Mars and maybe beyond.
The space agency is planning to send humans to the red planet sometime in the 2030s, assuming technology development and Congressional funding comes through.
Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
