Even if you live with your
head in the clouds, you won’t find a
jellyfish like this one very often.
The
featured image shows a
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch from
Cape Canaveral in
Florida on March 4.
The launch h/day/pened 52 minutes before
sunrise, and the
second stage rocket exhaust plume was high enough in the sky to catch the light of the
rising sun, while the photographer was still in the dark.
This combination of light and shadow, possible at
dawn or dusk, makes the exhaust, mostly
water vapor and
carbon dioxide, appear as a glowing cloud.
It only looks like it's going down, as the rocket follows the
curvature of the Earth on its way to
space.
A related effect is the
twilight phenomenon, which causes colorful
contrails sometimes
mistaken for UFOs.
But, in case you are wondering: real
jellyfish were sent to space by
NASA in the 1990s as part of a
science experiment.