The LAMP mission, short for Loss through Auroral Microburst Pulsations, launched on Saturday, Marc 5, 2022, aboard a Black Brant IX suborbital sounding rocket. The mission will study an often overlooked kind of aurora, called a pulsating aurora, and test a theory on what causes them.
Like all aurora, a pulsating aurora is
set alight by electrons (and occasionally protons) from near-Earth space. These
electrons plunge into our atmosphere and collide with atoms and molecules,
causing them to glow in their distinctive colors – red and green by oxygen,
blue by nitrogen – as they release their excess energy.
Image Credit: NASA
Source: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/launching-to-study-pulsating-aurora
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