Samantha Mathewson joined Space.com as an intern in the summer of 2016. She received a B.A. in Journalism and Environmental Science at the University of New Haven, in Connecticut. Previously, her work has been published in Nature World News.
NASA plans to fly two rockets through active auroras to help study the unique ribbons of light that dance across the Alaskan night sky.
The rockets are expected to lift off from the Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska, as part of two missions led byrequires precise timing. That's why the team will use ground-based cameras at the launch site and at an observatory located about 130 miles northeast of the rockets' trajectory in Venetie, Alaska, to determine the most opportune time for launch based on auroral activity., releasing energy as light.
. Each rocket will target a different type of aurora, and the data collected will hopefully help researchers better understand what initially set in motion the electrons that create them., which flash on and off a few times a second, and flickering auroras, which do so up to 15 times a second.
When not writing or reading about science, Samantha enjoys traveling to new places and taking photos! You can follow her on Twitter @Sam_Ashley13. Aurora alert: Incoming solar storms could spark northern lights as far south as New York and Idaho tonight
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