The launch of a rocket at sunrise can result in unusual but intriguing images that feature both the rocket and the Sun. Such was the case last month when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center carrying 53 more Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. In the featured launch picture, the rocket's exhaust plume glows beyond its projection onto the distant Sun, the rocket itself appears oddly jagged, and the Sun's lower edge shows peculiar drip-like ripples. The physical cause of all of these effects is pockets of relatively hot or rarefied air deflecting sunlight less strongly than pockets relatively cool or compressed air: refraction. Unaware of the Earthly show, active sunspot region 3014 -- on the upper left -- slowly crosses the Sun.?

日出時(shí)火箭的發(fā)射會(huì)產(chǎn)生不尋常但有趣的圖像，以火箭和太陽為特征。上個(gè)月，一枚SpaceX Falcon 9火箭從美國宇航局肯尼迪航天中心升空，攜帶53顆以上的Starlink衛(wèi)星進(jìn)入近地軌道。在特寫的發(fā)射圖片中，火箭的排氣羽流在投射到遙遠(yuǎn)的太陽上后發(fā)出輝光，火箭本身呈現(xiàn)出奇怪的鋸齒狀，太陽的下邊緣顯示出奇特的水滴狀漣漪。所有這些影響的物理原因是相對較熱或稀薄的空氣袋對陽光的反射不如相對較冷或壓縮空氣袋對陽光的反射強(qiáng)：折射。在沒有意識到地球上的這一現(xiàn)象的情況下，活躍的太陽黑子區(qū)域3014（左上角）慢慢地穿過太陽。