火箭凌日波月
Rocket Transits Rippling Moon
來源：Steven Madow｜發表日期：2024-01-02
火箭能讓月球產生波紋嗎？不能，但它能讓背景月球呈現波浪狀。 這枚火箭就是 SpaceX 的獵鷹重型火箭，上週從 NASA 的肯尼迪航天中心發射升空。在這張特寫的發射照片中，火箭的排氣羽流在投射到遙遠的、正在升起的、接近滿月的月球上時，發出了耀眼的光芒。 奇怪的是，月球下緣呈現出不尋常的滴水狀波紋。遠處的月球本身確實沒有任何變化。 造成這些明顯漣漪的物理原因是，相對較熱或稀薄的空氣對月光的折射不如相對較冷或壓縮空氣對月光的折射強烈：折射。雖然拍攝是計劃好的，但發射的時間必須恰到好處，這樣火箭才能在一次曝光中穿越月球。
原文：Can a rocket make the Moon ripple? No, but it can make a background moon appear wavy. The rocket, in this case, was a SpaceX Falcon Heavy that blasted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center last week. In the featured launch picture, the rocket's exhaust plume glows beyond its projection onto the distant, rising, and nearly full moon. Oddly, the Moon's lower edge shows unusual drip-like ripples. The Moon itself, far in the distance, was really unchanged. The physical cause of these apparent ripples was pockets of relatively hot or rarefied air deflecting moonlight less strongly than pockets of relatively cool or compressed air: refraction. Although the shot was planned, the timing of the launch had to be just right for the rocket to be transiting the Moon during this single exposure.
※ 本文由萌芽機器人自動轉貼自每日一天文圖（Astronomy Picture of the Day，APOD），原文為英文，正體中文是透過 DeepL 翻譯及 OpenCC 進行自動處理，內容僅供參考，若有任何錯誤之處還請見諒！
關於每日一天文圖：每日一天文圖網站是美國國家航空暨太空總署與密西根理工大學提供的服務，網站每天提供一張影像或圖片，並由天文學家撰寫扼要說明其特別之處。