In early 2017, NASA launched sounding rocketsinto auroras to better understand our space environment.
The rockets were launched from the Poker Flat Research Rangein Alaska, a prime location for spotting auroras.
Researchers bundled up the rockets to shield them from freezing temperatures.
Aurorasget their start at the sun,
which drives changing conditions near Earth.
Sounding rocketsare ideal for studying auroras because they can fly directly into the region where auroral activity happens,
a region too high for direct study by scientific balloons and too low for satellites.
Studying auroras also helps us understand how the sun affects near-Earth space —
key information for protecting missions and astronauts beyond our home planet.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center