NASA explains mystery behind strange pink cloud spotted over Jersey Shore
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — A mysterious bright pink cloud spotted hovering over the Jersey Shore and other parts of the East Coast on Wednesday evening caused quite a stir on social media.
Just after sunset, photos of the unusual sight starting popping up on Twitter and Facebook.
I was driving home this evening and had to take a picture of this random pink cloud in the sky.
— 🎐 𝔍𝔅 🎐 (@DripsOfEden) March 4, 2021
This picture doesn't do it any justice. It was super vibrant and looked completely unreal. 💗☁️ pic.twitter.com/IyfzLk5apU
With the rest of the sky seemingly cloud-free, it left many scratching their heads.
"I'm sticking with aliens, on this one," Jeff Donohue wrote on Facebook alongside a snapshot of the cloud.
But, according to NASA, there's a perfectly good explanation for its appearance.
The puffy pink cloud was triggered by a three-stage suborbital sounding rocket that was launched from Virginia as part of a Department of Defense mission.
"The launch was to study ionization in space just beyond the reaches of Earth's atmosphere," the space agency wrote on its website. "After flying to an altitude of several hundred miles and about 500 miles off-shore, the rocket's payload released a small quantity of vapor into the near-vacuum of space."
Ahead of the launch, NASA had warned that "colorful clouds may be visible…as the sun illuminates the vapor before it diffuses harmlessly into space."
The glowing pink cloud hung in the sky for about 45 minutes.
Sightings were reported from Pennsylvania to Puerto Rico.
NASA said, "There is no danger to public health or the Earth's environment from the vapor release."
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