Watch 5 NASA rockets take to the night sky to paint the clouds white

NASA's five Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment (ATREX) rockets finally launched yesterday after suffering a series of delays. Unfavorable weather conditions forced the ATREX project officials to keep pushing back the launch that was originally supposed to happen on March 15.

All five rockets launched within five minutes, around 80 seconds apart from each other. They released a harmless chemical called trimethyl aluminum that dyed the clouds milky white so the scientists could see the movements of high-altitude jet streams. Using the data they gathered, the scientists will try to figure out why high-altitude streams travel at speeds that reach 300 mph, when in theory they should only be traveling at around 50 mph.

[Image credit: NASA]

[via MSNBC]

This article was written by Mariella Moon and originally appeared on Tecca

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Source & Image : Yahoo