The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is always on-point with its social media game, mesmerising users with the images it frequently uploads on its Instagram account. However, the latest photo posted by the space agency has left many intrigued.
In its recent post, NASA asked users to identify what they could see in the image. The picture featured black-and-white images of what looked like different geometrical shapes.
The space agency also gave out some possibilities about what the images could be in the caption of its post. “A mini NASA Webb telescope, or perhaps two starfighters from a galaxy far, far away?” were some of the options mentioned.
View the post here:
Later in the caption, the agency stated that the photo was actually of “few of the many snowflake images collected by NASA’s IMPACTS mission, which studies the snowstorms common to the Northeastern US.”
The Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS) mission of NASA uses ER-2 and P-3 aircraft to improve general understanding about how snowbands are formed, as well as their organisation and evolution, according to the official website of the agency. The mission also aims to advance predictive capabilities for future snowstorms.
In its post, NASA also explained that its mission collected these images by flying directly into snowstorms. The probes and instruments that are part of the P-3 aircraft can collect samples to measure atmospheric properties within storm clouds.
Calling these aircraft “stormtroopers”, NASA stated that each of these machines has specific data-collecting tools, which can sample over 30 million particles in one eight-hour flight itself. These tools include instruments which can take high-definition photos of ice-particles, sample shattered particles as well as measure their size.
NASA also stated these aircraft are assisted in their data collection by ground-based radars, computer simulations, satellite data and weather balloon launches to help IMPACTS understand the true impact of snowstorms.
The image has garnered over 3.9 lakh likes since it was first posted. Several users thought one of the images was similar to the fictional TIE fighter spaceship from the Star Wars franchise. Others thought that one of the snowflakes resembled Captain America’s shield.
What do you think the snowflakes resemble?
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