A SpaceX rocket launch blew a temporary hole in Earth's upper atmosphere

On August 24, 2017, the charged particles of Earth's ionosphere were doing what they typically do: hanging out between 37 and 620 miles above the Earth's surface, basking in incoming ultraviolet radiation from the sun. 

Suddenly, and rather rudely from the ionosphere's perspective, many of these particles were blown apart as a massive shockwave swept through this layer of the atmosphere. 

The massive, circular shockwave — which was four times the size of the state of California — accompanied the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Taiwanese Earth observation satellite into orbit about 450 miles above the planet.  Read more...

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