Rocket launch that made the sky ripple: NASA explains bizarre 'smashed sundog' phenomenon

It may have blasted off in 2010, but the incredible 'sky ripples' caused when NASA launched its Solar Dynamics Observatory are still setting the internet alight.

Reddit commenters have jumped on the video, claiming it is caused by everything from sonic booms to flatulent passengers.

However, NASA has revealed that in fact, it was caused by the rocket smashing through a sundog, a rare phenomenon caused by ice cystals, the Daily Mail reports.

Moments after launch, SDO's Atlas V rocket flew past a sundog hanging suspended in the blue Florida sky and, with a rippling flurry of shock waves, destroyed it.

Sundogs are formed by plate-shaped ice crystals in high, cold cirrus clouds. 

As the crystals drift down from the sky like leaves fluttering from trees, aerodynamic forces tend to align their broad faces parallel to the ground. 

When sunlight hits a patch of well-aligned crystals at just the right distance from the sun, they form a sundog.

The most popular video of the event - captured by a then 13-year-old Anna Herbst at NASA's Banana River viewing site

“When the Atlas V rocket penetrated the cirrus, shock waves rippled through the cloud and destroyed the alignment of the crystals,” NASA's atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explained at the time.

“This extinguished the sundog.”

In the past, says Cowley, there have been anecdotal reports of atmospheric disturbances destroying sundogs—for instance, 'gunfire and meteor shock waves have been invoked to explain their disruption. But this is the first video I know of that shows the effect in action.'

The most popular video of the event was captured by a then 13-year-old Anna Herbst at NASA's Banana River viewing site.

“I couldn't believe my eyes,” Anna told NASA at the time. 

“The shock waves were so cool.”

Anna traveled with classmate Amelia Phillips three thousand miles from Bishop, California, to witness the launch.

 “I'm so glad we came,” said Amelia. “I've never seen anything like it!”

"The observatory did something amazing before it even left the atmosphere," SDO project scientist Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center said following the launch. 

“When the sundog disappeared, we started screaming and jumping up and down,” says Pesnell. “SDO hit a home run: Perfect launch, rippling waves, and a disappearing sundog. You couldn't ask for a better start for a mission.”