Explanation:
What's that rising from the clouds?
The space shuttle.
If you looked out the window of an airplane at just the right place and time last week, you could have seen something very unusual -- the space shuttle Endeavour launching to orbit.
Images of the rising shuttle and its plume became widely circulated over the web shortly after
Endeavour's final launch.
The above image was taken from a shuttle training aircraft and is not
copyrighted.
Taken well above the clouds, the image can be matched with similar images of the same shuttle plume taken
below the clouds.
Hot glowing gasses expelled by the engines are visible near the
rising shuttle, as well as a long smoke plume.
A shadow of the plume appears on the cloud deck, indicating the direction of the Sun.
The shuttle
Endeavour remains docked with the
International Space Station and is currently scheduled to return to Earth next week.
