Elon Musk's rocket caused never-before-seen phenomenon when exploding in major failure
Love him or hate him, Elon Musk has achieved some pretty impressive things during his time on and off planet Earth.
The billionaire Tesla owner might well have plans of colonising Mars, and seemingly populating it himself given his ever-expanding number of kids, but things haven't always gone to plan for him when it comes to space technology.
While he was successful in sending one of his cars into space, as well as helping some of his billionaire buddies go beyond the Earth's atmosphere thanks to his SpaceX missions, one of his rockets in 2023 went pretty spectacularly wrong, resulting in a never-before-seen phenomenon.
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The world's richest man has been focused more on politics in recent years, starting a new role in Donald Trump's government, but some of his best work has come in the form of his space company.
However, scientists have now recently revealed the extent of the damage that was done after one of Musk's rockets exploded two years ago, suggesting that it literally 'broke the sky.'
The starship rocket was launched for just the second time but exploded in mid-air, just four minutes after its planned separation. Not long after, the rocket detonated itself around 93 miles above Earth in a significant explosion, which reportedly ripped through the ionosphere - the electrically charged layer of the atmosphere that helps with things such as radio communication and satellite signals.
And the researchers have now claimed that this is the first time a hole in the atmosphere has been caused due to a manmade disaster such as a rocket explosion.
Yury Yasyukevich, lead researcher and ionosphere physicist at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics, said: "Usually, such holes form due to chemical reactions from engine fuel.
"But this time, it was caused by the sheer shock wave from the Starship explosion."
Scientists reportedly watched on for around 30 and 40 minutes at the significant hole in the Earth's atmosphere, before watching it stitch itself back together, much like John McClane.
"Analysing the data and understanding their nature, we understand more deeply the structure of the ionosphere, [and] the nature of the phenomena that occur in it,' Yasyukevich told TASS the Russian news agency.
Their research and analysis had revealed that when Starship exploded back in 2023, the resulting shock wave scattered and disrupted the electrons and plasma which make up the sky, creating a 'hole' where the ionosphere's usual properties were depleted.
Thankfully, it didn't seem to do lasting damage but given Musk has been pretty vocal about a potential doomsday on Earth, he might want to stop literally putting holes in the atmosphere.
James Moorhouse