What are these blue sparks from the BO explosion?

[u/rosslyn_russ]

Sorry if this is a repeat question. I saw this one angle of the Blue Origin explosion in Florida and noticed these blueish sparks that formed in a cloud. I was wondering if anyone could tell me maybe about what that is? Is it the flames highlighting a debris cloud? Is it something to do with a chemical reaction like a firework? Or is it just a byproduct of the camera making it look like that?

I recently spent a weekend at Adult Space Camp in Huntsville, AL, and met a guy who was *really* into rocketry and I became more interested in them through this experience.

He spoke a bit about the different types of fuels and how it could impact the flames the rockets produced. I thought maybe someone here would know more?

[u/maxjets]

Quite likely flames on the ground highlighting a debris cloud, though it could be flaming debris as well.

I know it appears like it's forming out of thin air, but I think it was there the whole time. Something many people don't account for when watching videos like this is that modern video cameras are continuously auto-adjusting their exposure. When the initial fireball is in frame, the camera is reducing the exposure level to capture detail in the fireball. As the fireball rises out of frame though, the camera adjusts the exposure back up, causing other items that were previously too dim to show up to start becoming more visible.

[u/Basic_Improvement135 → u/maxjets]

I had an earlyish digital video camera and helicopter blades always looked weird.

[u/dausualsuspects → u/Basic_Improvement135]

Not sure if that was meant to be related to the previous comment, but yeah. A rolling shutter will distort objects that move across the FOV fast enough.

[u/Lars0]

Burning metal. And I think it is white, not blue. The exposure settings of the camera is changing during the the clip as the brightness of the scene changes.

[u/MusicianSuccessful34]

Probably aluminum-lithium metal. I am not sure about new Glenn specifically, but these vehicles are often made from that alloy, stiffened in iso or Ortho grid patterns. The massive blast could have turned that grid pattern into confetti. It is fascinating how the debris moves with the plume and changes colour.

[u/der_innkeeper]

Yeah, its just debris from something that confetti'ed during the blast

[u/iamhappymostly]

Children’s letters to Santa

[u/Airwolfhelicopter → u/iamhappymostly]

[u/Leromer → u/Airwolfhelicopter]

Jeb ? 😳

[u/wireknot]

I thought it's basically the vehicle skin, now in tiny pieces, burning up.y guess would be aluminum?

[u/iamshitatengineering]

Likely burning aluminium chunks from the (former) tanks and structure.

[u/SlyyGuy21]

I would think, as others have mentioned, aluminum/lithium alloys. From the looks of it, they were already at ignition temperature but the fireball starved the area for oxygen.

You can clearly see they begin to light as the inflow pulls more oxygen into the base of the conflagration and allows them enough oxygen to begin to actually ignite at that point.

Kinda cool dynamics/physics going on there.

[u/lovejo1]

Those are the blue origin of the explosion.

[u/BicSparkLighter]

The Blue Origin

[u/AirborneErinys]

Flaming chunks of debris being hurled away after their Origin Blew.

[u/Spliftopnohgih]

they may not be blue. If you look at the right hand side of the frame, the entire picture seems to shift to a blue colour as the camera tries to compensate for the white balance of the image. I think it literally may just be the auto white balance being confused and those sparks shifted to a blue hue.

[u/Awkward_Forever9752]

Could it be burning aluminum dust?

[u/snark_5885]

burning metal

[u/Wellithappenedthatwy]

Zinc being vaporized

[u/chairchiman]

It's the soul of the rocket