Fascinating GIFs Showing What You Would See If Rockets Were Transparent

nightqueen

May 22, 2020 6:08 AM EDT

Rockets are complicated (I guess that's why there's the saying about rocket science). It still amazes me that planes can fly in the sky, let alone rockets hurdling through Earth's atmosphere and going into space. It is truly mind boggling and I can't quite wrap my head around it. Someone made an animation that shows what rockets would look like if their outsides were transparent and it's pretty amazing to witness the processes that go in inside different types of rockets (and it'll help you understand them better). Thanks to Futurism for the original article.

The four rockets animated are the following (from left to right):

- Saturn V, a US-made super heavy-lift vehicle used by NASA between 1967 and 1973
- The Space Shuttle, NASA's space plane that retired back in 2011
- SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, a super heavy-lift vehicle
- NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), the space agency's upcoming heavy lift rocket that has been under development since the Space Shuttle retired in 2011

The colorful liquids inside the rockets are color-coded rocket fuels that are used at different stages in the rocket's journey.

- Red is kerosene RP-1, a highly refined form of kerosene similar to jet fuel.
- Orange is liquid hydrogen (LH2), a common rocket fuel used by NASA. Interestingly, it first cools the nozzle of the rocket before being ignited by an oxidizer.
- Blue is liquid oxygen (LOX), the liquid form of diatomic oxygen that often is used as oxidizer for the liquid hydrogen in rockets such as NASA's workhorse RS-25, an engine that was used for the Space Shuttle.

Check out the amazing GIFs below to see the magic of rockets going into space and see here for more interesting science stories.