Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Space
Space
Science
Meredith Garofalo

College students confirm long-held prediction about atmospheric gravity waves

Two humans stand on a tarp on a grassy field as they release a large white balloon into the air, the sun glaring behind it as the contrails streak the blue sky above.

College students' measurements during a "ring of fire" solar eclipse last year have confirmed a long-held prediction about mysterious gravity waves in Earth's atmosphere.The students confirmed the prediction by identifying a signature of the waves in data obtained from the NASA-sponsored Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project (NEBP) during the annular solar eclipse on Oct. 14, 2023.

New Mexico was the ideal location to connect the dots between the solar eclipse and the creation of atmospheric gravity waves — ripples that occur in Earth's atmosphere. (These should not be confused with gravitational waves, which are ripples in space-time first proposed by Albert Einstein.)

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.