Photos: Best of January 2017

Poker Flat Research Range launches a two-stage rocket Friday morning, Jan. 27, 2017, north of Fairbanks. The rocket carried a science payload to measure nitric oxide in the polar sky. The mission, dubbed PolarNOx (Polar Night Nitric Oxide experiment), was carried out by NASA on behalf of researchers at Virginia Tech. “The rocket team did a great job,” said Scott Bailey, the principal investigator for Virginia Tech. “We got plenty of data to work through.” “The aurora creates nitric oxide,” Bailey continued, “but in the polar night there is no significant process for destroying the nitric oxide. We believe it builds up to large concentrations. The purpose of our rocket is to measure the abundance and altitude of peak abundance for the nitric oxide.” PolarNox was the first of five rockets scheduled for launch between January and March from the range, operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. (Merrick Peirce)