NEW AND IMPROVED:
Turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into a field-tested
global satellite tracker. The Satellite
Flybys app now works in all countries. |
|
|
EQUINOX
SKY SHOW: Northern Spring begins on Saturday,
March 20th. To celebrate the occasion, Nature is putting on
an equinox sky show. Look
west after sunset for a close encounter between the crescent
Moon and the Pleiades star cluster. It's a beautiful view,
especially through binoculars, and a nice way to experience
the equal night.
FARSIDE
EXPLOSION: This morning, March 20th, a coronal
mass ejection (CME) billiowed over the sun's western limb.
Click on the image to launch a movie of the expanding cloud
recorded by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):
Imagery from NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft suggests this was
a backside event. Despite multiple views from SOHO and STEREO,
however, the precise location of the blast site remains uncertain.
It might be an active region which is passing through STEREO's
narrow blind spot on the "anti-Earth" side of the
sun. Stay tuned for updates.
DRIED CODFISH:
Pictures of aurora borealis usually look best with a little
something extra in the field of view. Some photographers chose
mountains; others prefer the Moon and stars. Peter Van den
Eijnde might be the first to select dead fish:
"On March 18th, during a trip to Laukvik
in the Lofoten Islands of Norway, I took this picture of codfish
drying in the open air," he explains. "The aurora
seems to lend a hand in the process."
This has been an active week for Northern Lights
around the Arctic Circle, but the show is subsiding. NOAA
forecasters estimate only a 10% chance of geomagnetic activity
during the next 24 hours. Until the next storm, browse the
gallery:
March
Northern Lights Gallery
[previous Marches: 2009,
2008, 2007,
2006, 2005,
2004, 2003]
|
