WHY THE MARS LANDER CRASHED: The European Space Agency's Schiaparelli lander crashed into the surface of Mars last month. A new analysis of telemetry data explains why: A glitch in Schiaparelli's navigation system caused it to think it had landed when, in fact, Schiaparelli was still 3.7 km above the Red Planet's surface. The lander cast away its parachute and turned off its braking thrusters prematurely, resulting in a brutal 'touch down' at 540 km/h. Get the full story from ESA.
SOLAR WIND STORM: Earth is now fully inside a high-speed solar wind stream flowing from a large hole in the sun's atmosphere. Gusts clocking 600+ km/s are causing G1-class geomagnetic storms and bright auroras around the poles. Mia Stålnacke of Kiruna, Sweden, photographed this outburst of green on Nov. 24th:
"These were the most intense auroras I've ever seen!" says Stålnacke. "And here in Kiruna I get to see them all the time. The rapidly moving greens and pinks were a real treat."
The solar wind stream responsible for this display is broad and should take several days to cross. Arctic auroras are likely from now until at least Nov. 26th. Free: Aurora Alerts
PLANET AIRGLOW: Jeff Dai was camping in the Himalayas on Nov. 18th when he photographed a green light in the sky. But it was not the aurora borealis. "It was airglow," says Dai, who wrapped his photos of the display into a 'little planet':
"This is a 360-degree stereographic projection showing our camp site in Tibet," says Dai. "In places like this, far from urban lights, the sky is filled with wonders."
Indeed, "the surrounding sky contains many jewels," he points out. "There is Polaris at 12 pm, the bright band of Zodiacal light and M44 at 3 pm, the plane of our Milky Way galaxy at 4:30 pm and 11pm, M31 at 10 pm, and Sirius, the brightest star of all, at 5 pm."
Although airglow looks like the aurora borealis, it is not. Auroras are caused by gusts of solar wind. Airglow is caused by chemi-luminescent reactions in Earth's upper atmosphere. These reactions get started during daylight hours when the atmosphere is bathed in strong UV radiation from the sun. At night we see the afterglow, colored green by oxygen atoms 90-100 km high or sometimes red by hydroxyl ions 86-87 km high.
"Also unlike auroras, airglow is visible all over the globe," adds Dai. "Though brightest 10-15 degrees above the horizon it fills the sky and may be photographed from dark-sky sites everywhere." Browse the airglow gallery for more examples.
Realtime Airglow Photo Gallery
A FAR OUT STOCKING STUFFER: It's out of this world: the Sirius Space Pendant. To raise money for their space weather ballooning program, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus have flown 3 dozen pendants to the edge of space–and you can have one for $69.95. The pendant comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and certifying that it has been to the stratosphere and back again.
The pendants flew to the edge of space on Nov. 20, 2016, alongside an array of cosmic radiation sensors. (We're reducing the data now!) After the balloon exploded, the payload parachuted back to Earth, landing in the snowy San Antonio mountains north of Tonopah, Nevada, where a student team recovered it on Nov. 22nd.
The research of Earth to Sky Calculus is not supported by government grants or corporate donations. Instead, we are entirely crowd-funded. Proceeds from the sale of items like the Sirius Pendant go right back into cutting-edge student research. More edge of space Christmas gifts may be found in the Earth to Sky Store.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery