PERSEID METEOR SHOWER UPDATE: Last night, August 4-5, NASA cameras detected 11 Perseid fireballs over the USA. This is a sign that Earth is moving deeper into the debris stream of parent comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. Forecasters expect the shower to peak during the nights of August 11-13 with dozens of meteors per hour visible in bright moonlight. Sky maps: Aug. 11, 12, 13.
SOLAR WIND SPARKS AURORAS: For the second day in a row, a solar wind stream is blowing around Earth faster than 700 km/s. First contact on Aug. 4th rattled our planet's magnetic field and produced a brief but intense display of auroras over Canada. Catalina Tapardel witnessed the outburst from Kakwa, Alberta:
"I looked out the window at 4:30 am and was amazed by the Lady Aurora dancing above, high up in the sky, fighting the dawn," says Tapardel. "I stormed the door, picked my camera up, in the process I forgot to grab the tripod, and everything was recorded hand-held." She posted a 4k video of the display at the Alberta Aurora Chasers Facebook page.
Since then, the stream's steady pressure has done little to upset the equilibrium of our planet's magnetic field. No strong geomagnetic storms have been observed. NOAA forecasters say there is a 65% chance of minor geomagnetic storms on Aug. 5th, subsiding to 40% on Aug. 6th. Free: Aurora Alerts
SOLAR ECLIPSE PENDANTS: Would you like to support our Solar Eclipse Balloon Network? Here's one way: Buy a space pendant. This solar eclipse-themed necklace flew to the stratosphere on July 2, 2017, attached to the payload of an Earth to Sky Calculus space weather balloon:
The payload contained more just like it. If you buy one now for $89.95, we will fly it back to the stratosphere during the Great American Solar Eclipse on August 21, 2017, where it will be enveloped by the Moon's cool shadow above our launch site in Oregon. No additional charge! Just make a note in the COMMENTS BOX of the shopping cart: "Please fly my pendant into the eclipse!" Each pendant comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again.
More items from the edge of space may be found in the Earth to Sky Store. All proceeds support atmospheric radiation monitoring and hands-on STEM education.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education
THE MAGNETIC TENTACLES OF SUNSPOT AR2670: This morning in Uzès, France, amateur astronomer JP Brahic looked down through the eyepiece of his safely-filtered telescope at sunspot AR2670. He saw two magnetic tentacles reaching back:
The spider-like extensions thread the sun's atmosphere high above the sunspot's dark Earth-sized core. "Their scale makes them easy targets for backyard solar telescopes," says Stuart Green who also photographed them from Preston, Lancashire, UK.
The underlying sunspot has been quiet for days, but if these magnetic structures happen to criss-cross above it, there could be a ferocious explosion caused by magnetic reconnection. This possibility makes AR2670 worth monitoring as it crosses the face of the sun in the days ahead.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery