CASSINI DISINTEGRATES: NASA's Cassini spacecraft dived into the atmosphere of Saturn and disintegrated on Friday, Sept.15th. Telemetry received during the plunge indicates that, as expected, the long-serving spacecraft entered Saturn's atmosphere with its thrusters firing to maintain stability, as it sent back a unique set of final science observations. Loss of contact occurred at 7:55 a.m. EDT (4:55 a.m. PDT), with the signal received by NASA's Deep Space Network antenna complex in Canberra, Australia. Get the full story from JPL.
MORNING PLANETS ALIGN: Set your alarm for dawn. Three planets and the crescent Moon are gathering for a beautiful alignment before sunrise. Alan Dyer sends this preview from Gleichen, Alberta:
"This was the view on the morning of Sept. 12th, of Venus, Mercury (then at greatest elongation from the Sun) and Mars in the dawn sky, along with the star Regulus." says Dyer. "Mercury and Mars are in close conjunction on the morning of Sept. 16th. With Earth in the picture, this was an image of all four rocky terrestrial planets in one frame!"
In the mornings ahead, the crescent Moon will join the show, hopping from one planet to the next. Venus and the Moon will look especially lovely together on Sept. 17th and 18th, while on the 19th and 20th Venus and Regulus pass one another less than 1 degree apart. Look east before sunrise and enjoy the show! Sky maps: Sept. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
PINK AURORAS OVER YELLOWKNIFE: Earth is inside a stream of solar wind flowing from a wedge-shaped hole in the sun's atmosphere. During last night's resulting G2-class geomagnetic storm, Yuichi Takasaka witnessed an outbreak of bright pink auroras over Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories of Canada:
"We could see the auroras at 9:10pm although it was not dark yet," says Takasaka. "Auroras danced all night long (Sept. 14/15) and we had an amazing display many many times!!!"
The pink color is probably a sign of nitrogen. Most auroras are green--a verdant glow caused by energetic particles from space hitting oxygen atoms 100 km to 300 km above Earth's surface. Pink appears when energetic particles descend lower than usual, striking nitrogen molecules at the 100 km level and below.
The solar wind stream currently blowing around Earth seems to be sending particles deep enough into Earth's atmosphere to spark this lovely type of aurora. Could more be in the offing? The stream arrived abruptly on Sept. 14th and is still blowing faster than 600 km/s today. NOAA forecasters estimate a 70% chance of continued storming on Sept. 15th probably at G1 levels. Free: Aurora Alerts
ROSE QUARTZ CRYSTAL ECLIPSE PENDANTS: On Aug. 21st during the Great American Solar Eclipse, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched 11 space weather balloons from the path of totality. They aimed to photograph the Moon's shadow from the stratosphere--and they succeeded. As a fundraiser, some of the balloons carried jewelry. Here is a rose quartz crystal pendant entering the Moon's shadow more than 90,000 feet above the Malheur National Forest in eastern Oregon:
During the 2.5 hour flight, the pendants were wrapped in the Moon's shadow for more than two minutes, experiencing a spooky darkness colder than -50 C.
You can have one for $149.95. Each crystal pendant comes with a unique gift card showing the jewelry passing through the Moon's shadow and floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere. The interior of the card tells the story of the flight and confirms that this gift has been to the edge of space and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education