METEORS FROM HALLEY'S COMET: The annual Orionid meteor shower is peaking this weekend with rates near 20 meteors per hour. Each meteor is a speck of dust from Halley's comet hitting the top of Earth's atmosphere at speeds near 65 km/s (145,000 mph). The best time to look is during the dark hours before dawn when the constellation Orion is high in the sky. [sky map] [photo gallery]
M-CLASS SOLAR FLARE: A new sunspot rotating into view over the sun's southeastern limb erupted during the late hours of Oct. 20th. The resulting M1-class solar flare broke a string of deep quiet that has lasted since mid-September. An extreme UV telescope onboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the blast:
Play it again. The movie shows a volume of gas in the sun's atmosphere being swept aside by the explosion. That gas formed the core of a bright coronal mass ejection (CME)--a cloud that billowed away from the sun at approximately 340 km/s. Because the blast site was so far off the Sun-Earth line, the CME will not hit Earth.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
VOLCANIC AURUPTION: Last night, the most famous mountain in Iceland erupted. Or rather, it aurupted. Photographers H.+J. Sperr caught a plume of green light spewing from the tip of Kirkjufell:
"Auroras dancing behind the iconic peak make it look like a volcanic breakout was in progress," says Sperr who captured the image from the nearby town of Grundarfjördur. "At the time, geomagnetic activity was supposedly low, but the auroras were bright and active anyway."
Already one of the most photographed landmarks in Iceland, Kirkjufell gained even more attention in 2017 when it featured prominently in an episode of Game of Thrones. And now this....! More volcanic auruptions are possible on Oct. 24th when Earth enters a stream of solar wind flowing from a large hole in the sun's atmosphere. Stay tuned. Free: Aurora Alerts.
Note: Thanks to Spaceweather.com reader J. Cloud for coining the term "volcanic auruption."
STERLING SILVER SPACE PUMPKIN: On Oct. 15, 2017, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a space weather balloon from the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California. Its mission: to measure cosmic rays at the top of Earth's atmosphere. The payload carried an array of X-ray/gamma-ray detectors, GPS trackers, temperature/pressure sensors and, for fundraising, some pumpkin pendants:
This sterling silver pendant ascended to an altitude of 32 km (105,000 feet), deep inside the stratosphere where cosmic ray dose rates are hundreds of times sea level. After the balloon exploded, as planned, the payload parachuted back to Earth, landing in the Eureka Valley on the outskirts of Death Valley National Park.
You can have one for $139.95. Each necklace comes with a unique gift card showing the pendant 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