A HOLE IN THE SUN'S ATMOSPHERE: Solar wind flowing from a southern hole in the sun's atmosphere could reach Earth on Nov. 2nd. Polar auroras and magnetic unrest are likely when the gaseous material arrives. Glare from the nearly-full Moon will mitigate, but not necessarily eliminate, the visibility of Arctic lights. Free: Aurora Alerts.
THE SPACE PUMPKIN: It's the spookiest space weather balloon mission ever. On Oct. 22, 2017, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a pumpkin to the edge of space. The Jack O'Lantern flew to a record-setting altitude of 107,284 feet before parachuting back to Earth, landing on the verge of Death Valley National Park.
To make this happen, the students completely redesigned their usual space weather balloon payload, replacing the cosmic ray capsule with a pumpkin. A test flight on Oct. 15th verified the operation of the pumpkin's flight computer, camera, and GPS trackers. After making a few improvements, the stage was set for the Great Pumpkin Balloon Launch on Oct. 22nd. The space pumpkin reached a GPS-verified altitude of 107,284 feet, which we believe is a record. Not only was this flight tons of fun, it taught us how to operate our hardware outside the warm confines of our usual payload. These new capabilities will surely come in handy as we brainstorm new and exciting missions in the future. Happy Halloween!
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
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RUSSIAN WAR GAMES SPARK 'BLUE AURORAS' (UPDATED): On Dec. 9, 2009, sky watchers in arctic Norway witnessed an incredible spiral of blue light forming a cone in the night sky. "We are used to seeing lots of auroras here in Norway, but this was different," recalls Nick Banbury of Harstad who saw the display on his way to work "between 7:50 and 8:00 a.m. local time." Jan Petter Jorgensen took this photo:
Days later, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the launch and subsequent failure of a missile--a Bulava ICBM launched from a Russian submarine in the White Sea. The rocket motor spinning out of control created the spiral pattern.
Almost 8 years later, on Oct. 26, 2017, the same blue color reappeared. This time, however, it came in the form of an expanding sphere. Alexey Yakovlev photographed the magnificent cloud from Strezhevoy, Russia:
A sequence of images on Yakovlev's Russian language social media page shows the cloud expanding into the atmosphere. High altitude winds caught the azure gas and carried it over Scandinavia where onlookers in Sweden and Norway reported a rare apparition of "blue auroras."
In fact, it was war games again. On Oct. 26th, the Russian military staged a nuclear battle drill and test-launched a number of ballistic missiles from land, sea and air. The instigating missile may have been a Topol ICBM reportedly launched from the Plesetsk space center 800 km north of Moscow toward the Kura test range in Kamchatka. The flight path is about right for a sighting by Yakovlev. Moreover, when Russia test-launched the same type of missile in Sept. 2017, some sky watchers reported unusual clouds then, too.
We do not know the reason for the blue color. Presumably it's a result of atmospheric chemistry--some reaction between air molecules and dumped rocket fuel. Got an explanation? Send it to Dr. Phillips!
A FAR-OUT CHRISTMAS GIFT: On Sept. 10, 2017, giant sunspot AR2673 exploded, producing an X8-class solar flare. The powerful blast accelerated a stream of electrons and protons toward Earth. By the time the particles arrived, this crystal pyramid was waiting for them at the top of Earth's atmosphere:
What was it doing up there? It hitched a ride onboard a space weather balloon, launched by the students of Earth to Sky Calculus to measure radiation from the flare. In addition to the pyramid (flown for fundraising), the balloon's payload carried an array of X-ray/gamma-ray detectors, cameras, temperature/pressure sensors, GPS altimeters and, of course, extra pyramids.
You can have one for $119.95. Each pyramid comes with a unique gift card showing the crystal 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