SOLAR WIND, INCOMING: A stream of high-speed solar wind is expected to reach Earth on Feb. 15th or 16th, possibly causing G1-class geomagnetic storms. The gaseous material is flowing from a hole in the sun's atmosphere now turning toward our planet. Arctic sky watchers should be alert for auroras after Valentine's Day. Free: Aurora Alerts
ACTIVE SUNSPOT AR2699: Sunspot AR2699 is a shape-shifter. Over the weekend it morphed into a quadruple 'spot, with two new magnetic islands as large as Earth. Click to view a 48-hour movie from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:
Rapid changes in the appearance of a sunspot mean one thing: Its magnetic field is changing rapidly as well. Tangled magnetic fields can criss, cross, and explode--a process known as "magnetic reconnection." Solar flares in the magnetic canopy of AR2699 are likely on Feb. 12th.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
STARMAN, 1 MILLION KILOMETERS AWAY: On Feb. 10, 2018, Enrico Pettarin of Farra dIsonzo, Italy, photographed Elon Musk's cherry red Tesla Roadster more than 1 million km from Earth "It was very faint," says Pettarin, "shining in reflected sunlight like a 17th magnitude star, but I was able to photograph it using my 0.4-meter telescope."
Launched on Feb. 6, 2018, by a Falcon Heavy Rocket at Cape Canaveral, the Roadster is traveling around the sun on an elliptical orbit that will take it beyond the orbit of Mars. Every day it is getting farther from Earth.
Other amateur astronomers around the world have also been photographing the distant electric car, piloted by a space-suited mannequin named "Starman." At the moment, Pettarin holds the distance record. But stay tuned, because records are meant to be broken!
VALENTINE'S DAY IS COMING: Nothing says "I Love You" like a Valentine's pendant from the edge of space. On Dec. 31, 2017, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew a payload-full of these heart-shaped pendants to the stratosphere, 35.1 km (115,158 feet) above Earth's surface:
You can have one for $119.95. Each glittering pendant comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space. Sales of this pendant support the Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray ballooning program and hands-on STEM research.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education