ASTEROID RENDEZVOUS MONDAY: NASA's OSIRIS-REx is approaching asteroid near-Earth asteroid Bennu on a mission to orbit and take samples of the large space rock. Arrival is set for Monday, Dec. 3 at approximately noon EST. NASA will air a live event from 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. EST to highlight the rendevous. Tune in to Facebook Live, Ustream, YouTube and the agency's website for full coverage.
THE SOLAR WIND HAS ARRIVED: Earth is entering a stream of solar wind flowing from a large hole in the sun's atmosphere. First contact with the stream on Dec. 1st prompted an outburst of auroras over Sweden so bright that automated webcams in Abisko National Park were nearly saturated:
"Solar minimum may be here, but you would never know it looking at the sky on December 1st in Abisko," says Chad Blakley of Lights over Lapland. "It was an impressive display."
Around the Arctic Circle, more auroras are in the offing. Earth is moving deeper into the stream, and NOAA forecasters say there is 70% chance of minor G1-class geomagnetic storms on Dec. 2nd. Free: Aurora Alerts.
APOLLO 8 EDGE OF SPACE ORNAMENT: Fifty years ago this Christmas Eve, astronauts in the Apollo 8 command module snapped one of the most famous pictures of the Space Age: Earth rising above the cratered surface of the Moon. To celebrate, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus have flown an Apollo 8 Christmas ornament to the stratosphere:
You can have one for $59.95. They make great gifts for space fans and are a far-out addition to any Christmas tree. Each ornament comes with a greeting card showing the ceramic disk in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space.
This ornament traveled 109,354 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California, which had just received a blanket of snow from an early-season winter storm. During the flight it experienced temperatures as low as -65 C, air pressures only 0.2% of sea level, and cosmic ray dose rates 100x Earth-normal.
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ANTARCTIC VOLCANO STEAMBOW: Just off the coast of Antarctica, there is a circular island named "Deception." It looks like a safe harbor--and it normally is--but Deception Island is actually an active volcano. The last time it erupted in the 1960s, it seriously damaged local research stations. The island's latent menace can still be seen--in the form of steambows on the beach:
George Kourounis photographed the phenomenon on Nov. 25th. "I was on the beach at Deception Island when I saw it," says Kourounis. "Hot water flows under the beach that surrounds the enormous caldera. The sand was literally steaming from the volcanic heat below. When the sun came out, we saw a steam bow."
A distant relative of rainbows, steambows form when sunlight penetrates clouds of water droplets. Tiny spheres of H2O backscatter and diffract the light, forming a pale arc with a rainbow-colored fringe.
"In the background you can see the Zodiac rigid inflatable boats we use to get ashore, as well as the ship that brought us there," Kourounis continues. "It was actually the maiden voyage of the ship RCGS Resolute, and this was our last day visiting land before heading back across the Drake Passage to South America. What a great way to wrap up a trip to Antarctica!"