ASTEROID RENDEZVOUS: NASA's OSIRIS-REx is in orbit around near-Earth asteroid Bennu! The spacecraft's orbit burn occured on Monday, Dec. 3rd, at approximately noon EST, placing OSIRIS-REx into a circular path around the dangerous space rock. In July 2020, OSIRIS-REx will slowly descend and bounce off the surface of Bennu like a pogo stick. This will allow it to collect samples for return to Earth. Tune into NASA TV for updates.
SOLAR WIND SPARKS POLAR AURORAS: A stream of solar wind is buffeting Earth's magnetic field. Last night, it turned the landscape of northern Norway green. "After spending the weekend photographing whales, I was eager to capture some of the auroras forecast by Spaceweather.com," says Ole Christian Salomonsen. "On the boat on my way home to Tromsø, strong greens were already dancing. Just as I was getting my camera gear ready, this pitch black valley was filled with amazing strong auroras."
"WOW! What a show, and man was I happy to get Lady Aurora to play along in my composition. It may be solar minimum, but in northern Norway you should always be prepared," he says.
More auroras are in the offing. Not only will Earth remain in the current stream of solar wind for another ~24 hours, but also a CME is coming. NOAA forecasters say that a coronal mass ejection (CME) might hit Earth's magnetic field on Dec. 5th. It was launched into space Nov. 30th when a filament of magnetism in the sun's southern hemisphere exploded. The slow-moving CME is not heading directly for Earth, but even a grazing impact would likely spark strong polar auroras. 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!"