GEOMAGNETIC UNREST: A large hole in the sun's atmosphere is turning toward Earth and spewing a stream of solar wind in our direction. Estimated time of arrival: May 2nd. Minor geomagnetic storms are possible when the gaseous material arrives. Aurora Alerts: SMS Text
METEORS FROM HALLEY'S COMET: Earth is approaching a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, source of the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower. If forecasters are correct, the shower will peak on the nights of May 4th through 6th with as many as 40 meteors per hour.
"This is a good year for eta Aquariid meteors," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "The shower's peak coincides with a New Moon, so skies will be dark for the display."
The best time to look is during the hours before sunrise when the constellation Aquarius is high in the southern sky. Nominally, May 5th will be the most active morning, but May 4th and May 6th should be good, too. Halley's stream of debris is wide and spreads the display over three full days.
What? You can't find the constellation Aquarius? You don't need to. Although Halley's meteors shoot out of Aquarius, they fly far across the sky. All you have to do is lie down under a dark clear sky and look up. The shower be obvious even without the guidance of a star chart.
MOTHER'S DAY IS LESS THAN 3 WEEKS AWAY: Are you looking for an out-of-this world Mother's Day gift? Consider this: Every time the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launch a cosmic ray balloon, they include something extra in the payload--something mom will love:
Every item in the Earth to Sky Store has flown to the edge of space and comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight. The interior of the card tells the story of the gift's journey from launch to landing. Mom-satisfaction guaranteed!
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
LISTEN TO A MARTIAN EARTHQUAKE: NASA has just started a new field of science: Martian Seismology. It began on April 6, 2019, when the InSight lander on Mars recorded a rumbling from the ground below. Click to listen to the first confirmed example of a marsquake:
The seismic event was too small to provide solid data on the Martian interior.The Martian surface is extremely quiet, allowing InSight's seismometer to pick up extraordinarily faint rumbles. In contrast, Earth's surface is quivering constantly from seismic noise created by oceans and weather. An event of this size in Southern California would be lost among dozens of tiny crackles that occur every day.
Nevertheless, researchers are excited. "We've been waiting months for a signal like this," said Philippe Lognonné, the seismometer team lead at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) in France. "It's so exciting to finally have proof that Mars is still seismically active."
Future rumbles may be larger, revealing much about the interior of Mars. Some researchers believe seismology could pinpoint liquid water or plumes of active volcanoes underneath the Martian surface. The science has just begun.
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