GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH: Minor G1-class geomagnetic storms are possible on May 11th when a coronal mass ejection (CME) grazes Earth's magnetic field. The source of the CME is big sunspot AR2740, which propelled the solar storm cloud in our direction three days ago. Auroras could appear as far south as the US-Canadian border. Instant Aurora Alerts: SMS Text.
ANOTHER SOLAR FLARE: May 9th began with a bang. Big sunspot AR2740 produced another solar flare, this time an impulsive C7-category explosion. Telescopes onboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the extreme ultraviolet flash:
Radiation from the flare briefly ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere, causing a brownout of shortwave radiation over Asia and the Indian Ocean: map. Frequencies affected were mainly below 20 MHz. Ham radio operators and ships at sea using shortwave transceivers may have noticed the disturbance on May 9th around 05:50 UT.
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HALOBACTERIA IN THE STRATOSPHERE: If there's life on Mars, it could have a cousin on Earth: halobacteria. Astrobiologists have long thought that the salt-loving extremophile might be able to survive conditions on the Red Planet. To find out, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus have flown approximately 100 billion of the microbes to the stratosphere. They're inside these test tubes 113,241 ft above the snow-capped Sierras of central California:
The microbes hitched a ride on a cosmic ray balloon, which the students launch about once a week to monitor atmospheric radiation. After a 3-hour flight on April 28th, they parachuted back to Earth, landing in a Joshua Tree forest in western Nevada.
Why send halobacteria to the stratosphere? Because conditions in Earth's stratosphere are remarkably similar to the surface of Mars: low air pressure, strong ultraviolet radiation, extremely low temperatures, intense cosmic rays. Visiting the stratosphere is like taking a trip to the Red Planet. The microscopic astronauts are now being cultured in an incubator in Earth to Sky's makeshift biology lab. Stay tuned to learn how many survived.
PS. Yes, that's Marvin.
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