ENHANCED SOLAR WIND: The solar wind blowing around Earth today is slightly enhanced with speeds exceeding 450 km/s. This is not enough to cause geomagnetic storms, but may be sufficient to spark auroras around the Arctic Circle. The source of the wind is a network of shallow, poorly organized southern holes in the sun's atmosphere. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.

SMOKEY METEOR DEBRIS: The Fall season for meteors has begun. On Oct. 6th, Alan Conrad witnessed a brilliant fireball over Liverpool, Nova Scotia. The flash of light split the sky above a carotenoid-hued tree and, when it faded, the smokey remains of the meteoroid could be seen twisting in the winds of the upper atmosphere:

"To make the animation, I stitched together 16 exposures of 40 seconds each," says Conrad. "The debris was visible for a long time."

The meteor he saw was a "sporadic"--that is, a random meteor belonging to no organized meteor shower. At this time of year, sky watchers can expect to see 4 or 5 sporadic meteors every hour from a typical dark sky site. Perhaps 1% are bright fireballs such as the one Conrad witnessed.

The meteor rate is about to increase. During the 3rd week of October, Earth will enter a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, source of the annual Orionid meteor shower. During the shower's peak on Oct. 20-21, as many as 20 meteors per hour will pour out of the constellation Orion. Flashes of light and smokey debris will, for a couple of nights at least, become more common. Mark your calendar and stay tuned for updates. [Sky Map]

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MEMORIAL URN SPACE PENDANT: Consider it a space capsule for a loved one. On Oct. 6, 2019, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched this unique memorial urn pendant to the stratosphere onboard one of their cosmic ray balloons. The sparkling blue heart flew 108,893 feet above Earth's surface:

You can have it for $199.95. The students are selling memorial urn pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Buy one and we'll fly it again for free with the ashes of your loved one inside the pendant's screw-topped chamber. It's an affordable way to send remains to the edge of space. The pendant and its contents will be returned to you at the end of the flight.

Each pendant comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space and back again.

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