SOLAR WIND, INCOMING: Earth's magnetic field could feel a bump in pressure on Jan. 14th and 15th when a complex stream of solar wind reaches our planet. The gaseous material is a mixture of exhaust from two and perhaps three holes in the sun's atmosphere. No geomagnetic storms are expected, but Arctic sky watchers will likely see a surge of auroras when the solar wind arrives. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
FLY ME TO THE MOON: Tonight, if you're out looking at the Moon and you see a pair of blinking lights approach the lunar disk ... grab your camera. You might be able to record an unexpected transit. "That's exactly what happened to me on Jan. 12th," reports Szabolcs Nagy of Wimbledon, UK. Click to play his must-see movie of a jet plane crossing the gibbous Moon:
"What luck! I captured this perfect lunar transit of a United Airlines Boeing 757," says Nagy. "The Moon was in a 96% illuminated phase and looked gorgeous, despite the crazy jet stream raging in the upper atmosphere. I didn't want to do lunar imaging, now it feels like this was the perfect decision."
Especially notable is the effect of the jet's exhaust on the lunar disk. Thermal irregularities in turbulent air behind the plane refracted rays of light coming from the Moon, causing the edge of the disk to roil, stretch, and follow the plane into the night like boiling putty. Play and enjoy.
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INFINITY PENDANT FOR VALENTINE'S DAY: Valentine's Day is one month away. Nothing says "I Love You" like an Infinity Pendant from the edge of space. On Jan. 8, 2020, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a cosmic ray balloon. This authentic Swarovski crystal pendant hitched a ride, traveling 113,209 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California
You can have it for $169.95. The students are selling these pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. The glittering heart-shaped crystal is wrapped in a silver-embossed infinity clasp, symbolizing unending love. Each one comes with a romantic card showing the pendant in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space and back again.
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THE SUN SWALLOWS A COMET: A new comet was discovered yesterday, and it's already history. "The first comet discovery of the decade goes to... SOHO!" reports Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC. During the early hours of Jan. 13th, coronagraphs onboard SOHO (the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) spotted the tiny comet plunging into the sun, where it rapidly evaporated:
SOHO is the most prolific comet hunter in history. "It's actually quite unusual that it has taken 13 days for SOHO to find a comet," notes Battams. "This is the furthest we've gone into a new calendar year without a discovery since 2008. We're closing in on 3,900 comets discovered, and should comfortably pass 4,000 sometime this year!"
The doomed comet, R.I.P., was a member of the Kreutz family. Kreutz sungrazers are fragments from the breakup of a single giant comet many centuries ago. They get their name from 19th century German astronomer Heinrich Kreutz, who studied them in detail. Hundreds of Kreutz fragments pass by the sun and disintegrate every year--a fact that has helped SOHO pad its totals. In fact, the second comet of the new decade will probably be a Kreutz sungrazer, too. Stay tuned :)
Note: When SOHO discovers a comet, it always has help. A human watching coronagraph images is required to spot the sungrazer. In this case, says Battams, "The comet was noticed by Worachate Boonplod (Thailand) - one of our most successful amateur comet hunters."
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