LYRID METEOR SHOWER: Earth is approaching a stream of debris from Comet Thatcher (C/1861 G1), source of the annual Lyrid meteor shower. If forecasters are correct, the Lyrids will peak on the night of April 21-22 with as many as 15 meteors per hour. These meteors are best seen from the northern hemisphere where the radiant is high in the sky before dawn.
AN UNUSUAL GREEN FLASH: Not all green flashes are alike. Evan Zucker saw a strange one off the coast of San Diego on April 15th. "I was watching the sunset from Point Loma when a ship passed in front of the sun," says Zucker. "Just then, a swirling, wavy green flash appeared over the deck."
"The timing worked out perfectly," says Zucker.
Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley has seen a lot of green flashes, but "this one is different," he says. The key clue to what happened is the extreme flatness of the sun near the horizon--a so-called "extended brim."
"That's a sign of a very strong temperature inversion layer (warm air above cold)," says Cowley. "Strong inversions produce 'ducting'. The sun's rays bounce up and down and travel long distances as they are trapped within the duct. Sometimes these layers are only a few inches thick."
The strong inversion produced an intense stack of green flashes. Apparently, the inversion layer was not flat. Waves inside it gave the flashes a crazy tilt.
"Did the ship have anything to do with all this?" says Cowley. "Unlikely, because turbulence from the ship would be more fine grained." The conjunction of the ship and the strange green flash was, as Zucker said, a case of perfect timing.
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A BLACK PEARL IN THE STRATOSPHERE: It came from Tahiti--and now it's been to the edge of space. On Feb. 27, 2020, this genuine Black Tahitian South Sea Cultured Pearl flew to the stratosphere onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray balloon, soaring more than 100,000 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California:
You can have it for $229.95. The students are selling these exotic space pearls to fund their cosmic ray monitoring program. Measuring 10 mm in diameter, the pearl has an 18K white gold clasp and is suspended from a matching 925 Sterling Silver chain. Each pearl comes with a greeting card showing the pendant in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space.
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