THE SOLAR WIND IS HERE: A minor stream of solar wind is brushing Earth's magnetic field today, June 7th. The gaseous material is flowing from a northern hole in the sun's atmosphere. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras, especially in the southern hemisphere where waxing autumn darkness favors visibility. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
B-CLASS SOLAR FLARE: The scorpion's tail (described below) may have snapped. New-cycle sunspot just produced a B6.4-class solar flare. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the explosion on June 7th at 21:48 UT:
B-class solar flares are considered to be relatively minor. But consider this: A typical B-class solar flare releases as much energy as 100 million WWII atomic bombs. Only on the sun, which is itself a 1027 ton self-contained nuclear explosion, would such a blast be considered "minor."
In fact, B-flares can hurl CMEs toward Earth and spark auroras. Probably not this time, though. Initial movies of the explosion suggest that no debris is heading our way.
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A SUNSPOT WITH A SCORPION'S TAIL: Sunspot AR2765 isn't the biggest thing on the sun. Its tail is. Efrain Morales Rivera photographed the structure from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico:
"To take the picture, I used an 80mm telescope with a Lunt H-alpha filter," says Rivera. Such filters are tuned to the red glow of solar hydrogen. They are excellent at revealing long magnetic filaments filled with hot gas--which is what the "Scorpion's tail" is.
The tail of AR2765 stretches almost 70,000 km from end-to-end, and it is not entirely stable. Images from multiple astronomers show it changing shape and direction. If the tail twists enough to reconnect with itself--bang!--an explosion could occur. Monitoring is encouraged.
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ARCTIC WOLF PENDANT: This wolf glows in the dark--and it's been to space. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched this special pendant to the stratosphere on April 15, 2020, on board a high-altitude cosmic ray balloon. The payload of radiation sensors (and lupine jewelry) traveled 107,611 feet above Earth's surface:
You can have it for $99.95. The students are selling these pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the wolf in flight and describing its journey to the stratosphere and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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