SPIRAL LIGHTS ON MARS: NASA's MAVEN spacecraft has discovered a vast spiral of ultraviolet light swirling over the South Pole of Mars. A new paper just published in JGR Space Physics explains the chemistry of the aurora-like glow, but not its shape. Researchers say the spiral is a mystery. FULL STORY.
BRIGHT COMET PLUNGES TOWARD THE SUN: It's bright, and it's doomed. A new comet just discovered by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is plunging toward the sun where solar heating will almost certainly tear it apart. A SOHO coronagraph movie shows the comet's progress on August 26th:
"I know it doesn't look like much now, but this comet could become really bright--perhaps 2nd or 3rd magnitude as it passes by the sun on Thursday and Friday," says Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC.
The comet is a Kreutz sungrazer--a fragment from the breakup of a giant comet many centuries ago. SOHO has discovered thousands of Kreutz sungrazers; tiny ones divebomb the sun almost every day. This fragment is bigger and brighter than usual.
Like other Kreutz comets, this one will probably disintegrate when heated. But will that happen before it reaches the sun--or after? "Half the fun with these supersonic snowballs is just watching them and seeing what unfolds!" says Battams. Stay tuned.
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AURORAS VS. ARCTIC TWILIGHT: A solar wind stream hit Earth's magnetic field on August 26th. The impact sparked a competition: Auroras vs. Arctic twilight. The score was tied when Rayann Elzein took this picture from Utjsoki, FInland:
"The auroras are finally back at nearly 70°N latitude!" says Elzein. "The sky still does not become very dark after our long season of the midnight sun, but for a few minutes, it did get dark enough. The new aurora season is now officially launched here in the far north of Finnish Lapland, exciting months ahead!"
Earth is still inside the solar wind stream. It is flowing ~500 km/s from a northern hole in the sun's atmosphere. More twilight auroras are therefore possible on Aug. 27th. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
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DARTH VADER BOBBLEHEAD: No collection of Star Wars bobbleheads is complete without a Sith Lord. For those of you who feel the same way, we present Darth Vader in the stratosphere. On Aug. 14th, Luke's father hitched a ride onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray balloon, flying 117,454 feet above Earth's surface:
You can have him for $119.95. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus are selling Vader bobbleheads to fund their cosmic ray monitoring program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing Vader in flight and telling the story of his journey to the edge of space and back again.
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