MINOR GEOMAGNETIC STORM: A minor (G1-class) geomagnetic storm is underway as Earth enters a stream of fast-moving (~500 km/s) solar wind. Arctic sky watchers should be lert for auroras mixed with waning summer twilight. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
EVENING SKY SHOW: Tonight, after the sun goes down, step outside and look south. The nearly full Moon is there, forming a skinny triangle with Saturn and Jupiter. The three brightest objects in the evening sky are putting on a good show. Don't miss it! Sky map.
COMET TOAST: The solar system has one less comet. Yesterday, Aug. 27th, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) watched as a comet plunged into the sun and disappeared. Fierce solar heating completely destroyed the icy visitor from the outer solar system. Click on the image to see the comet's last hours:
One comet went in, none came out.
Discovered only two days ago, 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 was bigger and brighter than usual, but it suffered the same fate as its siblings: annihilation.
Some readers have called attention to two CMEs billowing away from the sun around the same time that the comet was disintegrating. They are conspicuous in this movie:
Did the comet make the sun explode? Probably not. The comet disintegrated high above the sun's surface--more than 350,000 km away. There's no known way for the wispy, vaporous remains of a lightweight comet to dislodge a billion-ton cloud of hot plasma from the sun, much less two billion-ton clouds of plasma. Chalk it up to coincidence.
PS: The CMEs are not heading our way. Both will miss Earth.
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STERLING SILVER MOONSTONE PENDANT: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Nothing says "I love you" like a moonstone from the edge of space. On Jan 27th, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew this moonstone wrapped in a hand-crafted sterling silver Celtic love knot 35.1 km (115,158 feet) above Earth's surface:
You can have it for $179.95. The students are selling these pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space. All sales support the Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray ballooning program and hands-on STEM research.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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