DISCOVERED! AURORAS ON A COMET: Researchers have discovered another reason to visit comets: The icebergs from deep space have their own auroras. A paper published this week in Nature Astronomy explains how Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko turns jets of water vapor from the comet's core into a weird form of Northern Lights. FULL STORY
A CRACK IN EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD: You know it's a good geomagnetic storm when *everything* turns green. Sky. Water. Earth. Even the wheels of your Jeep. That's what happened last night in Tromso, Norway:
"It was a great display--our first 'big one' of the season," says photographer Markus Varik.
The outbreak of green occurred during a G1-class geomagnetic storm. Solar wind blowing almost 500 km/s slipped through a crack in Earth's magnetic field, fueling the display. Such cracks form often in the weeks around equinoxes--a phenomenon called "the Russell-McPherron effect."
Varik is an aurora tour guide who normally gets to show these outbursts to dozens of visitors from around the world. Not this time, though. "It was a solitary experience," he says, acknowledging that 2020 will be "a tough and strange year for tourism because of the global pandemic."
Now for the good news: Varik plans to share his views throughout the season on Spaceweather.com. "This photo will not be the last one," he says. "I wish everyone a great year for auroras, and we will see you when we see you." Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
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THE WOLFSONG SPACE PENDANT: Even during wildfire season, cosmic ray measurements must go on. On Sept. 10th, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a cosmic ray balloon through the smokey plume of the massive Creek Fire burning many miles away in California's Sierra National Forest. This pendant hitched a ride to the stratosphere, flying 118,800 feet above Earth's surface:
You can have it for $99.95. The students are selling wolfsong pendants to fund their cosmic ray monitoring program. Each piece of lupine jewelry 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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