MOON-MARS CONJUNCTION: Don't miss this. Tonight, Oct. 2nd, the Harvest Moon and Mars are in conjunction, less than 1o apart for some observers. The Moon is nearly full, and bright red Mars is only days away from its closest approach to Earth, making the conjunction extra bright and beautiful. The pair rise in the east just after sunset and stay up all night long: Sky map.
RED SPRITES AND GREEN GHOSTS: Christophe Suarez of Genoa, Italy, wasn't trying to photograph sprites when he pointed his camera at a distant thunderstorm on Sept. 10th. But this magnificent specimen was too big to miss:
"I was shooting a thunderstorm located over the island of Corsica almost 400 km away from me," says Suarez. "Suddenly this jellyfish sprite appeared!" Its red form stretched 100 km high, nearly touching the edge of space.
Note the slightly-green caps on top of the sprite. These are a newly discovered phenomenon called "Green Ghosts." When sprites intersect Earth's airglow layer 96-97 km high, they can excite oxygen atoms, producing an aurora-like glow. Green Ghosts were discovered just one year ago by Hank Schyma, a Houston Texas-based storm chaser better known to his fans as Pecos Hank. Only a handful of Green Ghosts have ever been photographed, so this is an area of cutting edge research.
Realtime Sprite Photo Gallery
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THE PINK AURORA PEARL: Inspired by the color of rare pink auroras, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a pink pearl to the stratosphere on Sept. 25th. It hitched a ride onboard the students' cosmic ray balloon, and reached an altitude 112,205 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California:
You can have it for $249.95. The students are selling space pearls to support their cosmic ray monitoring program. Measuring 9 mm in diameter, the Aurora Pearl is mounted on a 925 sterling silver infinity twist and suspended on a matching 17 inch long 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.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
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Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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