CORONAL MASS EJECTION: Remember the Doomsday Machine from Star Trek (TOS)? Take a look at this CME. The doppelganger solar storm cloud rocketed away from the sun during the early hours of Oct. 24th. It will not hit Earth. The source of the blast was a filament of magnetism near the sun's northeastern limb, which became unstable and exploded. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
SUDDENLY, A DARK FEATURE ON MARS: On Friday night, longtime Mars photographer Maximilian Teodorescu of Magurele, Romania, looked at the Red Planet and noticed something he hadn't seen before. "There is a dark streak in the Tharsis volcanic plateau," he says. The mystery smudge is circled in these two images separated by about 40 minutes:
Fun: Click here and cross your eyes to merge the two images into a 3D Mars
"The feature was not visible just a few nights ago when I photographed the same region," says Teodorescu, who offers an Oct. 19th image for comparison. "Now, I have seen it two nights in a row (Oct. 22nd and 23rd), and other observers have seen it too."
What is it? Teodorescu's first thought was "it must be some kind of cloud or streamer of dust." Indeed, it is located in the same general area where a long icy cloud sometimes forms when wind whips around the summit of Arsia Mons, a huge extinct volcano.
To investigate further, Teodorescu projected the streak down onto a Mars Orbiter image of the region:
"The streak is about 600 km long," he says. "It is close to Arsia Mons, but not a perfect match. The streak does not appear to be connected to the volcano."
An animation of the feature suggests that it located up among the clouds as opposed to, say, a darkening of the Martian surface. "It actually looks like it is moving with the surrounding clouds (which are visible!) away from Arsia Mons," says Teodorescu.
Mars photographers everywhere are encouraged to keep an eye out for the 'Dark Mark' whenever the Tharsis volcanoes are facing Earth. Report your observations here, and we will share them!
Realtime Mars Photo Gallery
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RED AURORAS OVER DENMARK: Earth is inside a stream of high-speed solar wind flowing from a northern hole in the sun's atmosphere. First contact on Oct. 23rd sparked a surprising display of red auroras over Denmark:
"Last night, this unexpected beauty appeared over Hammershus Castle Ruins in Bornholm," says photographer Ruslan Merzlyakov. "So crazy to experience Northern Lights at 55°N!"
Forecasters expect Earth to remain inside the solar wind stream for days. High latitude sky watchers (especially in Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia) should remain alert for auroras through Oct. 26th. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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NORTHERN LIGHTS PENDANT: Last December, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a cosmic ray balloon to the stratosphere. This Northern Lights pendant went along for the ride, flying more than 107,612 feet above the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains of central California:
You can have it for $129.95. The students are selling these pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the pendant in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space. It makes an out-of-this-world Christmas gift!
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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