DID A CME HIT EARTH? The jury's still out. A period of geomagnetic unrest during the early hours of Jan. 6th suggests that a stealthy CME might have enveloped our planet, embedded in a stream of high-speed solar wind. Auroras appeared around the Arctic Circle, but a hoped-for geomagnetic storm failed to materialize. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
STEVE VISITS FINLAND: Last night, STEVE visited Finland. The purple ribbon of light, which is not an aurora, appeared over Utsjoki in the Finnish Lapland. "This is very unusual," says Rayann Elzein, who photographed the apparition:
"I've been chasing auroras in Arctic Finland for nearly a decade, and this is only the second time I have seen STEVE here at 70 degrees N," says Elzein.
STEVE normally appears at latitudes around +50N to +55N with occasional excursions into the mid 40s and low 60s. Elzein's sighting is almost 20 degrees farther north than usual, a sign that STEVE's habitat may be wider than previously thought.
STEVE is caused by hot (3000°C) ribbons of gas, which flow through Earth's magnetosphere during some geomagnetic storms. There was no geomagnetic storm on Jan. 6th, but a stealthy CME embedded in the solar wind may have stirred these currents anyway.
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A FAR OUT VALENTINE'S GIFT: Valentine's Day is coming. To get ready for the most romantic day of the year, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a crystal bouquet of roses to the stratosphere on Jan. 1, 2021. Here it is floating on a cosmic ray balloon 102,690 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California:
You can have them for $99.95. The students are selling space roses to fund their cosmic ray ballooning program. The flowers are made of high-quality Borosilicate Crown Crystal often used in lenses and prisms. That's why they glitter so colorfully in high-altitude sunlight. Each bouquet comes with a greeting card showing the flowers in flight and telling the story of their journey to the stratosphere and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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