THE SOLAR WIND IS HERE: For the 3rd day in a row, a fast-moving stream of solar wind is buffeting Earth's magnetic field. Over the weekend bright pink auroras appeared around the Arctic Circle. Additional displays are possible tonight as the solar wind continues to blow faster than 500 km/s. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
AND A CME IS COMING: A dark filament of magnetism snaking across the sun's southern hemisphere blew up on Feb. 20th. The eruption split the sun's atmosphere, hurling a CME toward Earth and creating a "canyon of fire." Click to watch a movie of the event recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO):
The glowing walls of the canyon trace the channel where the filament was suspended by magnetic forces--before it became unstable and blew. From end to end, the structure stretches more than 400,000 km.
Soon after the filament erupted, coronagraphs onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) saw a cloud of debris billowing away from the sun:
Note: The bright object at right is Venus, looking strange because it is at the edge of the coronagraph's FOV
This coronal mass ejection (CME) is not heading directly for Earth. Nevertheless, it is going to hit. NOAA computer models suggest that the western edge of the cloud will sideswipe our planet on Feb. 23rd or 24th. The glancing blow could cause minor G1-class geomagnetic storms and high latitude auroras in the hours after impact. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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THIS IS *REAL* MONEY FROM SPACE: The US Mint has just released a reverse-proof dollar coin honoring the Hubble Space Telescope. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus took it one step further, flying a whole roll of Hubble coins to the edge of space. Here they are floating 35.3 km (115,814 ft) above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California:
You can have one for $39.95. The students are selling Hubble coins to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each coin comes with a greeting card showing the money in flight and telling the story of its trip to the stratosphere. Best of all, this is real money! You can actually spend it. All sales support hands-on STEM research.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Spaceweather Photo Gallery
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