MINOR GEOMAGNETIC STORM--IN PROGRESS: A minor G1-class geomagnetic storm is in progress on March 2nd as Earth enters a stream of high-speed solar wind. The gaseous material is flowing 600+ km/s from a southern hole in the sun's atmosphere. Arctic sky watchers should be alert for auroras. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
MARS AND THE PLEIADES: When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look up. Mars is approaching the Pleiades star cluster for a beautiful naked-eye conjunction. Heiko Ulbricht photographed the pair last night over Saxony, Germany:
"It was a beautiful sight--and a strange one, too," says Ulbricht. "Just to the left of Mars is Aldebaran, a red-giant star in Taurus. At the moment, Mars and Aldebaran have the same brightness (magnitude +0.9) and a nearly identical color. I thought I was seeing double!"
See for yourself. The conjunction and Martian doppelganger are easy to find among the bright winter constellations of Orion, Gemini, and Taurus. March 3rd is the night of closest approach, when Mars and the Pleiades are only 2.6 degrees apart. They won't be this close again until 2038.
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GREEN FRAGMENT BREAKS OFF THE SUN (NOT REALLY): On Feb. 28th, Mike Kelly was watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean west of Redwood National Park, when a green fragment broke away from the sun. Kelly took this picture just before the sun sank beneath the waves:
Of course, it's a mirage. "A mock mirage green flash, to be exact," says Kelly.
A stack of temperature inversions above the ocean surface sliced the solar disk into pancake-like layers. "I was super happy to see three of the 'disappearing pancakes' suddenly turn green!" says Kelly. The Pacific Ocean is a great place to see such mirages as frequent temperature gradients in the sea air magnify tiny differences in atmospheric refraction of red and green light.
Images of the sun on March 2nd reveal that the solar disk is intact again, ready for more green flashes.
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THIS IS *REAL* MONEY FROM SPACE: The US Mint has 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
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