THE CME HAS ARRIVED: Better late than never? A CME hit Earth's magnetic field on March 24th at 20:16 UT. The storm cloud, which left the sun on March 20th (movie), was expected to sideswipe Earth yesterday. Its delayed arrival has disturbed Earth's polar magnetic field and could cause minor G1-class storms in the hours ahead. Aurora alerts: SMS Text
AURORAS OVER AN ERUPTING VOLCANO: The last time a volcano erupted on Iceland's Reykjanes peninsula was almost 800 years ago. So consider this a 1-in-800-year shot: "On March 24th, I photographed the Geldingadalur volcano with auroras dancing overhead," reports Christopher Mathews.
Breaking 8 centuries of quiet, the volcano erupted last week on March 19th. Lava oozing through the ground was bright enough to see from Earth orbit as incandescent fountains illuminated the dark landscape.
Mathews immediately began planning his photo shoot. "The night the Geldingadalur volcano erupted, I began scouting locations for this shot," he says. "There were good auroras over the weekend, but cloud cover blocked them--a huge disappointment. Last night an unexpected snow squall appeared, blotting out the sky and even the eruption itself--another heart-breaker. But then, around midnight, the skies cleared and auroras promptly lit off over the volcano."
We won't have to wait 800 years for the next shot. Historical accounts and ancient lava flows show that whenever Geldingadalur has experienced a significant uptick in seismic activity, intermittent eruptions follow for 100 years or so. This eruption could signal a re-awakening.
"It was a magical sight," says Mathews, "one I took especially to heart because it happened to be my birthday!" Talk about birthday candles...
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ANOTHER STARLINK LAUNCH: This morning, March 24th, SpaceX launched another batch of 60 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral. Chris Cook watched the ascent from Cape Cod, Massachusetts:
"The image shows the end of the second stage burn (SECO) at 4:37am EDT," explains Cook. "At the time, I was 1085 miles from the launch pad and the rocket was at an altitude of 167km traveling over 27,000km per hour. The sun was too low to illuminate the exhaust plume so it was lit from just the light of the rocket engine alone."
A few minutes later, the reusable Falcon 9 rocket's first stage returned to Earth for its sixth successful landing. SpaceX's drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You" caught the rocket in the Atlantic Ocean. There are now more than 1,300 Starlink satellites in orbit.
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CHRISTA MCAULIFFE 2021 PROOF SILVER DOLLAR: The US Mint has just released a new proof silver dollar commemorating the life of Christa McAuliffe, a social studies teacher selected in 1985 for NASA's Teacher in Space Program. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus have honored her, too, by flying the coin to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have this coin for $179.95. The students are selling edge of space silver dollars to support their STEM cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a certificate of authenticity and a greeting card showing the coin in flight.
On January 28, 1986, McAuliffe and six astronauts were killed during the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Earth to Sky mentor Dr. Tony Phillips, then an undergraduate astronomy student, followed her career and witnessed the explosion. It is fair to say that our ballooning program exists, in part, because of her example and dedication to space education.
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All sales support hands-on STEM education
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