THE SOLAR WIND IS COMING: A stream of solar wind is approaching Earth. ETA: Aug. 25th. The gaseous material is flowing from a northern hole in the sun's atmosphere and could cause polar geomagnetic unrest when it arrives. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
SOUTH POLAR ERUPTION ON THE SUN: The poles of the sun don't often explode. Why not? There are no sunspots up there. But it happened yesterday. On August 22nd, a spotless region near the sun's south pole erupted:
The latitude of the blast was 71 degrees south, hundreds of thousands of kilometers from the nearest sunspot. An unstable filament of magnetism rose up and hurled part of itself into space--no sunspot required. SOHO (the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) recorded a CME emerging from blast site: movie.
NOAA analysts are looking at the CME right now, using computer models to determine if it might graze Earth despite its extremely southern trajectory. Stay tuned. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
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ARCTIC WOLF SPACE PENDANT: This wolf glows in the dark--and it's been to the edge of space. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched the lupine pendant to the stratosphere on board a cosmic ray research balloon. The payload of radiation sensors and jewelry traveled 107,611 feet above Earth's surface:
You can have it for $99.95. The students are selling these pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the wolf in flight and describing its 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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