AURORAS LOVE SEPTEMBER: September is one of the best months of the year for auroras. NASA says so. At this time of year, even minor gusts of solar wind can spark an Arctic light show. Why? Two reasons: (1) Increasing autumn darkness and (2) the Russell-McPherron effect. This sets the stage for possible high-latitude auroras on Sept. 5-6 when a stream of solar wind is expected to reach Earth. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
RELUCTANTLY RED AURORAS: It's not easy for Earth's atmosphere to make red auroras. Even longtime Arctic photographers and tour guides rarely see them. Yet, on Sept. 3rd, there they were:
"I was waiting for two CMEs that were supposed to hit Earth on Sept. 2nd and 3rd," says photographer Catalin Tapardel of Alberta, Canada. "They never showed up." Earth's magnetic field was still quiet when "I saw a nice red band with pillars," he says.
What's so tricky about red? The action takes place more than 150 km above Earth's surface. At that high altitude, oxygen atoms excited by solar wind slowly spit out red photons. Emphasis on slowly. The radiative lifetime of the transition is 110 seconds--an eternity at the quantum scale. The atoms must remain undisturbed that long to produce their red light.
Quiet may be a key ingredient for these reluctant auroras.The hours following two missed CMEs might have been, ironically, the perfect time to see them. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
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THIS IS *REAL* MONEY FROM SPACE: Earlier this year, the US Mint released a reverse-proof dollar coin honoring the Hubble Space Telescope. You can no longer buy these coins from the Mint, but you can get some from Earth to Sky Calculus. The students launched the coins to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can buy one coin for $49.95. 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.
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All sales support hands-on STEM education
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