STILL WAITING FOR THE CME: Hope is fading that an aurora-producing CME might strike Earth this weekend. The storm cloud left the sun on Sept. 8th, propelled by an explosion in the magnetic canopy of sunspot AR2864. NOAA analysts thought it might graze our planet late on Sept. 11th, but it has not yet arrived. Two options remain: Tardy or off-target. Either way, a geomagnetic storm is unlikely. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
A PROMINENCE BLOWS ITS TOP: The photo-op is over. A huge solar prominence that astronomers around the world have been photographing this weekend has blown its top.NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the eruption:
Prominences are giant clouds of hydrogen held above the surface of the sun by magnetic fields. This was one of the biggest in years. At its apex yesterday it curled around almost 20% of the sun's circumference. Such large structures made of plasma and magnetism rarely last long and, as expected, the prominence collapsed on Sept. 12th, hurling part of itself into space.
A CME might be forthcoming. Confirmation awaits fresh data from SOHO coronagraphs. If so, the cloud is unlikely to strike Earth (another miss!) because of the prominence's location on the far eastern limb of the sun.
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STERLING SILVER OPAL PENDANT: It's our most beautiful space pendant ever: The Sterling Silver Opal. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus just launched one to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon. Here it is floating 103,018 ft above Earth's surface on Sept. 5th:
You can have it for $179.95. Wrapped in a sterling silver Celtic love knot, the opal is suspended from a matching 18-inch chain. Each pendant comes with a greeting card showing the opal in flight, telling the story of its trip to the edge of space and back again.
Opals are cousins of moonstones; in fact they look the same in low light. But when bright sunlight strikes an opal, something special happens. A spray of color emerges from the stone. This happened while the stone was in the stratosphere (see above) and it remains capable of this beautiful trick back on Earth.
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