WAITING FOR THE CME: April 6th passed quietly, contrary to predictions of a CME strike and geomagnetic storm. However, there is some confidence that the CME is still coming. NOAA forecasters expect a glancing blow on April 7th, possibly sparking minor G1-class geomagnetic storms. Aurora alerts: SMS Text
A MAGNETIC FILAMENT ERUPTS: Earlier today, April 7th, a filament of magnetism in the sun's southern hemisphere rose up and erupted. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the blast:
Debris from the explosion tore through the sun's atmosphere, creating a coronal mass ejection (CME). We await additional data from SOHO coronagraphs to determine if there may be an Earth-directed component.
This was one of three long filaments on the Earthside of the sun poised to erupt. One down, two to go. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
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CHINESE ROCKET PHOTOBOMBS AURORA: A week-long mystery has just been solved. On Tuesday, March 29th, webcams and sky watchers in the interior of Alaska, witnessed a strange blue ball of light cut across the night sky. "It seemed like it had something that was spinning inside," Fairbanks photographer Leslie Smallwood told local news station KUAC. Physicists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks had no explanation--except it looked gaseous.
Above: An aurora webcam snapshot of the luminous blue ball. Credit: Marketa S. Murray
The explanation, it turns out, may be traced back to the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China. Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Boston says sightings of the orb in Alaska match the flight of a Chinese satellite.
"I am very confident that what people saw was the dumping of fuel from a Chinese rocket stage," he explains. "This rocket — the Longmarch 6A or Chang Zheng 6A — was launched early on March 29 from China, placed 2 satellites in orbit and, calculating its orbital path, it passed over the Yukon area about 350 miles up at exactly the time that this glow was seen in the Alaskan sky."
Eyewitnesses said the orb was bigger than a full Moon. In fact, the cloud was a few hundred miles across. The tumbling rocket booster released its unused fuel into space where it expanded into a nearly spherical cloud of frozen propellant, reflecting high-altitude sunlight above Earth's atmosphere.
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STERLING SILVER DOLPHIN PENDANT: On Feb. 28, 2022, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a cosmic ray research balloon. This sterling silver dolphin hitched a ride, flying 111,101 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of Central California:
You can have it for $142.95. Leaping through blue crystal waves, the playful cetacean is 100% 925 sterling silver. It comes with a matching 18-inch sterling silver chain The entire pendant is lead-free, nickel-free, cadmium-free, and totally hypoallergenic.
Each pendant comes with a greeting card showing the dolphin in flight, and telling the story of its trip to the edge of space and back again. All sales support the student's cosmic ray research program.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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