FAST SOLAR WIND: Today, Earth is inside a stream of fast-moving solar wind with speeds occasionally topping 700 km/s. The action of the stream is sparking G1-class geomagnetic storms around the Arctic Circle. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
A TINY SPACECRAFT IN DEEP SPACE: This week, NASA's Orion spacecraft reached its farthest distance from Earth -- 268,563 miles away. That's farther than any other human-rated spacecraft in the history of the Space Age. Astronomer Gianluca Masi of Ceccano, Italy, photographed Orion approaching the farpoint:
"Taking such a picture was quite difficult," says Masi . "The spacecraft is only 5 meters in diameter, and at this extreme distance it was fainter than a 16th magnitude star. I managed to capture Orion using the Virtual Telescope Project's robotic facility in Italy. The telescope tracked Orion's apparent motion, this is why stars look like long trails while the probe is a sharp dot of light."
While Masi was photographing Orion, Orion was photographing Masi. This is what the spacecraft saw looking back at Earth:
As seen from Orion, Earth and the Moon had nearly identical gibbous phases. We've all seen a gibbous Moon, but the one Orion saw was different. The daylit landscape was all farside--the side of the Moon invisible from Earth. Orion was more than 40,000 miles above the Moon's farside at the time of the snapshot.
Orion is now halfway through its 25.5 day mission to the Moon. NASA says the spacecraft remains in healthy condition as it continues its journey in distant retrograde lunar orbit. Orion is set to return to Earth on Dec. 11th with a record-hot reentry and a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Check NASA's Artemis blog for updates.
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STORM TROOPER WHISKEY GLASS: If you like your drink cold--really cold--this glass is for you. On Nov. 25th, it flew to the stratosphere onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon. At the apex of the flight (117,109 ft), the temperature was a frosty -63C:
You can have it for $99.95. This double-walled whiskey glass is cast from one of the original molds for Storm Trooper helmets used in Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977. Made of high quality borosilicate, the glass is thin, hard and lead-free. It makes a great Christmas gift for Star Wars fans.
The glass comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight, and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again.
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