CANYON OF FIRE: A canyon of fire just opened on the sun. Movie: global, regional. The walls of the canyon were carved by an erupting filament of magnetism, which went on to form the core of a CME now leaving the sun. Stay tuned for updates about possible Earth impacts. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
SOLAR FLARE AND SHOCK WAVE (UPDATED): Active sunspot AR3213 exploded during the early hours of Feb 10th (0303 UT), producing an M3.7-class solar flare and a shock wave in the sun's atmosphere. This extreme ultraviolet movie from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows what happened:
The shock wave is the shadowy disturbance expanding radially from the blast site. Based on the drift rate of a Type II solar radio burst reported by the US Air Force, the shock speed was 820 km/s (1.8 million mph).
Update: Shock waves like these usually lift a CME out of the sun's atmosphere. In this case, however, no CME was detected by SOHO coronagraphs. Without a CME to rattle Earth's magnetic field, the event will not cause a geomagnetic storm. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
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ARCTIC GEOMAGNETIC STORM: Last night, Feb. 9th, the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) near Earth tipped south, lowering our planet's defenses against the solar wind. Plasma rushed into Earth's magnetosphere and sparked a G1-class geomagnetic storm. Jónína Óskarsdóttir photographed the resulting outburst of auroras over Fáskrúðsfjörður, Iceland:
"Last night was great," says Óskarsdóttir. "There were 3 hours of beautiful northern lights. Moonrise was orange and the auroras ranged in color from green to purple."
The storm is over now. Another is not expected for at least the next 3 days. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
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18K GOLD CUPID'S COMPASS: Are you looking for a romantic gift? Consider Cupid's Compass. This premuim 18K gold-filled pendant flew to the stratosphere on Jan. 6th onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $259.95. Engraved with the words "I'd be lost without you", the hypoallergenic pendant has a 5-star cubic zirconia crystal in the middle surrounded by a ring of equally high-grade 5A cubic zirconia nuggets. It is a visually striking pendant that makes a once-in-a-lifetime Valentine's, anniversary or birthday gift.
The students are selling space pendants to pay the helium bill for their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its trip to the stratosphere and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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