SOLAR FLARE AND RADIO BLACKOUT: Unstable sunspot AR3288 erupted today, May 1st at 1309 UT, producing a brief but intense M7-class solar flare. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash:
Radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere, disrupting the normal propagation of radio transmissions on the planet below. Mariners and ham radio operators around the Atlantic Ocean may have noticed loss of signal below 20 MHz for as much as 30 minutes after the explosion.
Update: This flare was too brief to lift a coronal mass ejection (CME) out of the sun's atmosphere. SOHO coronagraph images confirm that no significant CME has left the blast site. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
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POSSIBLE MANMADE NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS: On Sunday night, SpaceX launched a Falcon Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral. On Monday morning, Homer Murray Jr.of Big Wells, Texas witnessed unusual "night-shining" clouds in the pre-dawn sky. Coincidence? This is what he saw:
"I just got out of work, and it seemed like a bright sunrise," says Murray. "I looked over and saw a brilliant whitish-blue haze just above the lower clouds. They looked like noctilucent clouds (NLCs), but I'm having a hard time accepting that because of how far south we are and it being this early in the year. Maybe Space-X?"
His analysis is correct. May 1st is too early and Texas is too far south for natural noctilucent clouds, which typically form in late Spring/early Summer around Earth's north pole. The answer is probably SpaceX. Exhaust from the Falcon Heavy rocket may have created ice crystals in the upper stratosphere or lower mesosphere, forming a manmade NLC.
Unfortunately, NASA's AIM spacecraft, which orbits Earth to monitor NLCs, cannot give us the answer. A dead bettery has temporarily (and perhaps permanently) disabled the orbiter. We wish the AIM team well in their efforts to revive the beloved spacecraft.
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SILVER SNOOPY SPACE PENDANT: Snoopy has touched space. This sterling silver pendant flew to the stratosphere on April 15, 2023, floating on a cosmic ray balloon 117,400 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California:
You can have it for $159.95. Space Snoopy makes a great birthday, anniversary or Mother's day gift. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus are selling space pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the pendant in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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