WEAK IMPACT: Arriving hours later than expected, a halo CME hit Earth's magnetic field on Nov. 12th (~0600 UT). The impact was weak, perhaps because the CME was moving more slowly than forecasters thought. Even so, first contact with the storm cloud was enough to spark a brief display of auroras over Canada:
"The CME hit around local midnight, and I saw my first aurras ever! " says Andrew N. of Fort McMurray, Alberta. "Too bad it wasn't more of a direct hit. I am pretty much hooked now."
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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SOLAR CONJUNCTION OF MARS: Mars is about to pass directly behind the sun (Nov. 17th). That's a problem for NASA, because radio transmissions passing through the sun's atmosphere can become garbled, commanding Mars rovers and orbiters to do nonsensical things. To prevent confusion, NASA will hold off commanding its Mars fleet for two weeks, from Nov. 11th to 25th.
During this time, rovers Perseverance and Curiosity will remain parked as they monitor changes on local weather and radiation. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter will be grounded. It'll stay busy using its color camera to study the movement of sand--really! Mars orbiters will gather data as usual. All these missions will relay their stored data to NASA after the conjunction is over.
Lately, we have been using images from Perseverance to detect large sunspots on the farside ofthe sun. Those reports will resume after Thanksgiving.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
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VOYAGER GOLDEN RECORD CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT: This is a must-have Christmas ornament for space fans: The Voyager Golden Record. On Oct. 31, 2023, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $99.95. The 3-inch aluminum disk is imprinted with instructions intended for extraterrestrials, telling them how to play the phonographs now sailing through interstellar space onboard NASA's Voyager probes. Having touched the edge of space, it's the closest thing on Earth to an actual Golden Record.
The students are selling these unique ornaments to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the ornament in flight and extra materials decoding the markings on the disk.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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Realtime Comet Photo Gallery
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