SpaceWeather.com Archive — Sat, Apr 20, 2024

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LYRID METEOR ALERT: The first significant meteor shower in months is about to begin. The annual Lyrid meteor shower peaks on the night of April 21-22 when Earth passes through a stream of debris from Comet Thatcher (C/1861 G1). These meteors are best seen from the northern hemisphere where the radiant is high in the sky before dawn: sky map.

STRONG GEOMAGNETIC STORM (G3): Earth's magnetic field is still reverberating from a CME strike on April 19th, which produced an unexpectedly strong G3 -class geomagnetic storm. "We had an amazing display of the Northern Lights over Östersund, Sweden," reports Göran Strand. "Here's a 360 panoramic image I made from the local ski slope."

"This was probably our aurora season finale since the astronomical nights ended a few days ago. It's always a bit of melancholy feeling seeing the nights get brighter and the night sky fades away for the season. But this finale was a perfect end to the season and I'm glad I got clear skies to be able to enjoy it."

In the United States, auroras descended as far south as latitude +39N. Dan Bush photographed the lights from Albany, Missouri:

"The display lasted more than an hour centered around 10:00 UT," says Bush. "The red color was not visible to the naked eye, but it was an easy catch for my sky surveillance camera."

Bush wondered, are these red auroras or, instead, an SAR arc? Red SAR arcs are caused by heat energy leaking into the atmosphere from Earth's ring current system during strong geomagnetic storms. Answer: They are genuine red auroras. The form and dynamics of the display are conclusive.

more images: from Tyler Schlitt of Washington, Missouri; from Sacha Layos of Fairbanks, Alaska; from Robbin Gälliner of Andersön, Sweden; from Thomas McCarty of Fairbanks, Alaska

Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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18K GOLD TOTAL ECLIPSE PENDANT: This pendant has touched the shadow of the Moon. On April 8, 2024, during a total eclipse of the sun in Texas, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon. Floating more than 118,110 feet high, the locket spent 3 minutes and 45 seconds wrapped in lunar shadow:

You can have it for $199.95. The 18K gold-plated locket is inscribed with the words "I love you to the Moon and back," and opens to hold a personal photo or other small item. It comes with a greeting card showing the locket in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space during the total eclipse.