A SOLAR SAIL IN EARTH ORBIT: Yesterday, Aug. 29th, NASA unfurled a solar sail in Earth orbit. Marco Langbroek saw it from Leiden, the Netherlands. About the size of a small apartment, the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) is teaching NASA how to maneuver a spacecraft like a sailboat. Check Heavens Above for flybys of your hometown.
VERTICAL STAR TRAILS: A favorite of astrophotographers since the invention of the camera, star trails are dizzying. Long exposures reveal a swirling vortex of starlight around the North Celestial Pole. Instead of a vortex, however, Wioleta Gorecka recently visited the Seyschelles and found a rain storm:
"Summer is a good time to travel to interesting places. One of them is the equator, where vertical startrails can be photographed," says Gorecka. "During my vacation in the beautiful Seychelles, this was one of my main goals, and the effect exceeded my expectations."
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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GLOW-IN-THE-DARK AURORA PENDANT: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider the Glow-in-the-Dark Aurora Pendant. On July 8, 2024, it flew to the stratosphere onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $99.95. For 3 hours, the necklace floated 106,444 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California while radiation sensors inside the balloon's payload gathered data for the students' cosmic ray monitoring project. It comes with a greeting card showing the pendant in flight and explaining the Earth to Sky Calculus radiation experiment.
The students of Earth to Sky Calculus are selling space jewelry to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Don't wait for Christmas--get yours now!
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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