GEOMAGNETIC STORMS THIS WEEKEND: Earth is inside a fast-moving stream of solar wind, which is causing minor (G1) to moderate (G2) geomagnetic storms on April 5th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras this weekend. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
A WORMHOLE OVER ALASKA: Spoiler alert: It was not a wormhole. Anyone who saw it, however, had to wonder, what was that luminous ring over central Alaska last Saturday?
Photo credit: Eric Marshall. University of Alaska (Fairbanks)
Answer: A science experiment. It was exhaust from a sounding rocket launched from the University of Alaska's Poker Flats Research Range.
Mark Conde, space physics professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, is responsible for the display. He's the principal investigator of "AWESOME" (Auroral Waves Excited by Substorm Onset Magnetic Events), a complicated mission in late March that sent three sounding rockets into the aurora borealis. The ring was created by the third rocket, launched March 29th at 1:33 am Alaska time.
"[It] was extremely bright and absolutely unmissable," says Conde, who estimates that the ring was 60 to 75 miles high with a diameter of 15 miles. "This very clean ring shape was easy to track. Looking at the way it distorted over time [gives us] a detailed view of local-scale motions in the atmosphere."
AWESOME sounding rockets fly into auroras over Poker Flats on March 25, 2025
The goal of the AWESOME project is to understand how auroras make the atmosphere boil. Normally, convection doesn't happen in the uppermost layers of Earth's atmosphere. The thermosphere is hot on top and cooler down below--an upside-down temperature gradient that stops convection in its tracks.
Auroras, however, can "light a fire" underneath the thermosphere, causing it to roil like a pot of water on a hot stove. Vapors released by the AWESOME sounding rockets trace these motions, which have a big influence on satellite drag and navigation.
According to Conde, "the mission was a success. We should now have the data to address these questions." Stay tuned for results.
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18K GOLD "ALWAYS AND FOREVER" PENDANT: Are you looking for an unforgettable gift? Consider the Always and Forever Space Pendent. On Aug. 29, 2023, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $229.95. Engraved with the words "I love you always and forever", this 18K gold-plated sterling silver pendant has a heart-shaped ruby crystal in the middle surrounded by a ring of glittering 5A cubic zirconia nuggets. It is a visually striking premium pendant.
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.
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All sales support hands-on STEM education
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