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AURORA WATCH: A brief but strong geomagnetic storm last night sparked auroras as far south as Colorado: gallery. Earth has since entered a solar wind stream, raising the possibility of more auroras tonight, mainly over Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia.
SPECTACULAR PROMINENCES: If you have a solar telescope, please point it at the sun today. There are some spectacular prominences leaping over the limb of our star. The orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) snapped this picture just hours ago:
These structures are huge: Dozens of planet Earths could fit beneath the arch on the image's righthand side. That particular prominence is erupting and will not survive long. Others around the limb appear stable, however, and should persist for days. Take a look!
more images: from Alan Friedman of Buffalo, New York; from Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from Andrew Chatman of Pittsford, NY; from John Stetson of Falmouth, Maine; from Didier Favre of Brétigny, France; from Peter Paice of Belfast, Northern Ireland; from Cai-Uso Wohler of Bispingen, Germany;
COMET UPDATE: Dying comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann continues to break apart. Astronomers are tracking at least 20 fragments approaching Earth for a harmless but beautiful close encounter in May: full story.
Fragment B, in particular, has brightened 15-fold since April 2nd, sprouting two jets in the process (IAU Electronic Telegram 464). These events signal a possible disruption of 73P-B into even more fragments. (continued below)
Above: On April 5th, photographer Pete Lawrence pointed his 3-inch telescope at fragment B and "saw the comet without any problem."
Amateur astronomers with backyard telescopes and CCD cameras can monitor the ongoing disintegration. 73P-B is now glowing like a 10th magnitude star in the constellation Bootes: sky map, ephemeris.