They came from outer space--and you can have one! Genuine meteorites are now on sale in the Space Weather Store. | | |
COMET ISON METEOR SHOWER? A new model of the debris flowing from Comet ISON suggests that the sungrazer could dust the Earth with meteoroids in early 2014. Experts discuss the possibilities in a video from Science@NASA.
CME TARGETS MERCURY: The magnetic canopy of sunspot AR1719 erupted during the late hours of April 18th, hurling a bright CME into space. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory photographed the cloud racing away from the sun's western limb:
Earth was not in the line of fire. Instead, the CME is heading for Mercury: ETA April 20th. NASA's MESSENGER probe in orbit around Mercury will be monitoring the effects of the impact. If the CME overwhelms Mercury's relatively weak magnetic field, it could scour material off the planet's surface creating a temporary atmosphere and adding material to Mercury's comet-like tail. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.
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LYRID METEOR SHOWER: Earth is entering a stream of debris from ancient Comet Thatcher, source of the annual Lyrid Meteor Shower. Usually the shower is mild (10-20 meteors per hour) but unmapped filaments of dust in the comet's tail sometimes trigger outbursts ten times stronger. Forecasters expect the peak to occur on April 21-22. Photographer Jeff Berkes caught this early-arriving Lyrid during a deep exposure of the Milky Way on April 14th:
"On the night I saw this meteor, I had been traveling for days while sleeping out of my car as I continue my dark sky projects," says Berkes. "Watching a meteor fall right through the middle of your frame is the best! In addition to this Lyrid over the swamps of Maryland, I was also able to capture a couple of Lyrids over the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and the Bodie Island Lighthouse. This is a good sign that the Lyrids are coming!"
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SPRING SUNSET: The sun can do more than spark radiation storms and ignite auroras. It also affects the mood of observers. "I find that spring sunsets are a good anti-depressant," says photographer Kamila Mazurkiewicz who sends this picture, taken yesterday evening, from Pulawy, Poland:
The photo depicts "a black cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), a loner, sitting quietly on a withered branch," says Mazurkiewicz. "The sound of birds, the sight of dead trees in the backwaters of the Wisla river--I savor the taste of spring."
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