| AURORA ALERTS:
Did you miss the Northern Lights of June 25th? Next time get
a wake-up call from Space
Weather PHONE. |
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SPACE STATION DAWN:
This week, the International Space Station
is making a series of morning flybys over Europe and North America.
Seeing a brilliant spacecraft glide among the stars at dawn is a
very nice way to start the day. Check the Simple
Flybys page to find out when to look.
CELESTIAL TRIANGLE:
Tonight, after sunset, go outside and look
above the treetops. Saturn, Mars and the 1st-magnitude star Regulus
have gathered together in triangular form. Jared Holloway sends
this picture from Thomaston, Georgia:
Fix this location in your mind. A few days from now, in the same
spot, Mars will converge on Saturn and the crescent Moon will join
them both for a nicely eye-catching show. Stay tuned for details--and
meanwhile, watch the triangle. [sky
map]
more images: from
Tamas Ladanyi of Veszprem, Hungary; from
John Hacker of Carl Junction, Missouri; from
Doug Zubenel of Linn County, Kansas
NEW EARTH:
Last week, photographer Mila
Zinkova hiked to the Mammoth hot springs at Yellowstone National
Park. "It was a cool morning," she says. "The steam
from the springs slowly traveled up and the shadows of the dead
trees moved with it. I felt like I was traveling back in time when
Earth was still new and hot."
Indeed, the Earth in this picture is new
and hot. The terraces are made of calcium carbonates deposited daily
by superheated water bubbling up from Yellowstone's subterranean
magma system. Primitive microorganisms that thrive in sulfurous,
scalding water give the terraces their lovely orange, pink, yellow
and green colors. These microbes, called archaebacteria, are thought
to be relatives of the earliest life on Earth.
The moody shadows, by the way, are called "crepuscular
rays" and they can be seen anywhere: Look west at sunset for
black
shafts lancing out of jagged clouds or look at the sun through
a thicket
of leaves. Careful, though, you may find yourself transported
to a distant time. Four billion years is a long way away....
June
2008 Aurora Gallery
[Aurora Alerts] [Night-sky
Cameras]
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