Metallic photos of the sun by renowned photographer Greg Piepol bring together the best of art and science. Buy one or a whole set. They make a stellar gift. |
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IS
IT SNOWING MICROBES ON ENCELADUS?
As NASA's Cassini spacecraft completes its deepest-ever
pass through the plumes of Enceladus, researchers
are wondering if it might be snowing microbes there.
The idea is not so far-fetched, they say, as evidence
mounts for a "uniquely accessible" habitable
zone on Saturn's icy moon. [full
story]
NORTHERN
LIGHTS OVER NEBRASKA: A solar wind
stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field, causing
magnetic unrest and auroras at high latitudes. Last
night faint Northern Lights descended all the way
south to Nebraska. Click to view a movie of the
display, photographed by Chris Allington of Crofton,
NE:
"I certainly didn't expect this
tonight, but the
plots were interesting enough to get me out
and investigate the northern sky with the camera,"
says Allington. "Suprisingly, around 9:30pm
local time I could see the color of the aurora on
my camera so I decided to head to a wind farm near
my house. The display got much more vibrant and
lasted nearly 4 hours from 10pm to 2am. It's not
often that auroras are hardly in the forecast and
we see them as far south as NEBRASKA! "
The cause of the display was the interplanetary
magnetic field (IMF),
which tipped south and opened a
crack in Earth's magnetosphere. Solar wind poured
in to fuel the light. More high-latitude auroras
are possible tonight: NOAA forecasters estimate
a 50% chance of polar geomagnetic storms as the
solar wind continues to blow. Aurora
alerts: text,
phone.
more images: from
Nenne Åman of Arjeplog Northern Sweden; from
Randy Halverson of Kennebec, South Dakota; from
Paul Martin of Ballintoy Harbour, Antrim coast,
N.Ireland; from
Claus Vogel of Pelly Crossing, Yukon; from
David Done of Anzac, Alberta Canada; from
Ray Mckenzie of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada;
from
Dirk Obudzinski of Eagle Summit, Alaska; from
Adrian Maricic of Loch Leven, Fife Scotland;
from
Mark Shaw of Dungiven, Northern Ireland; from
Martin McKenna of Ballintoy Harbour, Co. Antrim
Coast, N. Ireland; from
Chris Allington of Crofton, Nebraska;
ATREX
EXPERIMENT LIGHTS UP THE NIGHT SKY:
Before sunrise on March 27th, sky watchers up and
down the eastern seaboard of the United States witnessed
a strange apparition. A quintet of milky-white plumes
appeared in the night sky, twisting in the winds
at the edge of space. "It was pretty unreal
and very exciting to see," says eye-witness
Jack Fusco, who sends this picture from Seaside
Park in New Jersey:
The plumes were chemical tracers
(trimethyl
aluminum) deposited in the upper reaches of
Earth's atmosphere by five rockets launched rapid-fire
from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
The goal of the experiment, named ATREX
(Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment), is to study
3D turbulence in the thermosphere.
"We saw the rockets lift off
and then slowly release their chemicals, creating
trails in the sky," reports
Alice B. of Loudoun County, Virginia. "We could
also see what I assume were the rocket remnants
falling back to Earth."
"Once the chemical tracers from
the rockets were released, the view was amazing,"
adds
Bryan Lauber of Frenchtown, NJ. "The tracers
were extremely bright and seemed to just fall out
of the sky!"
more images: from
Harry Pherson of Wallops, Virginia; from
Jeff Berkes of West Chester, PA; from
Ray Maher of Maurice River Township, N.J; from
Mark A. Brown of Carlisle, PA; from
Robert T. Smith of Stoneville, NC; from
Rich McPeters near Annapolis, Maryland; from
Cliff Baldwin of Aquebogue, NY; from
David Murr of Louisa, Virginia; from
Jim Scott of Fleetwood, PA;
ANOTHER
CME FROM SUNSPOT AR1429: Transiting
the farside of the sun, never-say-die sunspot AR1429
erupted during the late hours of March 26th, producing
its 11th major CME. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
(SOHO) photographed the cloud flying over the sun's
eastern limb:
According to a forecast
track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space
Weather Lab, the CME will hit two spacecraft, STEREO-B
and Spitzer, on March 28th. Earth is not in the
line of fire.
This event shows that AR1429, the
source of several strong
geomagnetic storms in early March, is still
active. It will begin turning back toward our planet
about a week from now. Stay tuned.
February
2012 Aurora Gallery
[previous Februaries: 2011,
2010,
2009,
2008,
2007, 2006,
2004, 2003,
2002]
