Tag Archives: Aurora

Across the Universe: Solar Windjamming

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This entry is part 1 of 186 in the series Across the Universe

This column from The Tablet first ran in 2018. The pull of a magnet on a refrigerator is strong enough to hold up a child’s drawing; but move it just a fraction of an inch away and suddenly the tug between the fridge and the magnet is almost nothing. Planets have magnetic fields, too; Earth’s magnetic field points compass needles and gives us the auroras, or “northern lights”. But the strengths of planetary fields, too, drop quickly as you move away from the planet. Earth’s magnetic field doesn’t even reach to its own Moon. The Sun, however, has a magnetic field whose effect can be felt even at the Earth, and indeed out beyond the orbits of the outer planets. Magnetic storms on the Sun can affect our auroras, and occasionally interfere with cell phone and radio transmissions. How is that possible? It’s all connected to a phenomenon called the “solar wind”. The Sun is made mostly of hydrogen gas; … Continue reading →

In the Sky this Week – February 27, 2018

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This entry is part 35 of 113 in the series In the Sky This Week

The southern predawn sky hasn’t changed much in the last week; Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, Antares and Spica are splashed across the sky, with Mars getting a little closer to Saturn each morning. On Mar. 1st, the Moon will be 0° 5′ from Regulus in the constellation Leo. This would make an excellent conjunction to view through binoculars! The Moon plows through the star and planet party in the southern predawn sky from Mar. 4-12 Winter constellations are still in the southern sky after sunset, but they are setting earlier each day as spring approaches. The Moon The Moon is a waxing gibbous visible in the eastern sky during the afternoon and setting shortly after 5:00 AM. The Moon will be full on Mar. 2nd, and will be a waning gibbous afterwards. The Sun A small new sunspot group, named AR2700 (AR=Active Region) is crossing the face of the Sun; while flare-free, it is showing a lot of coronal loop activity. SpaceWeather.com … Continue reading →

Sun Spots, CMEs, and Solar Storms!

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Oh my! Sol apparently didn’t get the memo that it’s past solar maximum, and time to be heading towards solar minimum. There are a couple massive sunspot groups (Active Regions) on the Sun, and one in particular has magnetic fields harboring enough energy to generate X-class solar flares. AR2674 hasn’t changed much in size over the the last few days, but it is still a very active region with large coronal loops. AR2673 was an innocuous little spot last week, then over the weekend ballooned out into an area larger than the Earth, with intense magnetic fields. On September 4th, AR2673 spit out a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) towards Earth – due to hit Earth’s magnetic field today (Sept. 6th), and causing G3-class geomagnetic storms on September 6th and 7th; effects can include: GPS problems, intermittent HF radio, spacecraft surface charging, power system voltage corrections, etc… Aurora watchers may want to keep an eye on the Auroral Oval, as increased auroral activity … Continue reading →

Jupiter Looms as Juno Approaches July 4th Arrival

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The Juno spacecraft has been in the gravitational embrace of the planet Jupiter for a month now, and is quickly approaching the moment it will ignite its thrusters, and enter into orbit over Jupiter’s poles. Juno may have some very interesting things to see, if aurorae spied by the Hubble Space Telescope in recent weeks continue to swirl around Jupiter’s north pole. Follow Juno on July 4 — Orbit Insertion Day: Noon EDT — Pre-orbit insertion briefing at JPL 10:30 p.m. EDT — Orbit insertion and NASA TV commentary begin 1:00 a.m. EDT on July 5 — Post-orbit insertion briefing at JPL Watch all of these events online, at: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv http://www.ustream.tv/nasa http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 Learn more about the Juno: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: Forbidden Transitions

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This entry is part 58 of 186 in the series Across the Universe

This column was first published in The Tablet in February 2011 Earlier this month [2011], NASA satellites observed a set of flares on the surface of the Sun and predicted that glorious aurorae would soon be visible – a rare sight anywhere in Europe south of Scandinavia. But that was the week I was visiting my brother in northern Michigan, so I resolved to take a moment to look for them. The Northern Lights are a marvelous sight. The easiest to see are sheets of light in the northern sky, moving like curtains in the wind. If they’re bright enough, you can see colors, mostly green, swirling like a light show at a 60’s rock concert. The science behind them is equally fascinating. Electrons and protons burst from the Sun in explosions of an expanding plasma as large as planet Earth. Hot enough to overcome the Sun’s gravity, as they move from the Sun they feel even less gravity; they move further, move … Continue reading →

Aurorae and a Possible Saint

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The most recent issue of the Jesuit e-News (the electronic replacement for the National Jesuit News paper) contained a fascinating little note about the beginnings of a movement to begin the process of sainthood for Black Elk, the famous Lakota holy man: A New Native American Saint? Native American laypeople along with Jesuit, diocesan and Episcopalian clergy recently met at Marquette University to discuss furthering the canonization process for the great Lakota (Sioux) holy man and lay catechist, Nicholas Black Elk (1863-1950). Baptized in 1904 by German-born Father Joseph Lindebner, SJ, Black Elk was a revered catechist among his people on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. However, his Catholic identity was not known until 1994 when Jesuit anthropologist Father Michael Steltenkamp wrote “Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala.” Jesuits in Native American ministry hope Black Elk’s canonization will follow that of Kateri Tekakwitha, named the first Native American saint in 2012. A petition calling for Black Elk’s … Continue reading →

Beneath the Aurora Borealis

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I have seen the Northern Lights in Naperville, Illinois.  Sort of. Not long ago, at a meeting of the Naperville Astronomical Association, I attended a terrific talk by Dr. José Salgado of the Adler Planetarium.   He began by describing a series of astronomy films he and the Adler have made.  Each film has been set to music in a live summertime outdoor performance by an orchestra in downtown Chicago. For his next film in the “Science and Symphony” series, Dr. Salgado wanted to capture the Northern Lights.  The colorful glow of the Aurora Borealis is rarely seen in Chicago.  It’s much more common at higher latitudes, since the Earth’s northern “auroral oval” is a ring, thousands of kilometers across, approximately centered on the North Magnetic Pole.  (There’s another one in the south, but the Antarctic is much less convenient to visit.) So he packed up a lot of camera equipment and flew to Yellowknife, in Canada’s Northwest Territories.  It’s a … Continue reading →

MAVEN Detects Aurora and Mysterious Cloud of Dust Around Mars

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NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has observed two unexpected phenomena in the Martian atmosphere: an unexplained high-altitude dust cloud and aurora that reaches deep into the Martian atmosphere. The presence of the dust at orbital altitudes from about 93 miles (150 kilometers) to 190 miles (300 kilometers) above the surface was not predicted. Although the source and composition of the dust are unknown, there is no hazard to MAVEN and other spacecraft orbiting Mars. “If the dust originates from the atmosphere, this suggests we are missing some fundamental process in the Martian atmosphere,” said Laila Andersson of the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospherics and Space Physics (CU LASP), Boulder, Colorado. The cloud was detected by the spacecraft’s Langmuir Probe and Waves (LPW) instrument, and has been present the whole time MAVEN has been in operation. It is unknown if the cloud is a temporary phenomenon or something long lasting. The cloud density is greatest at lower … Continue reading →