Space and astronomy news
[/caption]
On January 22nd 2012, skywatchers in the northern hemisphere were rewarded with amazing displays of aurora. The cause of these displays was a Kp level 5.67 geomagnetic storm originating from solar activity on the 19th of January, produced visible aurorae throughout the northern hemisphere and viewers as far south as northeast England had great auroral views.
Here is a selection of aurora images and videos taken during the event.
More below!
The Earth-directed solar storm we alerted readers to this week has hit, with reports of auroral activity in Russia, Denmark, Scotland, England, and Norway. Helge Mortensen from Tromvik, Norway captured this stunning video. According to Spaceweather.com, the coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth’s magnetic field at 0617 UT on Jan. 22nd.
There’s also a live aurora webcam you can watch via this link
Check out the likelihood of seeing aurorae where you live at the NOAA Auroral Activity webpage, which includes maps for both northern and southern hemispheres.
[/caption]
Did you see ghosts and goblins last night for Halloween? Jason Ahrns of Chatanika, Alaska saw a dark shadow of a spooky ghost in the middle of a green aurora stream during his observing run on October 31, 2011. He used a Nikon D5000 to snap this eerie image.
See more from Jason at his Flickr page.
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group, post in our Forum or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.
[/caption]
Now updated with more images and video! Reports of spectacular aurora are coming in! A CME hit Earth’s magnetic field on Oct. 24, 2011 at about 1800 UT (02:00 pm EDT), spawning some stunning red sky shows. All-red aurorae are fairly rare, and are produced by high-altitude oxygen, at heights of up to 200 miles, being excited by collisions from charged particles released from the Sun.
Above is the view by Randy Halverson, of Dakotalapse.com fame, whose work we feature often on UT. He’s not in his usual location of South Dakota, but is in Wisconsin, along with his son River Halverson. Randy said via Twitter that the brightest aurora he saw was about 8:25 or so local time (CDT).
John Chumack is another astrophotographer whose work we feature often. Here’s one of his shots of the Aurora Borealis on 10-24-2011 from John Bryan State Park, near Yellow Springs, Ohio. “30 second exposure, ISO 400, 8mm fisheye lens,” John says. See more from him on his website, Galactic Images (and he uploads frequently to our Flickr group, too!)
Joe Lloyd from northern Ohio took this image from his driveway!
Aurora reaching fairly far south in Kansas!
Below is a video from East Martin, Michigan posted on You Tube:
Another from Randy Halverson.
This is an image from the AuroraMax all-sky camera located in Yellowknife, Ontario Canada. If you can’t see aurora where you are located, you can always check out the live video every night from AuroraMax,
Here’s the event on the Sun that started it all, the coronal mass ejection (CME) that caused aurora. The SOlar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) captured this “coronograph” – so-called because the images block the Sun, and only show the Sun’s atmosphere, or corona.
You can see more on Universe Today’s Flickr Group. Upload your images, and we may feature them!
[/caption]
A meteor slices through the glow of the northern lights (or “Nordlys”) in this photo by Adon Buckley, taken near the border of Norway and Finland on the night of October 19, 2011.
“The weather was against us, it was raining heavily in the northern Norwegian town of Tromsø,” Adon describes on his Flickr page. “We drove for 2 hours and waited on the Norwegian/Finish border for 3 more and this was at the start of the show on October 19th.”
He adds, “I actually missed the shooting star when it happened, but my friend told me and I was eager to check the exposure when I got home.”
Great catch, Adon! And a wonderful photo as well.
See more of Adon’s photos on his Flickr photostream here.
Image © Adon Buckley. Used with permission.
[/caption]
Mike Fossum, current commander of the International Space Station, took this beautiful image of a recent aurora, two Russian vehicles docked to the station in the foreground. You can see the image on NASA’s Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.
[/caption]
According to data from the The Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS) onboard NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, the solar wind is “sandblasting” the surface of Mercury at its polar regions.
Based on findings from one of seven different papers from the MESSENGER mission to be published in the Sept. 30th edition of Science, sodium and oxygen particles are charged in a manner similar to Earth’s own Aurora Borealis.
How are the University of Michigan researchers able to detect and study this phenomenon?
Using the FISP, the scientists at the University of Michigan have taken measurements of Mercury’s exosphere and magnetosphere. The data collected has provided researchers with a better understanding of interactions between Mercury and our Sun. FIPS data has also confirmed theories regarding the composition and source of particles in Mercury’s space environment.
“We had previously observed neutral sodium from ground observations, but up close we’ve discovered that charged sodium particles are concentrated near Mercury’s polar regions where they are likely liberated by solar wind ion sputtering, effectively knocking sodium atoms off Mercury’s surface,” said FIPS project leader Thomas Zurbuchen (University of Michigan).
In a UM press release, Zurbuchen added, “We were able to observe the formation process of these ions, and it’s comparable to the manner by which auroras are generated in Earth’s atmosphere near polar regions.”
Given that Earth and Mercury are the only two magnetized planets in the inner solar system (Mars is believed to have had a magnetic field in its past), the solar wind is deflected around them. The solar wind has made recent news due to recent outbursts from the Sun causing visible aurorae, caused by the interaction of charged particles from the Sun and Earth’s relatively strong magnetosphere. While Mercury does have a magnetosphere, compared to Earth’s it is relatively weak. Given Mercury’s weak magnetosphere and close proximity to the Sun, the effects of the solar wind have a more profound effect.
“Our results tell us is that Mercury’s weak magnetosphere provides very little protection of the planet from the solar wind,” Zurbuchen said.
Jim Raines, FIPS operations engineer (University of Michigan) added, “We’re trying to understand how the sun, the grand-daddy of all that is life, interacts with the planets. It is Earth’s magnetosphere that keeps our atmosphere from being stripped away. And that makes it vital to the existence of life on our planet.”
The MESSENGER team also released other results from the mission, including new evidence that flood volcanism has been widespread on Mercury, the first close-up views of Mercury’s “hollows,” and the first direct measurements of the chemical composition of Mercury’s surface.
MESSENGER, as well the the Mariner 10 flyby mission saw unusual features on the floors and central mountain peaks of some impact craters which were very bright and have a blue color relative to other areas of Mercury. This type of feature is not seen on the Moon, and were nicknamed “hollows.”
Now, with the latest MESSENGER data, hollows have been found over a wide range of latitudes and longitudes, suggesting that they are fairly common across Mercury. Many of the depressions have bright interiors and halos.
“To the surprise of the science team, it turns out that the bright areas are composed of small, shallow, irregularly shaped depressions that are often found in clusters,” says David Blewett, a staff scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., and lead author of one of the Science reports. “The science team adopted the term ‘hollows’ for these features to distinguish them from other types of pits seen on Mercury.”
Blewett added the hollows detected so far have a fresh appearance and have not accumulated small impact craters, indicating that they are relatively young.
If you’d like to learn more about the MESSENGER mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/main/index.html , or http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/
Sources: MESSENGER News Release NASA
This timelapse is a selection of northern lights filmed by Flatlight Films during the winter of 2011 in several locations in the Finnish Lapland. Sit back and enjoy from the warmth of your home or office!
Astronauts had this view of the aurora on September 26, 2011. Credit: NASA
We’ve had some great views of the aurora submitted by readers this week, but this one taken from the International Space Station especially highlights the red color seen by many Earth-bound skywatchers, too. Karen Fox from the Goddard Space Flight Center says the colors of the aurora depend on which atoms are being excited by the solar storm. In most cases, the light comes when a charged particle sweeps in from the solar wind and collides with an oxygen atom in Earth’s atmosphere. This produces a green photon, so most aurora appear green. However, lower-energy oxygen collisions as well as collisions with nitrogen atoms can produce red photons — so sometimes aurora also show a red band as seen here.
[/caption]
With the recent solar activity and the high possibility of more coming up, here is an easy guide to observing the aurora. An aurora is a natural light display high in the Earth’s atmosphere, caused by energetic particles from the Sun, colliding with the Earth’s magnetic field.
These light displays are called the Aurora Borealis in the Northern hemisphere and Aurora Australis in the Southern hemisphere, but are commonly known as the Northern and Southern lights.
Viewing aurorae is incredibly simple, but the conditions need to be right for a display to appear.
Normally you can only see aurorae near the poles, such as in Canada, Iceland, and Norway or southern Australia and Antarctica, but when the Sun is highly active, more solar material is thrown in Earth’s direction, creating powerful geomagnetic storms. These storms can bring auroral displays further south to areas such as Southern UK and North to mid latitudes of the USA.
The intensity scale is known as the Planetary KP index and basically the higher the KP number the further south Aurorae can be seen, KP 8 or higher can be good for observers further south. To find out what current levels are check spaceweather.com or the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks
If aurora activity is predicted to be high and there is a possibility of seeing it at your location, try and find an area away from light pollution or bright lights and let your eyes adjust to the dark. This may require you to travel into the countryside to escape bright city light pollution.
The best time to spot aurora is around local midnight, but this can change depending on viewing conditions and the current intensity of the magnetic storm.
Once you are comfortable and your eyes have adjusted to the dark, face north (or south in the Southern Hemisphere).
You do not need binoculars, a telescope, or any other optical aid other than glasses if you wear them.
Look low and close to the horizon and look for the faint green/ reddish glow of aurora. It may be quite difficult to see at first, but if it is a powerful display it can be very easy to spot.
I live in the South of the UK and have seen the waving bands and curtain like structures quite easily in powerful geomagnetic storms.
If you have a camera that takes long exposures, use a tripod and try to image the aurora and send us your results.
Most of all, enjoy the show! Good luck!
