Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Tonight: Geomagnetic Storms


Heads up for a free light show!

If you live in the U.S. or nearby, you may be able to see some geomagnetic storms in the sky in the pre-morning hours tomorrow (Wednesday, August 4, 2010).

Sky viewers might get to enjoy some spectacular Northern Lights, or aurorae, tomorrow. After a long slumber, the Sun is waking up. Early Sunday morning, the Sun's surface erupted and blasted tons of plasma (ionized atoms) into interplanetary space. That plasma is headed our way, and when it arrives, it could create a spectacular light show.

"This eruption is directed right at us, and is expected to get here early in the day on August 4th," said astronomer Leon Golub of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). "It's the first major Earth-directed eruption in quite some time."

More here.

Hat tip to Pam Williams! Thanks, Pam!

1 comment:

Dan Reynolds said...

Mike

I was speed reading your post and I hopped right to the part where you said the "Sun's surface erupted"...

I called friends and family and said my good-byes. While I waited for the end to come, I went back and finished reading your post. Glad I did.

Now, I get to draw more cartoons.

Btw,on a totally different front, I just saw on tv that Mitch Miller died. Holy cow! I thought he had died years ago. He was 99!
I grew up watching him.