Do you recognize that song quote?  It’s from North to Alaska, by Johnny Horton, in 1960.  For most people raised in the Southeastern or Southwestern United States, that’s about as far to the aurorae as you ever came.  Of course, we know the aurorae are over the north and south polar regions, but for some reason many people only know them as the “Northern Lights”.  Those over the northern hemisphere are the Aurora Borealis, and those over the southern are the Aurora Australis.  “Aurora” was the name of the Roman goddess of dawn, “boreas” is Greek for “north wind”, and “australis” is Latin for “of the south”.

As an aside, the Aurora Australis was known to history before Australia (the continent), which was claimed and named in the 18th century.

Aurora Australis and Orion, 04/94, Image: NASA, STS-59 and Crew

The aurorae are caused by the Earth’s magnetosphere, which accelerates and funnels ionized particles along the magnetic field.  Aurora can be seen all over the world; indeed, it is imaged on other worlds, but it is more easily seen in the polar regions due to the magnetic field and longer periods of darkness.  Green or brownish red in the aurorae are associated with photons striking oxygen, while blue or red are associated with nitrogen.

Magnetosphere, Image: Science.NASA.gov

We know that the aurorae are caused by ordinary (and extraordinary) solar activity.  After the Carrington Event in 1859 (Saturday’s riddle) the aurorae were particularly active.  Reported all over the Earth, in some places they were so bright that one could read newsprint outside at 1:00 am.   Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis are also believed to be nearly mirror images of each other.

Aurora Mirror Image, Credit: Polar VIS, NASA/JPL

Thought to be a sign from God to the Europeans in the Middle ages, the spirits dancing in the sky to the Cree, and the reflection of light from the body armor of virgin warriors by the Vikings, the aurorae have lost none of their beauty and appeal through discovery.

Here are a few links if you want to read more about the aurorae:

Aurora link RE: 1859 solar flare
Aurora forecast – Geophysical Institute
Sounds in and around Aurora
“The Northern Lights”, Alan Booth, 1992 documentary (45min)
The Northern Lights in mythology – Bullfinch’s, et al

And an excellent link to YouTube recording the sounds of aurorae, along with informational narration (well worth watching):

?Listening to Northern Lights, YouTube

Marian is coming right up, just wanted to share the shuttle launch.

Source

I gotta say, I got a kick out of that Budlight commercial with the astronomers – and I don’t drink beer. 

You can find it HERE.

and….The Who were EXCELLENT!

Current Status: GO
Today’s Launch was scrubbed due to weather, they will try again tomorrow even earlier. I will update the status as information becomes available.

Launch Date: Monday, 4:14 am ET

Odds of Launch: 60 percent

Shuttle: Endeavour (OV-105)

Mission: STS-130

Mission Length: 13 days

EVA’s: 3 (on flight days: 5, 7, 10)

Commander: George Zamka

Pilot: Terry Virts

Mission Specialists: Robert Behnken and Kathryn Hire, Nicholas Patrick, Stephen Robinson

Launch Pad 39A — Webcam Image courtesy: NASA/Kennedy Space Center

NOAA’s Forecast:

Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 46. North northwest wind around 5 mph.

To keep current with the news about the launch, I recommend you go to NASA’s Launch Blog which should be live around midnight ET You will need to refresh your browser to get the latest from that site, but it’s THE place to get the up to the minute stuff especially if you can’t watch NASA TV.

If I can get up on time, I will be watching the launch itself on NASA-TV

The big priority for this mission: deliver the connecting module known as Tranquility. Tranquility has a cupola. The cupola is a robotic control station that offers 360 degree views of the ISS and of course, Earth and other objects. Once Tranquility is attached and operating building the station is 90 percent complete and naturally we are going to halt manned flights, yeah that dog and pony show makes a lot of sense.

Image Credits: NASA / NOAA

UPDATE:  SOLVED at 1:56 pm CDT, by Nick

We have some smart people out there reading the blog, so  I decided to mix things up a little bit this week, and see if I could make you think.  The answer to today’s riddle will not be an object.  It will be an event.  We’re operating under the same rules:  This deals with astronomy; it’s something with which you are familiar;  it’s something you grew up knowing.

I think I’ll make you work a little this week.

Image shamelessly lifted from Space.Com

This event occurred within recent history.

It was known globally while it was happening.

It has happened before.

It will happen again.

Image: National Archives circa 1938-1945, ID 195876

It left traces behind.

It is at the top of the heap for its type of event within recorded history.

After it occurred, there was no evidence of this event in space (this is not a contradiction).

The depiction of this event occurring at any time makes for a thrilling plot line.

STS112 EVA Image: NASA

Your final clue, just to save us all time:  The event in question is NOT an asteroid strike.

Hmmmm.  Any guesses?  Come on out and play — I’ll see you in the comments.

Good luck!

The Hubble map of Pluto from 1994 (upper) and the latest one below. Be sure to click the image for a larger version. Image credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Buie (Southwest Research Institute)

Pluto has a surface temperature of something like 35 to 45 K (-378^oF to -396^oF). I sort of always thought of Pluto as a pretty static place, but not so.

The little world’s northern hemisphere is getting brighter and it is becoming redder as a result.  Hubblesite described it as an icy and dark molasses-colored world.

Here are some of the other Hubble images:  90 degs / 180 degs / 270 degs.  The images don’t give us a lot of detail as far as the surface features go, still a lot can be learned from these pictures.  We do have a spacecraft on the way to Pluto and in 2015 it will finally arrive – Pluto is a LONG  ways away, heck those are Hubble pictures and we still can’t resolve the surface!

Ok before I get all carried away, Pluto has a diameter of 2,390 km and if you are thinking that’s smaller than our moon, you’d be right.  Our moon happens to be the 5th largest moon in the solar system, but that’s another story.  The other thing about Pluto’s size is Eris (yeah, the one that caused the hub-bub) is maybe even a little larger than Pluto.  Pluto’s whole orbit is tilted 17 degrees relative to the ecliptic and it’s also very elongated.

I’m not going to go into the whole planet, dwarf planet debate.  I will say I’ve come to my own conclusion.  Suffice it to say, Pluto is very strange place.

Head on over to Hubblesite for the full press release, more images and even video.