保护地球，探索宇宙，发现文明
2021年12月13日 Meteors and Auroras over Iceland Image Credit & Copyright: James Boardman-Woodend; Annotation: Judy Schmidt Explanation: What’s going on behind that mountain? Quite a bit. First of all, the mountain itself, named Kirkjufell, is quite old and located in western Iceland near the town of Grundarfjörður. In front of the steeply-sloped stru...
2021年10月30日 A Rorschach Aurora Image Credit & Copyright: Göran Strand Explanation: If you see this as a monster’s face, don’t panic. It’s only pareidolia, often experienced as the tendency to see faces in patterns of light and shadow. In fact, the startling visual scene is actually a 180 degree panorama of Northern Lights, digitally mi...
2021年9月12日 A Spiral Aurora over Iceland Image Credit & Copyright: Davide Necchi Explanation: What’s happened to the sky? Aurora! Captured in 2015, this aurora was noted by Icelanders for its great brightness and quick development. The aurora resulted from a solar storm, with high energy particles bursting out from the Sun and through a crack in Ea...
2021年7月24日 The Edge of Space Image Credit & Copyright: Ralf Rohner Explanation: Where does space begin? For purposes of spaceflight some would say at the Karman line, currently defined as an altitude of 100 kilometers (60 miles). Others might place a line 80 kilometers (50 miles) above Earth’s mean sea level. But there is no sharp physical boundar...
2021年06月27日 The Dancing Auroras of Saturn Image Credit: NASA, Cassini, VIMS Team, U. Arizona, U. Leicester, JPL, ASI Explanation: What drives auroras on Saturn? To help find out, scientists have sorted through hundreds of infrared images of Saturn taken by the Cassini spacecraft for other purposes, trying to find enough aurora images to correlate changes and...
2021年05月30日 Aurora over Clouds Image Credit & Copyright: Daniele Boffelli Explanation: Auroras usually occur high above the clouds. The auroral glow is created when fast-moving particles ejected from the Sun impact the Earth’s magnetosphere, from which charged particles spiral along the Earth’s magnetic field to strike atoms and molecules hi...
2021年03月24日 Aurorae and Lightning on Jupiter Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SwRI; Text: Natalia Lewandowska Explanation: Why does so much of Jupiter’s lightning occur near its poles? Similar to Earth, Jupiter experiences both aurorae and lightning. Different from Earth, though, Jupiter’s lightning usually occurs near its poles — while muc...
2021年03月14日 A Flag Shaped Aurora over Sweden Image Credit & Copyright: Mia Stålnacke Explanation: It appeared, momentarily, like a 50-km tall banded flag. In mid-March of 2015, an energetic Coronal Mass Ejection directed toward a clear magnetic channel to Earth led to one of the more intense geomagnetic storms of recent years. A visual result was wide s...
2021年02月28日 The Aurora Tree Image Credit & Copyright: Alyn Wallace Explanation: Yes, but can your tree do this? Pictured is a visual coincidence between the dark branches of a nearby tree and bright glow of a distant aurora. The beauty of the aurora — combined with how it seemed to mimic a tree right nearby — mesmerized the photographer to s...
2021年01月14日 Aurora Slathers Up the Sky Image Credit: Jack Fischer, Expedition 52, NASA Explanation: Like salsa verde on your favorite burrito, a green aurora slathers up the sky in this 2017 June 25 snapshot from the International Space Station. About 400 kilometers (250 miles) above Earth, the orbiting station is itself within the upper realm of the auroral...