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Aurora Right On Schedule Tonight
From just north of Duluth, Minn. multiple concentric arcs punctuated by faint rays bowed across the northern sky around 9 p.m. CDT this evening. It’s still active as I write, but I can’t say how long....
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Aurora Watch: A Mighty Wind Comes Our Way
This large coronal hole in the sun’s atmosphere and its extension to the south are responsible for an expected uptick in auroral activity the next few nights. We can’t see coronal holes in visible...
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Mercury Joins Forces With The Aurora
Flames of aurora flickered not far above the northern horizon at the start of dawn this morning (Sept. 28) as seen from Duluth, Minn. At center right, the Big Dipper stands on its handle. Credit: Bob...
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Rosetta Bites The Comet Dust / Aurora V3.0
Craggy hills meet dust-covered plains in this landscape on Comet 67P taken from 10 miles (16 km) up late Thursday evening during Rosetta’s free fall . The image measures 2,014 feet (614 meters) across...
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Aurora Surprise Tonight / Venus-Moon A Sweet Sight
An unexpected burst of the northern lights lights up the bottom half of the northern sky earlier tonight around 11:30 p.m. near Duluth, Minn. Credit: Bob King A low arc glowed along the northern...
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Aurora Predicted Tonight But Will We See It?
The sun ejected a thin cloud of plasma (a hot dilute gas made of electrons and protons) toward Earth on Oct. 9. To see it clearly, I increased the contrast in this photo taken by the Solar and...
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Early Morning Aurora And More To Come
The aurora breaks out into brushy rays around 12:45 a.m. this morning October 24. Credit: Bob King Last night, the aurora did make an appearance though it laid low for most of the evening. I watched a...
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Sinister Images Of Awe And Terror
This image of an very eerie northern lights display was taken in southern Iceland on August 27, 2015. This particular aurora was linked to a solar storm, which caused an especially large and sudden...
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Don’t Forget To Vote, Er, I Mean Look For Aurora
This is the scene in ultraviolet light of the northern half of the sun on Nov. 5 before the eruption. Credit: NASA/SDO It’s just so cool how many ways you can spark an aurora. Flares, coronal mass...
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Blast Off! New GOES-R Satellite Lasers In On Weather, Lightning And Solar...
In this time exposure photo, we see the launch of the GOES-R (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) satellite last night at 6:42 p.m. from Cape Canaveral. GOES-R, a collaborative effort...
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Hole In Sun’s Corona Could Spark Auroras
One big, one medium and one small hole in the sun’s corona (called coronal holes) darken the sun’s disk this morning as seen in ultraviolet light by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA The...
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Aurora — The Big Picture From 518 Miles Up
The Suomi NPP satellite photographed this view of the aurora on December 22, 2016, when the northern lights stretched across northern Canada. Click for a hi-res image. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory...
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Start Your Day With Mercury
Now’s a great time to see the planet Mercury (lower left) at dawn. This photo, which also includes Saturn, was taken on Jan. 15 about an hour before sunrise. Credit: Bob King These late sunrises make...
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Ride The Roller Coaster To Solar Minimum
What looks a little like a roller coaster is a graph that shows the ups and downs of the current and previous solar cycles. The timeline is along the bottom with sunspot numbers along the vertical...
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Solar Hole Could Kick Up Auroras Tonight
Auroras have been few and far between this winter. On the night of Feb. 17-18, I caught this little glow show low in the northern sky not far from my house. Credit: Bob King The aurora’s been...
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Aurora Watch: Moderate Storm Predicted Tonight
Moderate aurora storms feature one or more green-hued arcs and moving, vertical beams that can sometimes climb as high as the top of the sky. Credit: Bob King Most aurora forecasts call for “minor”...
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A Mighty Solar Wind May Kindle Auroras Next 3 Nights
This vast, canyon-like opening in the sun’s magnetic field called a coronal hole may treat the northern U.S. to auroras tonight through Wednesday night. The photo was taken in far ultraviolet light...
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Aurora Puts On Eerie, Brief (?) Show Mon. Night
Right around 9:40-45 p.m. CDT, the double arc low in the north erupted into dancing rays. Very pretty! The yellow color is caused by light absorbed by thicker, dustier air near the horizon, the same...
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Spring Nights Sweeter With The Space Station
Last night’s aurora was brief but fine and combined multiple bright arcs near the horizon and feathery rays. Credit: Bob King The northern lights should return for a second show tonight starting at...
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Aurora Won’t Quit, Returns For Fourth Night
Multiple low arcs and a few nice rays lit up the northern sky around 11:30 Thursday night. Credit: Bob King Since Monday night, we’ve had one display of northern lights after another. Nothing...
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