Nordic Aurora Borealis

Nordic Aurora Borealis

The Nordic countries are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden; the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland; and the autonomous region of Åland.

The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, occurs in an upper layer of Earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere, but they typically originate with activity on the Sun. Occasionally, during explosions called coronal mass ejections, the Sun releases charged particles that speed across the solar system. 

Auroras are produced when the Earth's magnetosphere is sufficiently disturbed by the solar wind that the trajectories of charged particles in solar wind and magnetospheric plasma, mainly in the form of electrons and protons, precipitate them into the upper atmosphere (thermosphere/exosphere) due to Earth's magnetic field, where their energy is lost. The resulting ionization and excitation of atmospheric constituents emits light of varying color and complexity. [Wikipedia]

Solid Colored Aurora

Green is common at the upper latitudes, while red is rare. On the other hand, aurora viewed from lower latitudes tend to be red.

Element Emission Colors

Oxygen: The big player in the aurora is oxygen. Oxygen is responsible for the vivid green (wavelength of 557.7 nm) and also for a deep brownish-red (wavelength of 630.0 nm). Pure green and greenish-yellow aurorae result from the excitation of oxygen.

Nitrogen: Nitrogen emits blue (multiple wavelengths) and red light.

Other Gases: Other gases in the atmosphere become excited and emit light, although the wavelengths may be outside of the range of human vision or else too faint to see. Hydrogen and helium, for example, emit blue and purple. Although our eyes cannot see all of these colors, photographic film and digital cameras often record a broader range of hues.

Aurora Colors According to Altitude

Above 150 miles: red, oxygen

Up to 150 miles: green, oxygen

Above 60 miles: purple or violet, nitrogen

Up to 60 miles: blue, nitrogen

The Colors of the Aurora (National Park Service)

https://www.nps.gov/articles/-articles-aps-v8-i1-c9.htm

Image details: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, 20mm F1.4 DG HSM | Art 015

Image Credit: Marcel Weber
Marcel: "The further north I go, the more I feel at home"
Marcel's website: https://www.instagram.com/tales.of.the.north
Image Date: Oct. 2, 2022
Release Date: Jan. 26, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Sun #SolarSystem #SolarWind #CME #Planet #Earth #Aurora #AuroraBorealis #Magnetosphere #Atmosphere #Science #Physics #Photography #Astrophotography #Astrophotographer #MarcelWeber #CitizenScience #Scandanavia #NordicCountries #NorthernEurope #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Comet C/2024 G3 ATLAS over New Zealand

Comet C/2024 G3 ATLAS over New Zealand

C/2024 G3 ATLAS is a non-periodic comet. It reached perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on January 13, 2025, at a distance of 0.09 AU (13 million km) from the Sun. It is potentially the brightest comet of 2025, with an apparent magnitude reaching −3.8 on the day of its perihelion.

Comet C/2024 G3 was found by the automated Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on April 5, 2024, in images obtained with a 0.5-m reflector telescope located in Río Hurtado, Chile. ATLAS is funded by NASA's Planetary Defense Office. ATLAS was developed and is operated by the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy.

Learn more:
https://fallingstar.com
https://science.nasa.gov/planetary-defense-overview/

Image Details: Meade ACF 400mm Hyperstar, Risingcam IMX571C. Single 15 second exposure.

Image Credit: Jonathan Davey

Capture Location: Ararimu, south of Auckland, New Zealand

Capture Date: Jan. 24, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Planet #Earth #Comets #Comet #CometC2024G3ATLAS #C2024G3 #OortCloud #SolarSystem #Astrophotography #Astrophotographer #JonathanDavey #Ararimu #Auckland #NewZealand #JPL #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Comet C/2024 G3 ATLAS over Colombia

Comet C/2024 G3 ATLAS over Colombia

Astrophotographer Andres Molina: "Taken last night, January 18, 2025, from Bogotá, Colombia, between 18:38 and 18:53 local time . . . The comet was clearly visible to the naked eye, and the clean skies made this my best capture of this celestial body so far."

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuela to the east and northeast, Brazil to the southeast, Peru and Ecuador to the south and southwest, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and Panama to the northwest. The Capital District of Bogotá is also the country's largest city hosting the main financial and cultural hub.

C/2024 G3 ATLAS is a non-periodic comet. It reached perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on January 13, 2025, at a distance of 0.09 AU (13 million km) from the Sun. It is potentially the brightest comet of 2025, with an apparent magnitude reaching −3.8 on the day of its perihelion.

Comet C/2024 G3 was found by the automated Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on April 5, 2024, in images obtained with a 0.5-m reflector telescope located in Río Hurtado, Chile. ATLAS is funded by NASA's Planetary Defense Office. ATLAS was developed and is operated by the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy.

Learn more:
https://fallingstar.com
https://science.nasa.gov/planetary-defense-overview/

Image Credit: Andres Molina

Andres' website: 

https://www.instagram.com/andresastrophoto/
Capture Location: Bogota, Colombia
Capture Date: Jan. 18, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Planet #Earth #Comets #Comet #CometC2024G3ATLAS #C2024G3 #OortCloud #SolarSystem #Astrophotography #Astrophotographer #AndresMolina #UH #ATLAS #Bogotá #Columbia #SouthAmerica #JPL #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Planet Mars Images: Jan. 25-26, 2025 | NASA's Curiosity & Perseverance Rovers

Planet Mars Images: Jan. 25-26, 2025 | NASA's Curiosity & Perseverance Rovers

Mars 2020 - sol 1398

MSL - sol 4434

MSL - sol 4434

MSL - sol 4434

Mars 2020 - sol 1399

MSL - sol 4432

MSL - sol 4432

MSL - sol 4432

Support FriendsofNASA.org

Celebrating 12+ Years on Mars (2012-2024)

Mission Name: Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

Rover Name: Curiosity

Main Job: To determine if Mars was ever habitable to microbial life. 

Launch: Nov. 6, 2011

Landing Date: Aug. 5, 2012, Gale Crater, Mars

Celebrating 3+ Years on Mars

Mission Name: Mars 2020

Rover Name: Perseverance

Main Job: Seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for return to Earth.

Launch: July 30, 2020    

Landing: Feb. 18, 2021, Jezero Crater, Mars

For more information on NASA's Mars missions, visit: mars.nasa.gov

Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Processing: Kevin M. Gill

Image Release Dates: Jan. 25-Jan. 26, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Mars #RedPlanet #Planet #Astrobiology #Geology #CuriosityRover #MSL #MountSharp #GaleCrater #PerseveranceRover #Mars2020 #JezeroCrater #Robotics #SpaceTechnology #SpaceEngineering #MSSS #JPL #Caltech #UnitedStates #CitizenScience #KevinGill #STEM #Education

China Long March 2D Rocket Launch: Earth Observation Satellite for Pakistan

 China Long March 2D Rocket Launch: Earth Observation Satellite for Pakistan

A China Long March 2D (CZ2D) rocket blasted off at 12:07 p.m. Beijing time on Jan. 17, 2025, from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert located in northwest China under clear blue skies. This launch successfully sent three satellites into orbit, including Pakistan's PRSC-EO1 Earth observation satellite, alongside the Tianlu-1 & Lantan-1 commercial satellites. PRSC-EO1 is the first satellite for Pakistan's new remote sensing satellite constellation.

This was 556th launch of China's Long March rocket family. Orange exhaust billowed out as the hypergolic launcher ignited its engines on the rocket's first stage. 

Note: The tiles visibly detaching are insulation tiles for keeping upper stage rocket propellants cold on the launch pad. Once the rocket launches, this unnecessary mass is safely discarded above the spaceport.

PRSC-EO1 is the first of a series of three optical remote sensing satellites for Pakistan. It joined the country’s existing remote sensing satellites, PRSS-1 and PakTES-1A, in orbit. These satellites provide data for the fields of land mapping, agriculture classification and assessment, urban and rural planning, environmental monitoring, natural disaster monitoring and management, surveying, natural resources protection and others uses, according to Pakistan's space agency, SUPARCO.

The China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), arranged the combination of the international and domestic payloads. CGWIC signed a multi-launch service contract with Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) for launch of a remote sensing satellite constellation in 2022.

China and Pakistan are close space partners. For example, Pakistan joined China’s International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) Moon project in October 2023.

This mission carried two Chinese commercial satellites: the DAO-1 (Tianlu-1) satellite, developed by Galaxy Space for the Jianghuai Frontier Innovation Technology Center, and the Blue Carbon-1 (Lantan-1) satellite, developed by Geespace, also known as Zhejiang Shikong Daoyu Technology Co., Ltd., for Hangzhou Dianzi University.

The launch was China’s third orbital launch of the year at that time. It followed the launch of the Shijian-25 spacecraft servicing satellite Jan. 6, and the sea launch of 10 navigation augmentation satellites Jan. 13.

As of Jan. 17, 2025, CASC had not yet published an overview of China’s overall plans for the year, but it may once again attempt to reach around 100 launches, as targeted for 2024. Major missions for 2025 include crewed Shenzhou-20 and -21 missions and Tianzhou cargo spacecraft to the Tiangong space station and the Tianwen-2 near-Earth asteroid sample return mission. The latter is expected to launch around May.

China aims to debut a number of new Long March and potentially reusable commercial rockets during 2025. These include the Long March 8A and 12A, and Zhuque-3 (Landspace), Tianlong-3 (Space Pioneer), Pallas-1 (Galactic Energy) and Kinetica-2 (CAS Space) from commercial entities.

Image Credit: CGTN

Article Credit: Space News/Andrew Jones
Release Date: Jan. 17, 2025

#NASA #Space #Satellites #Science #Earth #China #中国 #LongMarch2DRocket #Pakistan #PRSCEO1 #EarthObservation #RemoteSensing #Tianlu1 #Lantan1 #CommercialSpace #CASC #CGWIC #InternationalCooperation #STEM #Education

China Long March 2D Rocket Launches Earth Observation Satellite for Pakistan

China Long March 2D Rocket Launches Earth Observation Satellite for Pakistan

A China Long March 2D (CZ2D) rocket blasted off at 12:07 p.m. Beijing time on Jan. 17, 2025, from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert located in northwest China under clear blue skies. This launch successfully sent three satellites into orbit, including Pakistan's PRSC-EO1 Earth observation satellite, alongside the Tianlu-1 & Lantan-1 commercial satellites. PRSC-EO1 is the first satellite for Pakistan's new remote sensing satellite constellation.

This was 556th launch of China's Long March rocket family. Orange exhaust billowed out as the hypergolic launcher ignited its engines on the rocket's first stage. 

Note: The tiles visibly detaching are insulation tiles for keeping upper stage rocket propellants cold on the launch pad. Once the rocket launches, this unnecessary mass is safely discarded above the spaceport.

PRSC-EO1 is the first of a series of three optical remote sensing satellites for Pakistan. It joined the country’s existing remote sensing satellites, PRSS-1 and PakTES-1A, in orbit. These satellites provide data for the fields of land mapping, agriculture classification and assessment, urban and rural planning, environmental monitoring, natural disaster monitoring and management, surveying, natural resources protection and others uses, according to Pakistan's space agency, SUPARCO.

The China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), arranged the combination of the international and domestic payloads. CGWIC signed a multi-launch service contract with Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) for launch of a remote sensing satellite constellation in 2022.

China and Pakistan are close space partners. For example, Pakistan joined China’s International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) Moon project in October 2023.

This mission carried two Chinese commercial satellites: the DAO-1 (Tianlu-1) satellite, developed by Galaxy Space for the Jianghuai Frontier Innovation Technology Center, and the Blue Carbon-1 (Lantan-1) satellite, developed by Geespace, also known as Zhejiang Shikong Daoyu Technology Co., Ltd., for Hangzhou Dianzi University.

The launch was China’s third orbital launch of the year at that time. It followed the launch of the Shijian-25 spacecraft servicing satellite Jan. 6, and the sea launch of 10 navigation augmentation satellites Jan. 13.

As of Jan. 17, 2025, CASC had not yet published an overview of China’s overall plans for the year, but it may once again attempt to reach around 100 launches, as targeted for 2024. Major missions for 2025 include crewed Shenzhou-20 and -21 missions and Tianzhou cargo spacecraft to the Tiangong space station and the Tianwen-2 near-Earth asteroid sample return mission. The latter is expected to launch around May.

China aims to debut a number of new Long March and potentially reusable commercial rockets during 2025. These include the Long March 8A and 12A, and Zhuque-3 (Landspace), Tianlong-3 (Space Pioneer), Pallas-1 (Galactic Energy) and Kinetica-2 (CAS Space) from commercial entities.

Video Credit: CGTN

Duration: 26 seconds
Article Credit: Space News/Andrew Jones
Release Date: Jan. 17, 2025

#NASA #Space #Satellites #Science #Earth #China #中国 #LongMarch2DRocket #Pakistan #PRSCEO1 #EarthObservation #RemoteSensing #Tianlu1 #Lantan1 #CommercialSpace #CASC #CGWIC #InternationalCooperation #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Do Not Look "Down" . . . | International Space Station

Do Not Look "Down" . . .  | International Space Station

International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 72 flight engineer and NASA astronaut Nick Hague: "Here is another view of last week's spacewalk - I see this photo and think, wow, that is a 250-mile drop!"

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Nick Hague concluded a spacewalk on Thursday, January 16, 2025. It was the fourth spacewalk for Hague and the eighth for Williams, and it was the 273rd spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

Williams and Hague completed their primary objectives, including removing and replacing a rate gyro assembly, installing patches to cover damaged areas of light filters on the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) x-ray telescope, and replacing a reflector device on one of the international docking adapters. The pair also checked access areas and connector tools that astronauts will use for future Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer maintenance.

Expedition 72 Updates:
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 72 Crew
Station Commander: Suni Williams
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, Aleksandr Gorbunov
NASA Flight Engineers: Butch Wilmore, Don Pettit, Nick Hague

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)/Nick Hague
Capture Date: Jan. 16, 2025
Release Date: Jan. 24, 2025

#NASA #Space #Science #ISS #Earth #Spacewalk #EVA #EVA273 #Astronauts #NickHague #SuniWilliams #AstronautPhotography #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #InternationalCooperation #LongDurationMissions #SpaceLaboratory #HumanSpaceflight #UnitedStates #Expedition72 #STEM #Education

Artemis II Moon Mission: Solid Rocket Booster Stacking | Kennedy Space Center

Artemis II Moon Mission: Solid Rocket Booster Stacking | Kennedy Space Center

Engineers and technicians with NASA's Exploration Ground Systems Program transfer the right forward center segment to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The booster segment is shown attached to a lifting beam on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025 ahead of integration onto the Mobile Launcher 1.

In January 2025, NASA's Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) team made significant progress stacking NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) solid rocket boosters (SRBs) for the Artemis II Moon Mission inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Comprising 10 segments total—five segments for each booster—the SLS solid rocket boosters arrived via train to NASA Kennedy in September 2023 from Northrop Grumman’s manufacturing facility in Utah. The booster segments underwent processing in the spaceport’s Rotation, Processing and Surge Facility before being transferred to the NASA’s iconic VAB for stacking operations.

The first components of the Artemis II Moon rocket to be stacked, the solid rocket boosters will help support the remaining rocket segments and the Orion spacecraft during final assembly. At launch, the 177-foot-tall twin solid rocket boosters provide more than 75 percent of the total SLS thrust during liftoff from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B.

Artemis II will launch no earlier than April 2026.

For more information about SLS, visit: 

https://www.nasa.gov/sls

Check the NASA Artemis II Mission page for updates:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/

Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Image Date: Jan. 19, 2025

#NASA #ESA #CSA #Space #Moon #ArtemisProgram #ArtemisIIMission #ArtemisII #SLSRocket #SRB #SolidRocketBoosters #Astronauts #DeepSpace #MoonToMars #Science #SpaceExploration #HumanSpaceflight #VAB #EGS #KSC #NASAKennedy #MerrittIsland #Spaceport #Florida #UnitedStates #Canada #Europe #STEM #Education

Our Beautiful Home Planet | Blue Ghost Moon Mission View | Firefly Aerospace

Our Beautiful Home Planet | Blue Ghost Moon Mission View | Firefly Aerospace

Firefly Aerospace: "Our GhostRiders captured the beauty of our home planet during another Earth orbit burn. This second engine burn (and first critical burn) adjusted Blue Ghost's apogee (the furthest point from Earth) using just our Spectre RCS thrusters. With just over two weeks left in Earth orbit before our Trans Lunar Injection, our team will continue operating NASA payloads onboard and capturing science data along the way!"

The Blue Ghost lander is currently on its 45-day journey to the Moon. Firefly Aerospace intends to land it in Mare Crisium for NASA’s payloads to perform numerous science and technology demonstrations, including lunar subsurface drilling, sample collection, and X-ray imaging of Earth’s magnetic field to advance research for future human missions on the Moon and provide insights into how space weather impacts the planet.

The Blue Ghost lander flight will deliver ten NASA science instruments and technology demonstrations to the Moon.

Mare Crisium is a lunar mare located in the Moon's Crisium basin, just northeast of Mare Tranquillitatis. It was formed by the flooding of basaltic lava that filled an ancient asteroid impact.

Mare Crisium is 556 km (345 mi) in diameter, and 176,000 square kilometres (68,000 sq mi) in area. It has a very flat floor, with a ring of wrinkle ridges (dorsa) toward its outer boundaries.

Learn more about Firefly's Blue Ghost Lander

https://fireflyspace.com/blue-ghost/

NASA's Commercial Lunar Payloads Services (CLPS)

https://www.nasa.gov/commercial-lunar-payload-services/

Image Credit: Firefly Aerospace

Duration: 2 seconds

Release Date: Jan. 24, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Planet #Earth #ArtemisProgram #Moon #LunarLanders #FireflyAerospace #BlueGhostLunarLander #BlueGhostMission1 #BGM1 #UnitedStates #Robotics #Engineering #SpaceTechnology #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Planetary Parade over Arizona: January 2025

Planetary Parade over Arizona: January 2025

Astrophotographer Jeremy Perez: " . . . a planet lineup said, hey, how about us? They're pretty spread out, but worth a look currently—Saturn & Venus in the west after sundown, Jupiter roughly overhead, and Mars rising bright in the east. Neptune & Uranus are hiding in there too . . ."

Image details: Canon EOS R5, Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM @ 16mm, 5 x 13 sec., f/2.8, ISO 800, SQM 21.35 mag/arcsec^2

Image Credit: Jeremy Perez 

Jeremy's website: https://www.perezmedia.net
Capture location: San Francisco Volcanic Field, Arizona, United States
Image Date: Jan. 22, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Planets #Earth #Venus #Mars #Jupiter #Saturn #Uranus #Neptune #SolarSystem #MilkyWayGalaxy #Galaxies #Universe #Arizona #UnitedStates #Astrophotography #Astrophotographer #JeremyPerez #Infographic #STEM #Education

Comet C/2024 G3 ATLAS over Chile's Atacama Desert

Comet C/2024 G3 ATLAS over Chile's Atacama Desert

Astrophotographer Daniele Gasparri: "The long tail of Comet ATLAS, set against the dark sky of the Atacama Desert, appears to fan out and stretch across several degrees. This image is the result of averaging 11 exposures of 30 seconds each, captured with a Sony A7s camera and a 105 mm lens stopped down to f/4.5."

C/2024 G3 ATLAS is a non-periodic comet. It reached perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on January 13, 2025, at a distance of 0.09 AU (13 million km) from the Sun. It is potentially the brightest comet of 2025, with an apparent magnitude reaching −3.8 on the day of its perihelion.

Comet C/2024 G3 was found by the automated Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on April 5, 2024, in images obtained with a 0.5-m reflector telescope located in Río Hurtado, Chile. ATLAS is funded by NASA's Planetary Defense Office. ATLAS was developed and is operated by the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy.

Learn more:
https://fallingstar.com
https://science.nasa.gov/planetary-defense-overview/

Image Credit: Daniele Gasparri 

Daniele's website: https://www.danielegasparri.com
Image Date: Jan. 25, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Planet #Earth #Comets #Comet #CometC2024G3ATLAS #C2024G3 #OortCloud #SolarSystem #Astrophotography #Astrophotographer #DanieleGasparri #AtacamaDesert #UH #ATLAS #Chile #SouthAmerica #JPL #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Stardust in Perseus Molecular Cloud

Stardust in Perseus Molecular Cloud

Clouds of stardust drift through this deep skyscape, across the Perseus molecular cloud some 850 light-years away. Dusty nebulae reflecting light from embedded young stars stand out in the nearly 4 degree wide field of view. With a characteristic bluish color reflection nebula NGC 1333 is prominent near center. Hints of contrasting red emission from Herbig-Haro objects, the jets and shocked glowing gas emanating from recently formed stars, are scattered across the dusty expanse. Herbig–Haro objects are glowing clumps found around some newborn stars, and are created when jets of gas thrown outwards from these young stars collide with surrounding gas and dust at incredibly high speeds.

While many stars are forming in the molecular cloud, most are obscured at visible wavelengths by the pervasive dust. The chaotic environment surrounding NGC 1333 may be similar to how our own Sun formed over 4.5 billion years ago. At the estimated distance of the Perseus molecular cloud, this cosmic scene would span about 80 light-years.

Image Credit & Copyright: Jeff Schilling

Jeff's website: 

https://www.astrobin.com/users/Space_Man_Spiff/collections/

Release Date: Jan. 25, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #HerbigHaroObjects #ReflectionNebula #NGC1333 #Perseus  #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #CitizenScience #Astrophotographer #JeffSchilling #Astrophotography #GSFC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #APoD

Aurora Borealis over Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence | International Space Station

Aurora Borealis over Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence | International Space Station

A red and green aurora borealis shimmers in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 260 miles above Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The Gulf of St. Lawrence connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence River. This Gulf borders the shores of the provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, in Canada, plus the islands Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, possessions of France, in North America.

The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, occurs in an upper layer of Earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere, but they typically originate with activity on the Sun. Occasionally, during explosions called coronal mass ejections, the Sun releases charged particles that speed across the solar system. 

Auroras are produced when the Earth's magnetosphere is sufficiently disturbed by the solar wind that the trajectories of charged particles in solar wind and magnetospheric plasma, mainly in the form of electrons and protons, precipitate them into the upper atmosphere (thermosphere/exosphere) due to Earth's magnetic field, where their energy is lost. The resulting ionization and excitation of atmospheric constituents emits light of varying color and complexity. [Wikipedia]

Solid Colored Aurora

Green is common at the upper latitudes, while red is rare. On the other hand, aurora viewed from lower latitudes tend to be red.

Element Emission Colors

Oxygen: The big player in the aurora is oxygen. Oxygen is responsible for the vivid green (wavelength of 557.7 nm) and also for a deep brownish-red (wavelength of 630.0 nm). Pure green and greenish-yellow aurorae result from the excitation of oxygen.

Nitrogen: Nitrogen emits blue (multiple wavelengths) and red light.

Other Gases: Other gases in the atmosphere become excited and emit light, although the wavelengths may be outside of the range of human vision or else too faint to see. Hydrogen and helium, for example, emit blue and purple. Although our eyes cannot see all of these colors, photographic film and digital cameras often record a broader range of hues.

Aurora Colors According to Altitude

Above 150 miles: red, oxygen

Up to 150 miles: green, oxygen

Above 60 miles: purple or violet, nitrogen

Up to 60 miles: blue, nitrogen

The Colors of the Aurora (National Park Service)

https://www.nps.gov/articles/-articles-aps-v8-i1-c9.htm

Expedition 72 Updates:
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 72 Crew
Station Commander: Suni Williams
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, Aleksandr Gorbunov
NASA Flight Engineers: Butch Wilmore, Don Pettit, Nick Hague

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)
Image Date: Jan. 4, 2025

#NASA #Space #Science #ISS #Sun #Planet #Earth #Aurora #AuroraBorealis #GulfOfStLawrence #Canada #Astronauts #AstronautPhotography #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #InternationalCooperation #LongDurationMissions #SpaceLaboratory #HumanSpaceflight #UnitedStates #Expedition72 #STEM #Education

Shenzhou-19 Astronauts Conduct New Experiments | China Space Station

Shenzhou-19 Astronauts Conduct New Experiments | China Space Station

In the field of microgravity physical science, the crew conducted disassembly and assembly of the solid-liquid mesoscopic experiment unit within the fluid physics experiment cabinet and completed the installation of experimental sample disks.

In terms of on-orbit training, they carried out rendezvous and docking training, as well as on-orbit medical rescue training.

For equipment maintenance inside the space station, they performed several tasks, including on-orbit replacement of the fluid loop circulation pump for space applications.

China launched the Shenzhou-19 crewed spaceship on Oct. 30 last year, sending the crew of three astronauts, Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze, to the orbiting space station for a six-month mission.

Shenzhou-19 Crew:

Commander Cai Xuzhe (蔡旭哲)

Mission Specialist Wang Haoze (王浩泽)

Mission Specialist Song Lingdong (宋令东)

Video Credit: CCTV
Duration: 1 minute
Release Date: Jan. 21, 2025

#NASA #Space #Science #Earth #China #中国 #Shenzhou19 #神舟十九号 #Taikonauts #Astronauts #ChinaSpaceStation #中国空间站 #TiangongSpaceStation #SpaceLaboratory #MicrogravityResearch #CMSA #中国载人航天工程办公室 #LongDurationMissions #HumanSpaceflight #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Orbital Sunrise above Namibia in Africa | International Space Station

Orbital Sunrise above Namibia in Africa | International Space Station

An orbital sunrise illuminates the cloud tops in this photograph from the International Space Station as it soared 262 miles above Namibia near the Atlantic coast.

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east.

Expedition 72 Updates:
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 72 Crew
Station Commander: Suni Williams
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, Aleksandr Gorbunov
NASA Flight Engineers: Butch Wilmore, Don Pettit, Nick Hague

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)
Image Date: Jan. 16, 2025

#NASA #Space #Science #ISS #Sun #OrbitalSunrise #Planet #Earth #Africa #Namibia #AtlanticOcean #Astronauts #AstronautPhotography #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #InternationalCooperation #LongDurationMissions #SpaceLaboratory #HumanSpaceflight #UnitedStates #Expedition72 #STEM #Education

Blue Ghost Moon Mission Meets The Blue Planet | Firefly Aerospace

Blue Ghost Moon Mission Meets The Blue Planet | Firefly Aerospace

Firefly Blue Ghost spacecraft view of Earth released on January 25, 2025

Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1 Lunar Lander Pre-launch

Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1 Emblem

On Wednesday, January 15, 2025, a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle successfully launched Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Here is a view of planet Earth from the Blue Ghost spacecraft released on January 25, 2025.

The Blue Ghost lander is currently on its 45-day journey to the Moon. Firefly Aerospace intends to land it in Mare Crisium for NASA’s payloads to perform numerous science and technology demonstrations, including lunar subsurface drilling, sample collection, and X-ray imaging of Earth’s magnetic field to advance research for future human missions on the Moon and provide insights into how space weather impacts the planet.

The Blue Ghost lander flight will deliver ten NASA science instruments and technology demonstrations to the Moon.

Mare Crisium is a lunar mare located in the Moon's Crisium basin, just northeast of Mare Tranquillitatis. It was formed by the flooding of basaltic lava that filled an ancient asteroid impact.

Mare Crisium is 556 km (345 mi) in diameter, and 176,000 square kilometres (68,000 sq mi) in area. It has a very flat floor, with a ring of wrinkle ridges (dorsa) toward its outer boundaries.

Learn more about Firefly's Blue Ghost Lander

https://fireflyspace.com/blue-ghost/

Image Credit: Firefly Aerospace 

Release Dates: Jan. 13 & 25, 2025

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