One thing I would put on my life list if I was vain crazy organized enough to make one would be "See the Northern Lights" probably along with "Go to Alaska" since that's the usual place to go see them. ...or maybe not.
Apparently the Pacific Northwet is likely to be treated to Northern Lights tonight - if the cloud cover burns off - which is good news for me. I'd rather sit on my porch with a cup of tea and a camera for free than go all the way to Alaska to maybe find some Northern Lights. I am entitled to make the universe come to me, right?
That's the good news. The bad news...?
On August 1st, almost the entire Earth-facing side of the sun erupted in a tumult of activity. There was a C3-class solar flare, a solar tsunami, multiple filaments of magnetism lifting off the stellar surface, large-scale shaking of the solar corona, radio bursts, a coronal mass ejection and more. This extreme ultraviolet snapshot from the Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the sun's northern hemisphere in mid-eruption. Different colors in the image represent different gas temperatures ranging from ~1 to 2 million degrees K. (Image credit: NASA/SDO)
It arrives tonight, kids. We're probably not all gonna die but if it gives you an excuse to party like it's (Dec 31st) 1999 go for it.
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