A star filled night sky is shown with aurora visible in blue, purple and green. The aurora could be perceived to be a spruce tree, or even a
Christmas tree. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.
星光闪烁的夜空，蓝色、紫色和绿色的极光清晰可见。极光看起来就像一棵云杉树，甚至是一棵圣诞树。有关更多详细信息，请参阅说明。
绿色的极光填满了繁星密布的天空。前景是一座山和一个湖。对某些人来说，极光可能像一只飞翔或升起的凤凰。有关更多详细信息，请参阅说明。
2024年1月15日 Star Cluster IC 348 from Webb Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, and K. Luhman (Penn State U.) and C. Alves de Oliveira (ESA) Explanation: Sometimes, it’s the stars that are the hardest to see that are the most interesting. IC 348 is a young star cluster that illuminates surrounding filamentary dust. The stringy and winding dust appears pink in this recently released infrared image from the Webb Space Telescope. In visible light, this dust reflects mostly blue light, giving the surrounding material the familiar blue hue of a reflection nebula. Besides bright stars, several cool objects have been located in IC 348, visible because they glow brighter in infrared light. These objects are hypothesized to be low mass brown dwarfs. Evidence for this…
2024年1月14日 Dragon Aurora over Iceland Image Credit & Copyright: Jingyi Zhang & Wang Zheng Explanation: Have you ever seen a dragon in the sky? Although real flying dragons don’t exist, a huge dragon-shaped aurora developed in the sky over Iceland in 2019. The aurora was caused by a hole in the Sun’s corona that expelled charged particles into a solar wind that followed a changing interplanetary magnetic field to Earth’s magnetosphere. As some of those particles then struck Earth’s atmosphere, they excited atoms which subsequently emitted light: aurora. This iconic display was so enthralling that the photographer’s mother ran out to see it and was captured in the foreground. Our active Sun continues to show an unusually high number of prominences, filaments, sunspots, and large…
2023年8月15日 A Triply Glowing Night Sky over Iceland Credit & Copyright: Wioleta Gorecka; Text: Natalia Lewandowska (SUNY Oswego) Explanation: The Sun is not the quiet place it seems. It expels an unsteady stream of energetic electrons and protons known as the solar wind. These charged particles deform the Earth’s magnetosphere, change paths, and collide with atoms in Earth’s atmosphere, causing the generation of light in auroras like that visible in green in the image left. Earth itself is also geologically active and covered with volcanoes. For example, Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland, seen emitting hot gas in orange near the image center. Iceland is one of the most geologically active places on Earth. On the far right is the Svartsengi geothermal power plant which creates the…
2023年7月30日 Spiral Aurora over Icelandic Divide Image Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos Casado (Starry Earth, TWAN) Explanation: Admire the beauty but fear the beast. The beauty is the aurora overhead, here taking the form of a great green spiral, seen between picturesque clouds with the bright Moon to the side and stars in the background. The beast is the wave of charged particles that creates the aurora but might, one day, impair civilization. In 1859, following notable auroras seen all across the globe, a pulse of charged particles from a coronal mass ejection (CME) associated with a solar flare impacted Earth’s magnetosphere so forcefully that it created the Carrington Event. This assault from the Sun compressed the Earth’s magnetic field so violently that it created…
2023年7月4日 Aurora over Icelandic Waterfall Image Credit & Copyright: Cari Letelier Explanation: It seemed like the sky exploded. The original idea was to photograph an aurora over a waterfall. After waiting for hours under opaque clouds, though, hope was running out. Others left. Then, unexpectedly, the clouds moved away. Suddenly, particles from a large solar magnetic storm were visible impacting the Earth’s upper atmosphere with full effect. The night sky filled with colors and motion in a thrilling auroral display. Struggling to steady the camera from high Earthly winds, the 34 exposures that compose the featured image were taken. The resulting featured composite image shows the photogenic Godafoss (Goðafoss) waterfall in northern Iceland in front of a very active aurora in late February. The solar…
2023年3月27日 Aurora Over Arctic Henge Image Credit & Copyright: Cari Letelier Explanation: Reports of powerful solar flares started a seven-hour quest north to capture modern monuments against an aurora-filled sky. The peaks of iconic Arctic Henge in Raufarhöfn in northern Iceland were already aligned with the stars: some are lined up toward the exact north from one side and toward exact south from the other. The featured image, taken after sunset late last month, looks directly south, but since the composite image covers so much of the sky, the north star Polaris is actually visible at the very top of the frame. Also visible are familiar constellations including the Great Bear (Ursa Major) on the left, and the Hunter (Orion) on the lower right. The…
2023年1月11日 Spiral Aurora over Iceland Image Credit & Copyright: Stefano Pellegrini Explanation: The scene may look like a fantasy, but it’s really Iceland. The rock arch is named Gatklettur and located on the island’s northwest coast. Some of the larger rocks in the foreground span a meter across. The fog over the rocks is really moving waves averaged over long exposures. The featured image is a composite of several foreground and background shots taken with the same camera and from the same location on the same night last November. The location was picked for its picturesque foreground, but the timing was planned for its colorful background: aurora. The spiral aurora, far behind the arch, was one of the brightest seen in the astrophotographer’s life. The…
2022年10月30日 Night on a Spooky Planet Image Credit & Copyright: Stéphane Vetter (Nuits sacrées) Explanation: What spooky planet is this? Planet Earth of course, on a dark and stormy night in 2013 at Hverir, a geothermally active area along the volcanic landscape in northeastern Iceland. Triggered by solar activity, geomagnetic storms produced the auroral display in the starry night sky. The ghostly towers of steam and gas are venting from fumaroles and danced against the eerie greenish light. For now, auroral apparitions are increasing as our Sun approaches a maximum in its 11 year solar activity cycle. And pretty soon, ghostly shapes may dance in your neighborhood too. Tomorrow’s picture: big bat 鬼气行星的夜晚 图像提供与版权: Stéphane Vetter（Nuits sacrées） 说明: 这是那颗在闹鬼的行星啊？地球是也；地点在冰岛东北火山地带里的Hverir地热活跃区，时间则是2013年某个漆黑的风暴夜。当时，地球磁暴引发星空中的极光活动，而从喷气孔冒出、形似幽灵的柱状水汽和气体，则在魅异的泛绿极光下方舞动。目前随着太阳往活动极大期靠近，极光出现的机会也随着增加。所以幽灵般的光影，或许很快就会在你的四周飞舞。 明日的图片: big bat
