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Three coronal holes spread across the sun are pointing at Earth. As a result, the US Space Weather Prediction Centre in Boulder, Colorado, and the Space Weather Operations Centre of the UK Met Office in Exeter have issued an alert for tomorrow of a minor geomagnetic storm. “Early on Day 3 (April 2), a high-speed stream from coronal hole 67 is expected to reach Earth,” said the Met Office. Forecasters in the US and UK predict this could confuse migrating birds and other animals, cause minor problems with satellites and make an aurora visible as far south as Maine and...

(VIDEO) RICHMOND, Va. -- Why? Why did the shooter open fire as soon as state Trooper Chad P. Dermyer approached him at Richmond's Greyhound bus station? Why did he keep shooting and fighting till the end, as state police superintendent Col. Steven Flaherty described Thursday night? Why was he in Richmond? An official source identified the shooter as 34-year-old James Brown III of Aurora, Illinois. CBS 6 found a James Brown III., an African-American with a long criminal history in Aurora, whose date of birth matches up with the information from our source. Brown is well known to police there....

Explanation: All of the other aurora watchers had gone home. By 3:30 am in Iceland, on a quiet night last September, much of that night's auroras had died down. Suddenly though, a new burst of particles streamed down from space, lighting up the Earth's atmosphere once again. This time, unexpectedly, pareidoliacally, they created an amazing shape reminiscent of a giant phoenix. With camera equipment at the ready, two quick sky images were taken, followed immediately by a third of the land. The mountain in the background is Helgafell, while the small foreground river is called Kaldá, both located about 30...

According to a friend in the area there was or is a shooting at rangeview high school in aurora co. Heard off police scanner. Located in aurora colorado. NOTHING yet on local channels.

Explanation: On some nights, the sky is the best show in town. On this night, the sky was not only the best show in town, but a composite image of the sky won an international competition for landscape astrophotography. The featured winning image was taken in 2011 over Jökulsárlón, the largest glacial lake in Iceland. The photographer combined six exposures to capture not only two green auroral rings, but their reflections off the serene lake. Visible in the distant background sky is the band of our Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy. A powerful coronal mass ejection from the...

Explanation: Legends collide in this dramatic vista of land, sea, and sky. The land is Iceland, specifically Vík í M‡rdal, a southern village known for its beautiful black sand beaches. The sea, the Atlantic Ocean, surrounds Reynisdrangar, a sea stack of eroded basaltic rock pillars that Icelandic folklore tells are the petrified remains of trolls once attempting to drag a three-masted ship onto land. Watching from overhead and shining bright on the upper right is the god of the sky, according to Greek mythology: the planet Jupiter. Also visible in the sky are several other Greek legends encapsulated as constellations,...

Explanation: What's happened to the sky? Aurora! Captured late last month, 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 Earth's protective magnetosphere a few days later. Although a spiral pattern can be discerned, creative humans might imagine the complex glow as an atmospheric apparition of any number of common icons. In the foreground of the featured image is the Ölfusá River, while the lights illuminate a bridge in Selfoss City. Just beyond the low...

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — The man who unleashed a murderous attack on a packed Colorado movie theater was ordered Wednesday to serve life in prison without parole plus 3,318 years — the maximum allowed by law — before the judge told deputies, "Get the defendant out of my courtroom, please." The gallery applauded the remark by Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. as he gaveled the hearing to a close, ending a grueling three-year wait to see the gunman brought to justice. Survivors, relatives and a handful of jurors who were in the courtroom cheered and then hugged prosecutors and law...

James Holmes, the gunman behind the Dark Knight massacre in Colorado last July, has reportedly turned Muslim and prays five times a day. The killer showed off a lengthy, thick beard during a court appearance earlier this month, and a prison source has claimed it is a symbol of his new-found faith. The source said Holmes has turned to Islam as a way of justifying his horrific murder spree in an Aurora, Colorado cinema on July 20 which left 12 people dead and 58 people wounded.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. -- It took almost three years for the case to reach trial. That trial played out over the course of three months. The jury needed just 6.5 hours to render a verdict. James Holmes has been sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Explanation: The setting had been picked out -- all that was needed was an aurora. And late last August, forecasts predicted that an otherwise beautiful night sky would be lit up with auroral green. Jumping into his truck, the astrophotographer approached his secret site -- but only after a five hour drive across the rural Upper Peninsula of Michigan. What he didn't know was that his luck was just beginning. While setting up for the image, a proton arc -- a rare type of aurora -- appeared. The red arc lasted only about 15 minutes, but that was long enough...

Explanation: It has been one of the better skies of this long night. In parts of Antarctica, not only is it winter, but the Sun can spend weeks below the horizon. At China's Zhongshan Station, people sometimes venture out into the cold to photograph a spectacular night sky. The featured image from one such outing was taken in mid-July, just before the end of this polar night. Pointing up, the wide angle lens captured not only the ground at the bottom, but at the top as well. In the foreground is a colleague also taking pictures. In the distance, a...

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4)– Gunman James Holmes was found guilty in the Aurora theater shooting that left 12 people dead and dozens more injured, putting the death penalty option at the center of the courtroom. The jury began delivering their verdict at 4:15 p.m. Thursday. Holmes was found guilty in the following 24 counts for first-degree murder and first-degree murder extreme indifference in the deaths of Jonathan Blunk, Alexander J. Boik, Jesse Childress, Gordon Cowden, John Larimer, Jessica Ghawi, Matthew McQuinn, Micayla Medek, Veronica Moser-Sullivan, Alex Sullivan, Alexander Teves, Rebecca Wingo.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. —Jurors have reached a verdict in the trial of Colorado theater shooter James Holmes. The panel made its decision Thursday after deliberating for a day and a half. A court spokesman saID the verdict will be read at 5:15 p.m. today. Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the July 20, 2012, shootings that killed 12 people and injured 70 others. If the jury convicts Holmes, the trial will enter a sentencing phase with testimony about whether he should be sent to prison for life or sentenced to death. Jurors make that decision. If they...

Verdict reached in Aurora Theater Murder Trial - To be read at 2:00 MDT

Explanation: Not fireworks, these intense shimmering lights still danced across Earth's night skies late last month, seen here above the planet's geographic south pole. The stunning auroral displays were triggered as a coronal mass ejection blasted from the Sun days earlier impacted the magnetosphere, beginning a widespread geomagnetic storm. The six fisheye panels were recorded with digital camera and battery in a heated box to guard against -90 degree F ambient temperatures of the long winter night. Around the horizon are south pole astronomical observatories, while beyond the Aurora Australis stretch the stars of the southern Milky Way.

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence has been in an ongoing legal battle for years now trying to sue Lucky Gunner, an ammunition supplier, and hold them responsible for James Holmes shooting up the Aurora movie theater. How they managed that mental leap was always a bit of a mystery, but they’ve been able to tie up Lucky Gunner in court for quite a while over it. This week a judge had apparently heard enough and declared the action to be little more than a publicity stunt and a nuisance suit, ordering the Brady Center to pay the...

A trio of young thugs attempted to rob three men moving furniture into a condo in Aurora, Colorado Friday night. Two of the men accosted handed over their wallets. The third pulled his legally-concealed weapon and opened fire, hitting all three suspects: One robbery suspect died on the way to the hospital. A second robbery suspect suffered serious injuries. A third fled, but walked into to Aurora South Medical Center where he was arrested. The shooter had a concealed to carry weapons permit and put the gun down when he saw officers arriving. Brauchler says ColoradoÂ’s self-defense law allows the...

Explanation: Why do some auroras pulsate? No one is sure. Although this unusual behavior has been known for a long time, the cause remains an active topic of research. Featured here is a dramatic video that captured some impressive pulsating auroras in mid-March over Svínafellsjökull Glacier in Iceland. The 48-second video is shown is not time-lapse. The real-time pulsations are exemplified by sequences where the astrophotographer is visible moving about in the foreground. A close inspection of the enigmatic flickering sky colors reveals that some structures appear to repeat, while others do not. The quick rapidity of the pulsations seen...

~snip~ Maddow opened her show with heart-rending footage of the Aurora trial. She highlighted the testimony of Brenton Lowak, whose friend Jessica Ghawi -- a 24-year-old aspiring sports reporter -- died in the shooting. ~snip~ The parents unsuccessfully sued the retailers who made the firearm that killed their daughter. Colorado state law requires that plaintiffs who sue the manufacturers of gun products pay the companies' legal fees if they lose. “That’s not a typo,” Maddow said, adding, “The mother and father of the victim who died in the Aurora mass shooting have just been ordered to pay a quarter-million dollars...