NASA Intern Discovers New Type of Aurora Borealis

Business Insider ^ | December 26, 2019 | Morgan McFall-Johnsen

[LouieFisk]

A NASA intern has discovered a new type of aurora in 3-year-old video footage of the Arctic sky.

With the help of NASA scientists and a satellite, Jennifer Briggs, a physics student at Pepperdine University, connected the unusual aurora to a sudden retreat in Earth's magnetic field. It's the first time scientists have seen an aurora caused solely by a compression of Earth's magnetic field.

Usually, auroras dance across the sky when a lot of high-energy particles from the sun, called solar wind, flood over Earth. But in this case, the sun didn't show any unusual or heightened activity.

[radu]

You gotta take it as it comes - an island sinks, a mountain start up and so on. The planet will do what it wants, I reckon.

Yup. It can put on quite a show at times and there's nothing we can do about it but hang on and enjoy the ride. Sometimes the ride is a little less fun than others though.
Must have been fun watching the aurora do its weird dance that night but now that there's an explanation for it, there's a bit of an "eek!" to it.

[LouieFisk]

“Calling it “new” suggests some change in the planet, but who knows how many unobserved instances of this have occurred?”
—
Yes, it’s like when some new critter is discovered hanging around the ocean floor. It’s touted as a “new species”, even tho it’s been around an exceedingly long time. New to us, maybe.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Biden’s brain having a rare thought?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks fieldmarshaldj.

---

join or quit view topics view or post blog bookmark post new topic subscribe

---

• The northern and southern lights are different. Here’s why

[daniel1212]

From Pepperdine University, a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ. No separation of church from satellites.