Aurora Over Iowa
Credit & Copyright: Stan Richards (NightSkyEvents.com)
18th December 2006
Last Thursday evening, stars were not the only lights
in Iowa skies. Spectacular northern lights also shone from the heavens,
extending across the midwestern USA and other locations not often
graced with auroral displays. The wide-ranging auroral activity was
triggered as a large solar flare - an energetic cloud of particles blasted
outward from the Sun a few days earlier - collided with planet Earth's
magnetosphere. Alerted to conditions ripe for aurora, photographer
Stan Richard recorded this apparition over Saylorville Lake, near Des Moines,
Iowa, USA. While the colorful rays seem to end just above the water,
they are actually at altitudes of 100 kilometers or more.
Aurora Over Alaska
Credit: Joshua Strang, USAF, Wikipedia
Higher than the highest mountain, higher than the highest
airplane, lies the realm of the aurora. Aurora rarely reach below 60 kilometers,
and can range up to 1000 kilometers. Aurora light results from solar shockwave
causing energetic electrons and protons to striking molecules in the Earth's
atmosphere. Frequently, when viewed from space, a complete aurora will
appear as a circle around one of the Earth's magnetic poles. The above digitally
enhanced photograph was taken in 2005 January shows a spectacular aurora
borealis above the frozen landscape of Bear Lake, Alaska, USA. The above
image was voted Wikipedia Commons Picture of the Year for 2006.
"Blue Marble" composite images generated by NASA in 2001 (left) and 2002 (right).
"The Blue Marble" is a famous photograph of the Earth taken on
7 December 1972 by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft at a
distance of about 45,000 kilometers or about 28,000 miles.
It is one of the most widely distributed photographic images in existence.
Earth is said to have the appearance of a child's glass marble in the photo
(hence the name). "The Blue Marble" was the first clear image of an
illuminated face of Earth. Released during a surge in environmental
activism during the 1970s, the image was seen by many as a depiction
of Earth's frailty, vulnerability, and isolation amid the expanse of space.
( From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )
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SAVING OUR PLANET - WHAT CAN YOU DO?
We live on a beautiful and unique planet, we cannot live on the
moon or on Mars, the conditions are just not right to support life
as we know it. So we have no choice but for every one of us to
do whatever we can to help save our amazing planet.
Check out the following websites to find out what you, your family,
your friends, your neighbours and work colleagues can do.
Recommend these websites to them:
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/ClimateChange/Cip6/index.asp
http://earth-care-day.tripod.com/
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CLIMATE CRISIS
Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority
of the world's scientists are right, we have just ten years to
avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet
into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather,
floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond
anything we have ever experienced. If that sounds like a recipe
for serious gloom and doom -- think again. From director Davis
Guggenheim comes the Sundance Film Festival hit,
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH.
" AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH " WATCH THE MOVIE TRAILER
Climate Change...Climate Chaos...Climate Crisis...See What It Is All About !
( CLICK ON THIS URL )
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2078944470709189270&q=
WHAT IS GLOBAL WARMING ?
http://www.climatecrisis.net/thescience/
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Climate Care - Helping you help the climate:
http://www.climatecare.org/index.cfm
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Tomorrow's Climate - Today's Challenge:
http://www.climatechallenge.gov.uk/
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DISASTER AND EMERGENCY INFORMATION SERVICE ( ALERTMAP )
Data collecting and monitoring :
National Association of Radio-Distress Signalling and Infocommunications,
Havaria Emergency and Disaster Information Services
Budapest Hungary.
http://visz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert.php?lang=eng
Email: havaria@rsoe.hu
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Earth : Quotes From The Astronauts
For those who have seen the Earth from space, and for the hundreds and perhaps thousands more who will, the experience most certainly changes your perspective. The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us.
- Donald Williams, USA
My first view - a panorama of brilliant deep blue ocean, shot with shades of green and grey and white - was of atolls and clouds. Close to the window I could see that this Pacific scene in motion was rimmed by the great curved limb of the Earth. It had a thin halo of blue held close, and beyond, black space. I held my breath, but something was missing - I felt strangely unfulfilled. Here was a tremendous visual spectacle, but viewed in silence. There was no grand musical accompaniment; no triumphant, inspired sonata or symphony. Each one of us must write the music of this sphere for ourselves.
- Charles Walker, USA
Looking outward to the blackness of space, sprinkled with the glory of a universe of lights, I saw majesty - but no welcome. Below was a welcoming planet. There, contained in the thin, moving, incredibly fragile shell of the biosphere is everything that is dear to you, all the human drama and comedy. That's where life is; that's were all the good stuff is.
- Loren Acton, USA
The Earth was small, light blue, and so touchingly alone, our home that must be defended like a holy relic. The Earth was absolutely round. I believe I never knew what the word round meant until I saw Earth from space.
- Aleksei Leonov, USSR
The sun truly "comes up like thunder," and it sets just as fast. Each sunrise and sunset lasts only a few seconds. But in that time you see at least eight different bands of color come and go, from a brilliant red to the brightest and deepest blue. And you see sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets every day you're in space. No sunrise or sunset is ever the same.
- Joseph Allen, USA
The Earth reminded us of a Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space. As we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man, has to make a man appreciate the creation of God and the love of God.
- James Irwin, USA
Suddenly, from behind the rim of the moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth . . . home.
- Edgar Mitchell, USA
For the first time in my life I saw the horizon as a curved line. It was accentuated by a thin seam of dark blue light - our atmosphere. Obviously this was not the ocean of air I had been told it was so many times in my life. I was terrified by its fragile appearance.
- Ulf Merbold, Federal Republic of Germany
A Chinese tale tells of some men sent to harm a young girl who, upon seeing her beauty, become her protectors rather than her violators. That's how I felt seeing the Earth for the first time. "I could not help but love and cherish her.
- Taylor Wang, China/USA
My view of our planet was a glimpse of divinity.
- Edgar Mitchell, USA
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New from Windows Live Local
From space you can see where you live! Click between
Arial and Bird's Eye views for a pictorial view.
http://local.live.com/
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NASA's Blue Marble Navigator
The 'Blue Marble' picture of Earth is a composite
created by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for
each month of the year 2004 to illustrate changes
in snow cover and vegetation. This page features
its maximum resolution of four pixels per kmē
(18000 times more detailed than the map below),
made navigable by dividing it into clickable tiles.
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Earth As Seen From Space
Within each of the seven view categories you can
combine multiple selections. For example:
you might choose a Water View of (lake or reservoir);
or a Land View of (island and volcano). Selecting to
combine multiple view selections with AND will only
return records that contain ALL of the selected items
for that view. Using the OR option will return records
that contain ANY of the selected items.
http://earth.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/efs/categories.htm
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THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE (SETI).
SETI@home is a scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected
computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
You can participate by running a free program that downloads
and analyzes radio telescope data.
Earth at Night
Credit: C. Mayhew & R. Simmon (NASA/GSFC), NOAA/NGDC, DMSP
Digital Archive This is what the Earth looks like at night. Can you find
your favorite country or city? Surprisingly, city lights make this task
quite possible. Human-made lights highlight particularly developed
or populated areas of the Earth's surface, including the seaboards
of Europe, the eastern United States, and Japan. Many large cities
are located near rivers or oceans so that they can exchange goods
cheaply by boat. Particularly dark areas include the central parts of
South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The above image is actually
a composite of hundreds of pictures made by the orbiting DMSP satellites.
