A Vortex Aurora over Iceland

The car was not in danger of being vacuumed into space by the big sky vortex. Since the Earth's magnetic field is caused by particles hitting the planet from space, the vortex was actually an Aurora. The Auroral display was caused by a Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun that passed very close to the Earth. The upper red parts of the Aurora are over 250 kilometers high and have a red glow. The lower green parts of the Aurora are over 100 kilometers high and have a green glow because of atmospheric atomic oxygen and first-energized molecular nitrogen. Auroras end abruptly because there is little atomic oxygen below 100 kilometers. The corona is seen from the side of the cylinder. The featured image was created from a single 3-second exposure taken in March over Lake Myvat n.

Page 2

Explanation: On the upper right, dressed in blue, is the Pleiades. Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades is one of the brightest and most easily visible open clusters on the sky. The Pleiades contains over 3,000 stars, is about 400 light years away, and only 13 light years across. Surrounding the stars is a spectacular blue reflection nebula made of fine dust. A common legend is that one of the brighter stars faded since the cluster was named. On the lower left, shining in red, is the California Nebula. Named for its shape, the California Nebula is much dimmer and hence harder to see than the Pleiades. Also known as NGC 1499, this mass of red glowing hydrogen gas is about 1,500 light years away. Although about 25 full moons could fit between them, the featured wide angle, deep field image composite has captured them both. A careful inspection of the deep image will also reveal the star forming region IC 348 and the molecular cloud LBN 777 (the Baby Eagle Nebula).