3/3/08 MORE AWESOME SPACE PHOTO'S

AURORA WATCH: Earth is exiting a solar wind stream that sparked beautiful Northern Lights over the weekend: gallery. The display is subsiding, but another solar wind stream is en route. Sky watchers in Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia should be alert for more auroras when it arrives on or about March 6th.

Spaceweather.com

PHOTO-OP: Comet 17P/Holmes is having a close encounter with the California Nebula. "This pale ghost of a comet makes the brilliant red of my home state's nebula seem that much more intense," says Richard Nolthenius of Bonny Doon, California, who photographed the pair on March 1st:

"On the evenings of March 7th and 8th, Holmes will pass just 'offshore of San Francisco' in the nebula," adds Doug Zubenel of Linn County, Kansas, who labels his own snapshot "California Dreaming." This will be a wonderful photo-op for astronomers with wide-field telescopes. The duo is easy to find; after sunset, just point your optics north at the constellation Perseus: sky map, ephemeris.

more images: from Jack Newton of the Arizona Sky Village; from Michael Jäger of Stixendorf, Austria

RING AROUND THE SUN: Ice in the sky: you know its there when a luminous ring forms around the Sun. William McMullen sends this picture from Ottawa, Ontario:

Photo details: Canon Rebel XT, ISO 200, 1/1000 sec

"The sky has been full of cirrus clouds the past few days, and we've seen lots of 22^o sun halos," he says. "This one appeared in the early afternoon of Feb. 29th."

Cirrus clouds are fertile ground for this phenomenon. They are wispy enough to admit sunlight and icy enough to do something with it: Cirrus ice crystals reflect and refract sun beams, forming lovely rings, arcs and pillars. Such ice halos are even more common than rainbows. They can be seen on average twice a week in Europe and parts of the United States.

more images: from Tammy MacKenzie of Perth, Ontario, Canada; from Evelyn Lockwood of Frankfort, Kentucky; from Mike Lynch of Lexington, Kentucky; from Vincent Elder of Austin, Minnesota; from Michael French at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida; from Patrick Malriat of Doylestown, Pennsylvania;

http://spaceweather.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thunderbolts Picture of the Day Thunderbolts Archives

Supercomputer Confirms Standard Model Theory Of The Universe, Deepens Puzzle Science Daily - March 3, 2008 Mercury has super long, glowing tail News in Science - March 3, 2008 NASA Baffled by Unexplained Force Acting on Space Probes Space.com - March 3, 2008 Liquid water found flowing on Mars? Not yet PhysOrg - February 29, 2008 How Groundwater Shaped Mars Space.com - February 26, 2008 Spitzer's Eyes Perfect For Spotting Diamonds In The Sky Science Daily - February 28, 2008 Did A Mega-collision Alter Venus? Science Daily - February 28, 2008 The light and dark of Venus PhysOrg - February 21, 2008 Japanese scientists eye new planet AFP - February 28, 2008 Sun-like Star Flips Its Magnetic Field Like Our Sun Science Daily - February 27, 2008

GATHERED FROM  http://www.crystalinks.com/ezine.html.