October 28, 2024
You share your birthday with the light of distant galaxies that has been traveling for millions of years just to arrive here, now, alongside...
STEVE: A Glowing River over France
Birthday · October 28, 2024
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APOD published October 28, 2024. Credit: Louis LEROUX-GÉRÉ. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Sometimes a river of hot gas flows over your head. In this case the river created a Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement (STEVE) that glowed bright red, white, and pink. Details of how STEVEs work remain a topic of research, but recent evidence holds that their glow results from a fast-moving river of hot ions flowing over a hundred kilometers up in the Earth's atmosphere: the ionosphere. The more expansive dull red glow might be related to the flowing STEVE, but alternatively might be a Stable Auroral Red (SAR) arc, a more general heat-related glow. The featured picture, taken earlier this month in Côte d'Opale, France, is a wide-angle digital composite made as the STEVE arc formed nearly overhead. Although the apparition lasted only a few minutes, this was long enough for the quick-thinking astrophotographer to get in the picture -- can you find him?
Image credit: Louis LEROUX-GÉRÉ