{"id":753,"date":"2006-12-08T07:59:27","date_gmt":"2006-12-08T15:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/?p=753"},"modified":"2006-12-08T08:00:35","modified_gmt":"2006-12-08T16:00:35","slug":"a-christmas-card-from-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/2006\/12\/08\/a-christmas-card-from-the-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"A Christmas Card from the Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/graphics\/aurora.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-images\/0612\/aurora.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"right\"\/><\/a>A new <a href=\"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/?p=750\">very active sunspot<\/a> sent a coronal mass ejection Earthward which interacts with our magnetosphere to produce <a href=\"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/?p=619\">bright auroras<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In Finland, a photographer captured the aurora&#8217;s glow over snow-tufted conifers to produce this wonderful picture that looks like it was staged to become the front of a Christmas card. <em>(Click on the image to see a larger version.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spaceweather.com\/\">SpaceWeather.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>AURORA WATCH: Sky watchers, be alert for auroras. A coronal mass ejection (CME) is expected to brush past Earth tonight, sparking a mild geomagnetic storm. The display will probably favor high latitudes&#8211;e.g., Scandinavia, Canada and Alaska&#8211;but it could descend as well to northern-tier US states such as Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. (continued below) <\/p>\n<p>The source of the CME is sunspot 930, which has been exploding regularly since it first appeared on Dec. 5th. The &#8220;angry sunspot&#8221; is slowly turning to face Earth. As it does, it might send more CMEs our way, and they would hit head-on rather than merely brushing past. By next week, Northern Lights could reach deep into the United States. Stay tuned. (And keep your fingers crossed.) <\/p>\n<p><em>Picture: Auroras over Finland on Dec. 8th. Credit: Vesa S&auml;rkel&auml;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Visit the December 2006 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spaceweather.com\/aurora\/gallery_01dec06.htm\">Aurora Gallery<\/a> for more beautiful pictures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new very active sunspot sent a coronal mass ejection Earthward which interacts with our magnetosphere to produce bright auroras. In Finland, a photographer captured the&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,17,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy","category-photography","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}