Aurora Possible Friday night, Feb. 19-20, Plus More Amazing Mars Images
The Big Dipper and some green auroral "fire" from a minor (G1) geomagnetic storm in September 2018. Bob King I was going to wait to write about the northern lights because they were originally forecast for Saturday night, Feb. 20. That just changed with the most recent NOAA space weather forecast . A minor geomagnetic storm may occur tonight (Friday, Feb. 19-20) instead between about 9 p.m. and midnight CST. As with so many auroras, times change so I would be on the lookout anytime between now and dawn. The cause is a familiar one — a high-speed wind of electrons and protons streaming from a gap in the sun's magnetic canopy called a coronal hole. Earlier this evening, conditions were excellent for auroras across northern Europe. Let's cross our fingers they repeat over North America tonight. The moon is half and shouldn't put out too much light. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this photo of the capsule containing the descent vehicle and Perseverance