A California photographer caught this mirage off the beach.
Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explains: "The California Coast is such a fertile place for sunset mirages, it is a wonder that it has any 'normal' ones! To form mirages like this you need air cooled by contact with a cold ocean current topped by warmer air from the land – a temperature inversion. The junction of the two air masses is the dark line above the horizon. The sun's rays are curved by passage between the layers to form the multiple images, two setting and one even rising!"
More Pretty Phenomenon from Atmospheric Optics
Light playing on water drops, dust or ice crystals in the atmosphere produces a host of visual spectacles – rainbows, halos, glories, coronas and many more. Some can be seen almost every day or so, some are once in a lifetime sights. Find out where to see them and how they form. Then seek and enjoy them outdoors.
Someone Left the Cake out in the Meteor Rain
"How many meteors can you count in these pictures?" asks Pierre Martin of Ottawa, Ontario. Answer: 16. "Those are the Orionids I saw on Oct. 23rd. Even two nights after the peak, the shower was still going strong!"
The beautiful flurry commenced on Oct 21st when Earth passed through a stream of debris from Halley's Comet. Meteors flew out of the constellation Orion in numbers exceeding 40 per hour--about twice the usual rate. This is the third year in a row the Orionids have surged in this fashion, suggesting a trend. "I'm sure that meteor enthusiasts around the world are looking forward to next year's display," says Martin. Mark your calendar: Oct. 21, 2009.
More Orionid Photos
Neighborhood News
Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.
On October 25, 2008 there were 992 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Say Hello to Helios!
The STEREO (Ahead) spacecraft observed this visually stunning prominence eruption on Sept. 29, 2008 in the 304 wavelength of extreme UV light. It rose up and cascaded to the right over several hours, appearing something like a flag unfurling, as it broke apart and headed into space. The material observed is actually ionized Helium at about 60,000 degrees. Prominences are relatively cool clouds of gas suspended above the Sun and controlled by magnetic forces.
Erik Lehnsherr Speaks!
I found this cool site presented by the The Space Plasma Physics Group of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. The Lion Roars is an audio presentation of the sounds generated by the magnetosphere and how we discovered just what those strange noises were when we invented the telephone.
That's all!
--->Susan
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