Starship Asterisk*

neufer wrote:
Northern lights make for quite a sight — and some odd sounds

Research detailing clapping noises vindicates folk tales,
reports by wilderness travelers

by Shawn Malone, MSNBC

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48125730/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.T_tRqpHheZ0 wrote:

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Northern lights make for quite a sight — and some odd sounds
Research detailing clapping noises vindicates folk tales, reports by wilderness travelers

by Shawn Malone, MSNBC

<<The northern lights of Earth are more than just dazzling light shows — they also generate their own strange applause too, a new study reveals. The same energetic particles that create the dancing, dazzling northern lights high up in Earth's atmosphere also produce strange "clapping" noises just 70 meters from the ground, researchers said. The results vindicate folk tales and reports by wilderness travelers, which have long described sounds associated with the northern lights (which are also known as the aurora borealis).

"In the past, researchers thought that the aurora borealis was too far away for people to hear the sounds it made," Unto Laine, from Aalto University in Finland, said in a statement released Monday. "This is true," Laine added. "However, our research proves that the source of the sounds that are associated with the aurora borealis we see is likely caused by the same energetic particles from the sun that create the northern lights far away in the sky. These particles or the geomagnetic disturbance produced by them seem to create sound much closer to the ground."

Laine and his colleagues determined the location of the clapping noise by comparing sounds captured by three microphones set up at a site with high auroral activity. Simultaneous measurements made by the Finnish Meteorological Institute showed a typical pattern of northern lights episodes at the time, researchers said. Aurora sounds don't occur during every northern lights outburst, and they're usually brief and faint, requiring careful listening and a minimum of background noise to be heard. Scientists still aren't sure exactly how the auroral sounds are created. They can be quite variable, ranging from claps and crackles to muffled bangs and sputtering sounds. Because of this sonic diversity, several different mechanisms might be at work, researchers said. The new study will be published in the proceedings of the 19th International Congress on Sound and Vibration, a conference that's meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania from Sunday to Thursday.>>

neufer wrote:The moons should also lie in the plane of the ecliptic, however.

Chris Peterson wrote:

fascinating wrote:
With all due respect, that "saturn" doesn't look right. At the scale of Leo, Saturn should be an unresolved star. Also, it appears to be rotated 90 degrees from the plane of the ecliptic.

It's actually Jupiter. It might be distorted by the lens or film, and we might be seeing some evidence of its moons, given that the short axis of the cross is pretty much on their orbital plane.

fascinating wrote:With all due respect, that "saturn" doesn't look right. At the scale of Leo, Saturn should be an unresolved star. Also, it appears to be rotated 90 degrees from the plane of the ecliptic. Maybe it's an airplane strobe, or a meteor, or maybe Mr. Stefnisson added it as a trademark?

neufer wrote:

Psnarf wrote:
Steganography?

Sew! howcome when you click on the image, you get a smaller image?

The html code shows the linked image is 625px×444px
while the main image is 960px×682px?

• In order to make "Sigurður H. Stefnisson" less obstrusive.
  
  So what is the constellation in the background?

. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_%28constellation%29

• What is the planet in the upper right corner?

Saturn

TNT wrote:

neufer wrote:

geckzilla wrote:
Sweet, I love the new higher rez image. Welcome to 2012, volcano aurora.

But it gives away what the planet in the upper right corner is

Okay, neufer, I'm stumped. How exactly does it give away what that planet is

neufer wrote:

geckzilla wrote:
Sweet, I love the new higher rez image. Welcome to 2012, volcano aurora.

But it gives away what the planet in the upper right corner is

I am always disappointed when a new APOD can't be found. This one was first used on January 29, 2006.

Actually, this is the fourth time. Previously 2002, 2004, 2006 and today.

geckzilla wrote:
Sweet, I love the new higher rez image. Welcome to 2012, volcano aurora.

APOD Robot wrote:Is Earth the Solar System's only planet with both auroras and volcanos?

neufer wrote:Many Volcanoes Erupt Mulberry Jam Sandwiches Under Normal Pressure.

APOD Robot wrote:
Is Earth the Solar System's only planet with both auroras and volcanos?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanism_on_Venus wrote:
<<The surface of Venus is dominated by volcanism and has produced more volcanoes than any other planet in the solar system. It has a surface that is 90% basalt, and about 65% of the planet consists of a mosaic of volcanic lava plains, indicating that volcanism played a major role in shaping its surface. The planet may have had a major global resurfacing event about 500 million years ago, from what scientists can tell from the density of impact craters on the surface. Even though there are over 1,600 major volcanoes on Venus, none are known to be erupting at present and most are probably long extinct. However, radar sounding by the Magellan probe revealed evidence for comparatively recent volcanic activity at Venus's highest volcano Maat Mons, in the form of ash flows near the summit and on the northern flank.>>

Psnarf wrote:Steganography?
Sew! howcome when you click on the image, you get a smaller image?
The html code shows the linked image is 625px×444px while the main image is 960px×682px?

Psnarf wrote:
Steganography?

Sew! howcome when you click on the image, you get a smaller image?

The html code shows the linked image is 625px×444px
while the main image is 960px×682px?

• In order to make "Sigurður H. Stefnisson" less obstrusive.
  
  So what is the constellation in the background?

• What is the planet in the upper right corner?

Chris Peterson wrote:

Sonja wrote:
Though I appreciate the daily posts and especially the effort that goes into their presentation, I must tell you that photos with such blatant "credit" lines as the one posted today (Volcano and Aurora in Iceland, © Sigurður H. Stefnisson!) seriously detract from the experience.

I agree. Placing a name and copyright notice directly on an image is a poor aesthetic decision, and usually serves no purpose.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hekla wrote:

[b][color=#0000FF][size=115]Abraham Ortelius' 1585 map of Iceland showing Hekla in eruption. The Latin text translates as '[i]The Hekla, perpetually condemned to storms and snow, vomits stones under terrible noise.[/i][/size]'[/color][/b]

---

<<In Icelandic Hekla is the word for a short hooded cloak which may relate to the frequent cloud cover on the summit. An early Latin source refers to the mountain as Mons Casule.

After the eruption of 1104, stories (which were probably spread deliberately through Europe by Cistercian monks) told that Hekla was the gateway to Hell. The Cistercian monk Herbert of Clairvaux wrote in his De Miraculis (without naming Hekla):

The renowned fiery cauldron of Sicily, which men call Hell's chimney ... that cauldron is affirmed to be like a small furnace compared to this enormous inferno.
—Herbert of Clairvaux, Liber De Miraculis, 1180

A poem by the monk Benedeit from circa 1120 about the voyages of Saint Brendan mentions Hekla as the prison of Judas. The Flatey Book Annal wrote of the 1341 eruption that people saw large and small birds flying in the mountain's fire which were taken to be souls. In the 16th century Caspar Peucer wrote that the Gates of Hell could be found in "the bottomless abyss of Hekla Fell". The belief that Hekla was the gate to Hell persisted until the 1800s. There is still a legend that witches gather on Hekla for Easter.>>