APOD: Volcano and Aurora in Iceland (2012 Jul 08)

[geckzilla]

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

[neufer]

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

[rstevenson]

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

... and ...

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

It's the weekend. They are volunteers. Cut them a little slack.

Rob

[ceegee]

RJN,
Thank you for updating the image! Awesome photo! BTW, I totally get why astrophotographers put their copyright on their images to protect them, and I have never had a problem with that.

[nstahl]

Thank you Robert and thank you Sirgurdur. This is definitely nicer. And thanks for the explanation. We appreciate your work.

[TNT]

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

[Beyond]

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

Look a little closer. Magnify your screen if you must.

[fascinating]

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?
Otherwise, beautiful photo.

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

[Chris Peterson]

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?

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.

[neufer]

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.

Indeed it is Jupiter. (I forgot my "signs." )

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

[Chris Peterson]

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

The ecliptic runs from Jupiter to Regulus, and the Jovian equator was tilted about 12° from the ecliptic from our viewpoint when the image was taken- which is just about the angle that the short arm of the cross makes. The magnitude of the Galilean moons is about the same as the dimmer stars visible in the image, so capturing them is likely... although that far from the optical axis you'd expect aberration to make a mess of the system.

[neufer]

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.>>

[bystander]

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

Sounds of Northern Lights are born close to ground
Aalto University | 2012 July 09