APOD: Dragon Aurora over Iceland (2019 Feb 18)

[APOD Robot]

[img]https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_190218.jpg[/img] Dragon Aurora over Iceland

Explanation: Have you ever seen a dragon in the sky? Although real flying dragons don't exist, a huge dragon-shaped aurora developed in the sky over Iceland earlier this month. The aurora was caused by a hole in the Sun's corona that expelled charged particles into a solar wind that followed a changing interplanetary magnetic field to Earth's magnetosphere. As some of those particles then struck Earth's atmosphere, they excited atoms which subsequently emitted light: aurora. This iconic display was so enthralling that the photographer's mother ran out to see it and was captured in the foreground. No sunspots have appeared on the Sun so far in February, making the multiple days of picturesque auroral activity this month somewhat surprising.

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[Boomer12k]

Gee...maybe this is where Dragon's come from in Lore....

Awesome pic.
:---[===] *

[heehaw]

I once saw a comet with its tail dragon!

[orin stepanek]

Beautiful display: even sticking out it's tongue! Maybe it was thirsty and was lapping up some water!

[neufer]

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<<Dragon-like creatures appear in virtually all cultures around the globe. In his book An Instinct for Dragons (2000), anthropologist David E. Jones suggests a hypothesis that humans, just like monkeys, have inherited instinctive reactions to snakes, large cats, and birds of prey. He cites a study which found that approximately 390 people in a thousand are afraid of snakes and notes that fear of snakes is especially prominent in children, even in areas where snakes are rare. The earliest attested dragons all resemble snakes or bear snakelike attributes. Jones therefore concludes that the reason why dragons appear in nearly all cultures is because of humans' innate fear of snakes and other animals that were major predators of humans' primate ancestors. Dragons are usually said to reside in "dank caves, deep pools, wild mountain reaches, sea bottoms, haunted forests", all places which would have been fraught with danger for early human ancestors.

In her book The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times (2000), Adrienne Mayor argues that some stories of dragons may have been inspired by ancient discoveries of fossils belonging to dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. She argues that the dragon lore of northern India may have been inspired by "observations of oversized, extraordinary bones in the fossilbeds of the Siwalik Hills below the Himalayas" and that ancient Greek artistic depictions of the Monster of Troy may have been influenced by fossils of Samotherium, an extinct species of giraffe whose fossils are common in the Mediterranean region. In China, a region where fossils of large prehistoric animals are common, these remains are frequently identified as "dragon bones" and are commonly used in Chinese traditional medicine. Mayor, however, is careful to point out that not all stories of dragons and giants are inspired by fossils and notes that Scandinavia has many stories of dragons and sea monsters, but has long "been considered barren of large fossils." In one of her later books, she states that "Many dragon images around the world were based on folk knowledge or exaggerations of living reptiles, such as Komodo dragons, Gila monsters, iguanas, alligators, or, in California, alligator lizards.">>

Draco coils around the north celestial pole, as depicted in Urania's Mirror, a set of constellation cards published in London c.1825

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Gee...maybe this is where Dragon's come from in Lore....

<<Draco is a constellation in the far northern sky. Its name is Latin for dragon. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy. The north pole of the ecliptic is in Draco. In 3000 BC, the faint star Thuban in the constellation Draco was the North Star. Dragons in Greek mythology that may have inspired the constellation's name include Ladon, the dragon who guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides. Heracles killed Ladon during his 12 labors; he was tasked with stealing the golden apples. The constellation of Hercules is depicted near Draco. In Greco- Roman legend, Draco was a dragon killed by the goddess Minerva and tossed into the sky upon his defeat. The dragon was one of the Gigantes, who battled the Olympic gods for ten years. As Minerva threw the dragon, it became twisted on itself and froze at the cold North Celestial Pole before it could right itself. Sometimes, Draco is represented as the Titan son of Gaia, Typhon.>>

<<Facilitated by advanced sailing and navigational skills, and characterised by the longship, Viking activities at times also extended into the Mediterranean littoral, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.>>

[Odysseus]

I've never seen the northern lights in person, but considering how much I was blown away by the 2017 American solar eclipse, something like this would probably terrify me.

[MarkBour]

I've never seen the northern lights in person, but considering how much I was blown away by the 2017 American solar eclipse, something like this would probably terrify me.

Ah yes, try to fool us Odysseus!

Having faced Calypso, Cyclops, Circe, the Sirens, Penelope's suitors, the Lotus Eaters, Scylla, Charybdis, the Underworld, Helios, and Poseidon, you will cower at the site of a shimmering light?

[neufer]

I've never seen the northern lights in person, but considering how much I was blown away by the 2017 American solar eclipse, something like this would probably terrify me.

Ah yes, try to fool us Odysseus! Having faced Calypso, Cyclops, Circe, the Sirens, Penelope's suitors, the Lotus Eaters, Scylla, Charybdis, the Underworld, Helios, and Poseidon, you will cower at the site of a shimmering light?

• http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 19#p255219

<<When Helen is abducted, Menelaus calls upon the other suitors to honour their oaths and help him to retrieve her, an attempt that leads to the Trojan War. Odysseus tries to avoid it by feigning lunacy, as an oracle had prophesied a long-delayed return home for him if he went. He hooks a donkey and an ox to his plow (as they have different stride lengths, hindering the efficiency of the plow) and (some modern sources add) starts sowing his fields with salt. Palamedes, at the behest of Menelaus' brother Agamemnon, seeks to disprove Odysseus' madness and places Telemachus, Odysseus' infant son, in front of the plow. Odysseus veers the plow away from his son, thus exposing his stratagem.>>

[RJN]

The photographer said in an early email

This photo was taken at around 11:00 on February 6th in Iceland, facing the direction of the Big Dipper (Great Bear)

There were aurorae that night, at least as visible in northern Norway, as indicated by SpaceWeather.com: http://spaceweathergallery.com/aurora_gallery.html. In comments to the Facebook APOD post of this image, another astrophotographer showed complex aurora were visible in Iceland two nights later: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater
The photographer also said in an earlier email that the image is a mosaic of three photos and that there was some post-processing. Likely the colors of the aurora were made more vivid in post-processing.

An accomplished astrophotographer, skilled in taking aurora shots, has now looked over the image and, given those caveats, said the image seems plausible. For example, the stars in the background seem consistent with the stars visible that night from that location, and also there are no obviously repeating star patterns that are common in contrived fakery. Also, the brightness patterns in the aurora itself seems plausible.

Nevertheless, I have asked the photographer (and post-processor) to respond to this thread. Let's see what they say.

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Postscript added on 2019 Feb 27: This post was in response to someone who questioned the authenticity of this APOD image. After some discussion, including a detailed email from the astrophotography team, this person withdrew their question and no longer disputes the image's authenticity. At the request of this person, their posts to this thread have been removed. - RJN

[Jiajie Zhang]

I am the author's friend, and she send me some screenshots, containing the image posted, and other images sequentially token at the same time, at the same place. She cannot access the internet right now and I post these screenshots here for her.
This is true scene, not fake.

[popcicle]

Does anyone mention the EMF waves being caused by military for weather manipulation? The aurora activity has always been thought to be caused by the sun. When the sun is quiet this has left the "scientists" puzzled to come up with other nonsense from their basket of explanations. The weather warfare info websites know and document the activity on programs that show what is happening with the EMF or microwaves being shot into the upper atmosphere which of course are causing the same auroras only more intense than anything seen previously coming from the sun. NASA is the military so they know exactly what is going on but telling the general public nothing about what is really happening

[Nitpicker]

Does anyone mention the EMF waves being caused by military for weather manipulation? The aurora activity has always been thought to be caused by the sun. When the sun is quiet this has left the "scientists" puzzled to come up with other nonsense from their basket of explanations. The weather warfare info websites know and document the activity on programs that show what is happening with the EMF or microwaves being shot into the upper atmosphere which of course are causing the same auroras only more intense than anything seen previously coming from the sun. NASA is the military so they know exactly what is going on but telling the general public nothing about what is really happening

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Freq ... ch_Program

HAARP is a target of conspiracy theorists, who claim that it is capable of "weaponizing" weather. Commentators and scientists say that advocates of this theory are uninformed, as claims made fall well outside the abilities of the facility, if not the scope of natural science.

[popcicle]

Sort of like the engineering science that went to hell with the 9/11 theories? Doesn't make what happened nor the evidence any less real or truthful. To know something is to KNOW it. It therefore isn't a theory.

[Nitpicker]

I cede to your superior knowledge.

[Chris Peterson]

Does anyone mention the EMF waves being caused by military for weather manipulation? The aurora activity has always been thought to be caused by the sun. When the sun is quiet this has left the "scientists" puzzled to come up with other nonsense from their basket of explanations. The weather warfare info websites know and document the activity on programs that show what is happening with the EMF or microwaves being shot into the upper atmosphere which of course are causing the same auroras only more intense than anything seen previously coming from the sun. NASA is the military so they know exactly what is going on but telling the general public nothing about what is really happening

The maximum energy density we are capable of delivering to the ionosphere with radio waves is about five orders of magnitude lower than what the Sun delivers. It requires exquisitely sensitive instruments to even detect that heating (and heating is all we're doing). We've got a long way to go before we're able to deliver so much energy that we create or alter auroras!