Did You Hear the Northern Lights?

From National Geographic:

"Next time you are lucky enough to witness an aurora borealis, you may want to also listen carefully for some faint applause. According to a new study announced this week, colorful displays of northern lights may actually produce audible clapping sounds. Finnish researcher Unto K. Laine from Aalto University has been studying the phenomenon for over a decade and believes that he has captured a distinct sound associated with intense episodes of northern lights.

Auroras occur when charged particles are thrown off the Sun as solar wind, then travel across interplanetary space, eventually interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field. This sets off the colorful displays.

There have been stories about an eerie noise associated with auroras for over a century at least, centered around the Arctic region where displays are more frequent and powerful. Most of these stories, however, have been considered just folklore and hearsay.

Many describe what they heard as being comparable to that of a radio left on a station that has gone off the air. Sort of a faint crackling or a hissing sound.

“In history there are thousands of relevant observations, but recordings also exist that consists of many different type sounds described by observers around the world such as crackling, clapping, popping, booms and low frequency noise,” says Laine.
Read More

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Major Solar Flare Erupts From Giant Sunspot

"The sun unleashed a huge flare Thursday (July 12), the second major solar storm to erupt from our star in less than a week.

The solar flare peaked at 12:52 p.m. EDT (1652 GMT) as an X-class sun storm, the most powerful type of flare the sun can have."
Read More-> SPACE.com

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If you are up early tomorrow(Saturday), you can see the Moon near the Pleaides star cluster (Seven Sisters), Venus, and Jupiter, before dawn. See-> EarthSky

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The July 14/15 Mercury station may feel a bit heavier then usual, with the Sun tightly square Saturn. But perhaps the Gemini Moon will help lighten the social mood. Uranus (heightened change, revolution, and liberation) is stationary-retrograde today, which suggests some excitement in the air.