Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos!
Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is
featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2014 April 29
Aurora Dog over Alaska
Image Credit & Copyright:
John Chumack
Explanation:
Sometimes it is hard to believe what you see in the sky.
While leading his annual
aurora tour last month near
Fairbanks in central
Alaska, astrophotographer
John Chumack and his company saw a
most unusual aurora.
This bright
aurora appeared to change into the shape of a
jumping dog, complete with a curly
tail.
He was able to capture the fleeting natural apparition in the
above image with a 15-second exposure through a wide-angle lens.
By coincidence, he also captured a background sky filled with familiar highlights.
Planets visible include bright
Jupiter through the dog's front legs and
reddish Mars below the dog's
hind legs.
Stars visible include the
Big Dipper stars above the dog's midsection and reddish
Betelgeuse shining on the far right.
This dog would not be following him home, however, and within a few minutes
morphed into other shapes before the
geomagnetic storm
particles that created it shifted to strike the Earth elsewhere.
Tomorrow's picture: sun block
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Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(
MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell (
UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman
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