Aurora-chasers in Canada spotted an unexplained purple streak in the sky and named it… Steve.
Occasionally, people living in the upper latitudes get a celestial treat: the aurora (also known as the northern or southern lights, depending on your hemisphere). The dazzling displays of green, pink, and blue arise from complicated interactions among charged particles from the sun, the Earth’s magnetic field, and gas molecules in the upper atmosphere. Liz MacDonald, a space plasma physicist at NASA, says that auroral research is hampered by being “data poor.” She founded the Aurorasaurus project to connect citizen science observations of the aurora with people in the space weather research community. Recently, amateur observers tagged a previously undescribed type of auroral effect that appeared as a purplish streak. For now, they’re calling the streak “Steve.”
Listen here to learn more.
[Photo by Niccolò Ubalducci/flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]
An aurora named Steve! -Emily
Proof that citizen science produces noteworthy work. #Steve

















