**Astronomy Picture of the Day**

14 January 2024

**Dragon Aurora over Iceland**

Image Credit & Copyright:

Jingyi Zhang & Wang Zheng

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 in 2019. 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. Our active Sun continues to show an unusually high number of prominences, filaments, sunspots, and large active regions as solar maximum approaches in 2025.

#APOD #PlanetaryScience #Astrochemistry #Research #Meteorology

I did an accidental experiment last weekend. I changed my cover pic on my Facebook profile. I got so many likes and comments! I haven't used it in ages.... And what I learned is that I really, really miss my friends that I actually know and that feeling of familiarity. I am enjoying y'all, but so far the only person that I know on here is my hubstr. So I invited my one friend who I thought might be able to handle nostr to check it out.

Another thing that I have observed is that my favorite people on here are the ones that either use their real names and/or post pictures of themselves and their life experiences. I am really uncomfortable talking with someone that is just a cartoon with a funky name. I know, I know... privacy and all, but I can't connect with people that have privacy walls built up. It would be the same for me if I was at a costume party and didn't know anyone - I would enjoy the costumes, but I wouldn't be comfortable making connections until the people took their masks off.

#grownostr #therealme