Aurora Borealis May Hit These 16 States Over the Next 2 Days
Of the two days, Tuesday night into Wednesday morning will be your best shot. The Space Weather Prediction Center is forecasting a Kp 5 magnetic storm that's scheduled to hit over six hours starting late Monday evening. The K-Index measures the horizontal impact of geomagnetic storms, and a Kp 5 rating results in what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calls a "moderate" aurora.
Things will calm down a bit Wednesday night going into Thursday morning, with the aurora pulling back a little and being less visible, unless you're on the northern border with Canada. NOAA is forecasting a Kp 4 magnetic storm that night.
NOAA predicts the northern lights reaching into the US on Tuesday and Wednesday.
NOAA
Which states could see the aurora borealis?
According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, Tuesday night's aurora will be visible in Alaska, Washington state, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, and the northernmost sections of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and most of Maine.
Alaska and Canada will have the best views by a wide margin, with the entire state of Alaska getting coverage. Technically, there will also be a slice of Oregon, putting the full number at 16, but unless you live on the northeastern tip, you likely won't see anything.
Much like with the Earth's weather, space weather prediction can be hit or miss. So if you're in any of the above states, it's worth taking a look if you're up that late. The magnetic storm may be slightly stronger or weaker than forecast, which will affect how far south the northern lights reach. This event won't be as strong as the epic show we saw in May 2024.
Tips on viewing the northern lights
The standard space viewing tips all apply here. You'll get a better view if you get away from the city and suburbs to avoid light pollution. Weather will play a role as well, since any clouds will obfuscate the view. If you attempt to photograph the aurora, we recommend using long exposure times to give your camera more time to soak in the light.
Other than that, you'll want to look toward the northern horizon to give yourself the best chance at a good view, since (as you may've guessed) that's where the northern lights originate.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
How to see China's Tiangong space station and the ISS in the predawn sky this week
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. During this upcoming week, skywatchers across most of the U.S. and southern Canada will get an opportunity to view the two largest space vehicles now in orbit around the Earth within minutes of each other. They are the International Space Station (ISS) and China's space station, Tiangong. If you are up during the predawn hours, you'll probably be able to make a sighting of both within less than a half hour of each other. And on the morning of July 5, it may be possible to see both in the sky at the same time. If you go out and carefully study the sky near dusk or dawn, the odds are that you should not have to wait more than a few minutes before you see one of the more than 30,700 satellites now in orbit around Earth. Most of these are just "space junk" ranging in size from as large as 30 feet (9 meters) down to about the size of a softball, including defunct satellites, rocket bodies, and fragments from collisions. In addition to the tracked objects, there are an estimated 130 million pieces of debris too small to be tracked. U.S. Space Command, headquartered at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs, keeps a constant watch on all orbiting space debris. TOP TELESCOPE PICK: Want to see the night sky up close? The Celestron NexStar 4SE is ideal for beginners wanting quality, reliable and quick views of celestial objects. For a more in-depth look at our Celestron NexStar 4SE review. Most satellites are too faint to be seen with the unaided eye. But depending on who's counting, about 500 can be seen with the unaided eye. These are the satellites that are large enough (over 20 feet, or 6 m) in length) and low enough (100 to 400 miles, or 160 to 640 kilometers) above Earth to be most readily seen. In his book Observing Earth Satellites, the distinguished British scientist Desmond King-Hele perhaps said it best: "A satellite looks like a star that has taken leave of its senses and decided to move off to another part of the sky." The International Space Station is by far the biggest and brightest of all the man-made objects orbiting Earth. More than four times as large as the defunct Russian Mir space station, the ISS has a total mass of approximately 925,000 pounds (420,000 kilograms), and measures 357 feet (109 m) across and 240 feet (73 m) long. This makes it almost the equivalent to the length of a football field, including the end zones, according to NASA. The ISS draws power from four pairs of solar arrays, which are each 112 feet (34 m) long and 39 feet (12 m wide) — longer than a Boeing 777's wingspan. Additionally, the ISS is being upgraded with six new, smaller Roll-Out Solar Arrays (iROSAs). These are being installed over portions of the existing arrays. Each new iROSA measures 63 feet (19 m) long by 20 feet (6 m) wide. Despite being smaller, they are more efficient due to technological advancements. Presently circling Earth at an average altitude of 259 miles (416 km) and at a speed of 17,900 mph (28,800 kph), the ISS takes 93 minutes to orbit Earth and completes roughly 15.5 orbits per day. It can appear to move as fast as a high-flying jet airliner, sometimes taking about four to five minutes to cross the sky. Because of its size and the configuration of its highly reflective solar panels, the space station is now, by far, the brightest man-made object currently in orbit around Earth. On its most favorable passes, it can appear some 2.5 times brighter than Venus and nearly 40 times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. And, as a bonus, sunlight glinting directly off the solar panels can sometimes make the ISS appear to briefly "flare" in brilliance to as bright as magnitude -8, some 19 times brighter than Venus! Besides the ISS, there is another space station orbiting Earth. That's Tiangong (Chinese for "Heavenly Palace"), a permanently crewed space station operated by China's Manned Space Agency (CMSA). The chief purpose of Tiangong, according to the CMSA, is to develop and gain experience in spacecraft rendezvous technology and to serve the platform for the next-generation orbit transportation vehicles and technology for future deep-space missions. Tiangong is smaller than the ISS, in overall dimensions measuring about one-fifth as large. Its total mass is approximately 77 tons (69,900 kg). It measures approximately 180 feet (55 m) in length and contains three modules (the ISS has 16 modules). It orbits Earth at an average altitude of 244 miles (393 km), somewhat similar to the ISS. And, like the ISS, it is a prominent object when moving across the nighttime sky. On its most favorable passes, it can appear as bright as Venus (magnitude -4.1), though usually it tends to appear closer to magnitude -2 (as bright as Jupiter). Currently, taking into account both the ISS and Tiangong, there are 14 humans in space. From now through the final days of July, North Americans and Europeans will have many opportunities to see both the ISS and Tiangong flying over their homes, due chiefly to a seasonal circumstance. Nights are now the shortest, and the time that a satellite in low Earth orbit (like the ISS and Tiangong) can remain illuminated by the sun can extend throughout the night, a situation that can never be attained during other times of the year. Because both space stations circle Earth about every 90 minutes on average, it's possible to see them not just on one singular pass, but for several consecutive passes. And from now through July 8, the ISS and Tiangong will be making morning passes — one to two hours before sunrise — within a half hour or less of each other. And on the morning of July 5, for parts of the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada, it may be possible to see both in the sky at the same time. This doesn't happen too often, due to the fact that their orbital altitudes differ slightly, along with the fact that both space stations circle the Earth at different orbital inclinations: 51.63 degrees for the ISS, compared to 41.46 degrees for Tiangong. So, what is the viewing schedule for your particular hometown? You can easily find out by visiting one of these two popular web sites: Chris Peat's Heavens Above or NASA's Spot the Station. With Heavens Above, you'll be able to generate accurate sighting data for both the ISS and Tiangong (as well as other bright naked-eye satellites). You'll simply need to input your location based on latitude and longitude. NASA's Spot the Station app is a great tool for quickly finding upcoming ISS viewing opportunities. Simply pop in the location you wish to know for ISS sighting opportunities and let the widget work its magic. It will tell you the time of the ISS flyover along with how long it is visible, the maximum height it will reach in the sky and which direction it will appear and disappear from your field of view. Predictions computed a few days ahead of time are usually accurate within a few minutes. However, they can change due to the slow decay of the space station's orbit and periodic re-boosts to higher altitudes. Check frequently for updates. Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, Sky and Telescope and other publications.
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
'Curse of Tutankhamun' Could Hide a Secret Cancer-Fighting Compound
A mold speculated to have been behind the deaths of a few who dared breach the tomb of Tutankhamun may be hiding a hopeful secret. The species, called Aspergillus flavus, is not actually a Pharaoh's curse, but it may be a medical blessing. A new study, led by molecular engineers at the University of Pennsylvania (Upenn), has now found that this particular fungus possesses cancer-fighting compounds. In the lab, when its natural products were mixed with human leukemia cancer cells, they showed potent effects. When modified, they even performed as well as some chemotherapy drugs. The compounds are called RiPPs for short (ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides), and they are made by a variety of organisms, including plants and bacteria. In recent years, plant-derived RiPPS have shown great potential in fighting off some types of cancer, but fungal RiPPS are not as well researched and can be misidentified because of their unique structures. "Even though only a few have been found, almost all of them have strong bioactivity," says lead author and biomolecular engineer Qiuyue Nie from UPenn. "This is an unexplored region with tremendous potential." A. flavus is found around the world in decayed organic material, and its yellow-green spores can infect crops as well as the lungs of mammals. In humans, an aspergillosis infection can lead to chronic lung conditions that may be fatal if left untreated. In 1973, some of the scientists who opened the tomb of a Polish King ended up dying prematurely. A microbiologist at the time found evidence of A. flavus in the tomb, which led to the assumption that this is what had killed the researchers. This logic was then applied to the curious fates of workers and an earl who attended the opening of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb in the early 20th century, only to famously die of illness days (or in the cases of the workers, years) later. Aspergillus's role in these deaths has fuelled imaginations. But its rise to fame in the history books has brought the fungus scientific attention in the modern era. Inspired by other studies which have linked A. flavus to anticancer activity, Nie and colleagues scanned a dozen different Aspergillus strains for RiPPs. Using metabolic and genetic techniques, they zoomed in on four different purified compounds with similar, complex structures. They named them asperigimycins. In lab experiments, two out of the the four asperigimycins exhibited high potency against leukemia cells, although none worked on breast, liver, or lung cancer cells. When researchers modified one RiPP and added a fatty molecule (a lipid), the compound showed enhanced anti-cancer activity on several different leukemia cell lines and a breast cancer cell line. In fact, this altered RiPP performed on par with two chemotherapy drugs approved by the FDA for leukemia: cytarabine and daunorubicin. The authors of the study, who hail from a variety of institutions around the United States and Portugal, suspect that their lipid substitution affects how the activity of a specific gene allows the drug to better infiltrate and remain inside cancer cells, disrupting replication. "Knowing that lipids can affect how this gene transports chemicals into cells gives us another tool for drug development," says Nie. Nearly a century after fungi gave us penicillin, these curious lifeforms are pointing us in the direction of yet another potential advancement. The study was published in Nature Chemical Biology. Common Vitamin Could Be The Secret to Younger-Looking Skin Scans Reveal What The Brains of Psychopaths Have in Common First Step Towards an Artificial Human Genome Now Underway
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Top News Headlines for Thursday night, July 3
Happy Independence Day Eve. We've got beautiful weather this holiday weekend. Here's your top news headlines. Janitor accused of inappropriate relationship with student at Overlea High Trump scores legislative win as Congress passes his 'big, beautiful bill' Weather Forecast
