Tag Archives: flare

A 3rd X-class flare rocks the sun

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The latest X3.2 flare in far ultraviolet light at 8:16 p.m. CDT Monday evening May 13 (May 14 Universal Time) photographed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA

Solar activity’s been rising like nobody’s business. Two of the year’s most powerful flares fired off from the sun’s backside late Sunday and at least 8 spot groups speckle the sun’s white-hot surface today.

Another ultraviolet picture of the sun taken by NASA’s STEREO Behind spacecraft late on May 13. The flare looks like a giant spike because the brilliance of the explosion saturated the camera sensors. STEREO Behind orbits well behind Earth and sees a part of the sun’s backside not visible with Earth-based telescopes. Click to learn more about the STEREO probes. Credit: NASA

Now we can add a third strong X-ray class flare, an X3.2 that spewed a vast cloud of high-speed solar gases called a coronal mass ejection (CME). Lucky for Earth, it was directed – as the other flares were – away from our planet off the eastern edge of the sun’s disk.

The most energetic flare measured in the modern era occurred on November 4, 2003 during the last solar maximum. No one knows how truly strong it became since the sensors topped out at X28. But any flare in the X-category can affect everything from GPS satellites to radio communications, satellite electronics and even fry poorly-protected power grids.

The sun in normal white light late Monday with sunspot groups labeled. Region 1748 – site of the strong flares of the past few days –  is just coming into view at far left. Credit: NASA

Solar flares typically occur in sunspot groups where magnetic energy is concentrated. The  solar surface, which bubbles and churns like a monster pot of hot oatmeal, brings opposite magnetic fields (north and south poles) in contact with one another. When they reconnect, the sudden release of energy heats solar gases to many millions of degrees and blasts billions of solar electrons and protons into space as a CME.

The amount of energy from a big flare like the ones we’ve seen recently equals millions of thermonuclear (hydrogen) bombs.

A healthy CME (coronal mass ejection) in the wake of the most recent X3.2 flare late Monday. This photo was taken by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory which uses a special mask to block out the bright sun to better photograph it outer atmosphere. Credit: NASA / ESA

The sunspot group responsible for all the current feistiness goes by the name of 1748; it’s just coming around to the sun’s front side. Though highly foreshortened because we’re peering at it along the extreme edge of the sun, you can tell it’s a big one. Let’s hope it kicks and sputters its way to a northern lights display without any serious damage to our favorite toys.

Sun cuts loose with the biggest flares of 2013

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Various spacecraft views of the flare eruption late Sunday evening

Late on Mother’s Day starting at 9:17 p.m. Central time, the sun unleashed an X1.7 class flare from its backside creating a spectacular display of hot gases. This was followed by an even more powerful X2.8 flare at 11:09 a.m. today. Both rate as the strongest solar blasts of 2013. Particles from the flare left the sun at 1,200 miles per second. Had they been directed toward Earth, power grids as well as satellites could have been affected; we’d also likely have all-night displays of northern lights.

High-speed electrons and protons propelled outward by the X1.7 solar flare expand into space behind the sun over an hour’s time. The particles were moving about 1,200 miles per second. Mercury is the bright object to the left – although it appears to be in the line of fire, it’s not. Credit: NASA/ ESA

This time around the energy and high-speed particles emitted in the flares “went the other way” as far as our planet is concerned. Not so two orbiting observatories. NASA says radiation from the latest flare may stream toward STEREO-B, a sun-watching probe, the Mercury MESSENGER spacecraft and Spitzer Space Telescope, which astronomers use to study the universe in infrared light. Engineers may decide at some point to put them all in safe mode to avoid damage to their sensitive electronics.

In a few days the sunspot region responsible for the flare will rotate onto the sun’s front side. Many are eager for a closeup look at this new bit of activity.

Morning aurora topped off by avian cheer

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A pretty series of rays sprouts above a pair of green arcs this morning around 3 a.m. CDT. Photo: Bob King

I got up for the stars but stayed for the birds. Clear skies overnight allowed for a look at a surprise aurora display, comets PANSTARRS and Lemmon, a handful of spectacular Eta Aquarid meteors and an attractive lunar crescent early this morning.

Three images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory were combined to create this spectacular view of last Friday’s flare. Credit: NASA

No auroras were predicted and true-to-forecast all looked quite at least through midnight. But at 2:30 this morning a bright green band spanned the northern horizon punctuated by one, two and occasionally an entire series of faint, rosy rays.

Sunspot group 1734′s largest spot – at left – is several times the diameter of Earth. This photo was taken this morning May 6, 2013. Credit: NASA

Expect more excitement courtesy of our parent star. Last Friday, a big flare erupted along’s the sun’s eastern edge, hurling a dragon-like tongue of incandescent hydrogen gas 120,000 miles (193,000 km) above the surface. Although this storm wasn’t directed toward Earth, the large sunspot group 1734 is currently nearly face-on to the planet and has the potential for strong flares. Cross your fingers.

A bright Eta Aquarid streaks across the northern sky and aurora this morning around 2:45 a.m. Photo: Bob King

I had planned to look at a variety of objects in the telescope but kept getting “distracted” by both the northern lights and regular appearances of incredibly fast, long-trailed meteors streaking across the northern sky from the east – Eta Aquarids.

Because the shower has a broad peak I encourage you to go out for a look yourself. Being so far north, I figured only a few might be seen here in Duluth, Minn. but was happily proven wrong. Had I simply sat in a lawn chair and stared skyward I’m certain I would have seen many more. Click HERE for more on the shower and how to view it.

A wide-field photo of Comet C/2011 L4 PANSTARRS shot on May 4, 2013. The comet is oriented the way it would appear shortly before dawn with the anti-tail pointing down and broad dust fan opening to the left. Credit: Joseph Brimacombe

Let me tell you about Comet PANSTARRS. In 10×50 binoculars I was surprised by how much there was to see under a dark sky. The V or fan-shaped tail spread is still obvious marked at its base by the small, brighter comet’s head. A second, straight anti-tail (debris left by the comet along its orbital path) stuck out like a pinkie finger from one side.

I estimated the whole works measured 1 degree or two full moon diameters across. While faint and smoky-looking at magnitude 7, the comet was very easy to pick out. In a 15-inch telescope PANSTARRS and its dual tails were brighter and better-defined; a tiny star-like nucleus peeped through the gases and dust concentrated in the its head. Very beautiful.

A morning topped off by the crescent moon is never wasted. Photo: Bob King

On to Comet Lemmon. I didn’t see it until 4 a.m. when dawn’s first light had already put its pale stamp on the eastern sky. I found it with difficulty in binoculars as a small, dim soft patch of light below the lower left star in the Square of Pegasus VERY low in the northeastern sky. It’s about as bright as PANSTARRS but low altitude and the onset of twilight combined to make it look fainter. In the scope, Lemmon was a big pale green fuzzball with a hint of a tail pointing southwest. Care to find it yourself? Here’s a map.

Wherever you are, enjoy the coming nights. If the moon’s your thing, an even thinner crescent will rise an hour before sunrise tomorrow in the east. Check for northern lights before you turn in tonight and use the map from yesterday’s blog to try your luck at Comet PANSTARRS … one last time.

 

Fingernail moon, aurora watch and Comet PANSTARRS made easy

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The lunar crescent ascends the western sky over the next few nights dropping by two star clusters and one bright planet. The map shows the sky about an hour after sunset. Maps created with Stellarium

The moon has returned to sweeten the evening. Watch for a thin crescent low in the western sky tonight below the Seven Sisters star cluster. Tomorrow it moves upward, thickens a bit and shines near the V-shaped Hyades star cluster. Topping off the weekend, the crescent will stand just 2 degrees left of the planet Jupiter Sunday. If there ever was a gift that keeps on giving, it’s the moon.

To find PANSTARRS at dusk, use binoculars or a telescope and face northwest about 90 minutes after sunset. Look for the bright zigzag of Cassiopeia, point your instrument at the brightest star nearest the comet and “sta hop” in its direction. This map shows the sky 1 1/2 hours after sunset.

Time to catch Comet PANSTARRS … again. While it’s faded to near the naked eye limit, it’s still plainly visible in binoculars, particularly 7×50 or 10×50 models or larger. The comet is probably easier to find than ever because it’s passing through the bright W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia during the next two weeks. Look for it about 90 minutes after sunset in the northwestern sky. PANSTARRS has a brighter head topped by a faint, fan-shaped tail.

Face northeast about 90 minutes before sunrise and find the W of Cassiopeia. Use it to guide you to the comet.

While observers in the northern U.S., Canada and Europe will get equally good views at both dusk and dawn, sky watchers in the southern U.S. will have better luck at dawn when Cassiopeia is higher in the sky. The view through a telescope is still the best with the comet showing  a bright head and nucleus and a classic, gently-curving tail to the north.

Comet PANSTARRS with its amazing tail photographed on April 10 in Austria. Credit: Michael Jaeger

More good news. A strong solar flare erupted in sunspot group 1719 early Thursday morning April 11 sending sprays of solar protons and electrons in Earth’s direction. You know what that means.

The solar flare in sunspot group 1719 photographed in ultraviolet light by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory around 3:30 a.m. CDT April 11. Credit: NASA

Major storm levels and auroras are possible overnight tonight through Sunday the 14th. With little interference from the moon, this could be a good show. I’ll be keeping an eye on the space weather and send out an alert this evening if auroras sprout.

 

Sunspot group 1598 unleashes powerful flare

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Big sunspot group 1598 in white light (left) this morning Oct. 23 and in ultraviolet light last night during the big X-class flare. Photos taken by the orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA

Sunspot group 1598 is hiding behind its innocent name. Late yesterday evening (CDT), it cut loose a powerful X1-class flare, the fourth large flare since rotating around the eastern limb of the sun a few days ago. While not directed toward the Earth, should the spot group continue its cannonade of subatomic spew, we’ll soon be in the line of fire. That could mean high speed streams of solar protons and electrons messing with the magnetosphere and kindling auroral displays. I’ll update in the coming days.

Saturn, the sun and the Virgo’s brightest star Spica photographed earlier today by SOHO. Credit: NASA/ESA

Have you noticed that the planet Saturn’s missing from the night sky? That’s because it’s nearly lined up with the sun and lost from view in the solar glare. That’s not a problem for the orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) which can see nearly to the sun’s edge with a special instrument called a coronagraph.

Saturn casts a wide shadow across its rings in this Cassini view which looks toward the darkened southern hemisphere of the night side of the planet. The Cassini probe recently celebrated its 15th anniversary in space. It was launched on Oct. 15, 1997. Click pic to read more. Credit: NASA

The device uses a metal disk to block the sun’s glare. SOHO observes from outer space with no atmosphere to reflect and scatter light, so it snap photographs of bright objects very near the sun. Saturn will be in conjunction or closest to the sun Thursday morning Oct.25, when it officially transitions from the evening to the morning sky. We’ll catch our first look at its sumptuous rings again at dawn next month. Of course you don’t have to wait for that either, thanks to the Cassini orbiter, now in its 8th year of loop de loops around the planet. Click HERE to see fresh Saturn photos anytime.

The moon Ganymede, which shines off to the right or east of Jupiter as seen in a typical telescope, casts a shadow on the planet’s cloud tops tonight Oct. 23. Created with Claude Duplessis’ Meridian

If you have a small telescope and want to watch Ganymede’s shadow stride across the planet, tonight’s the night.

Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system at 3,272 miles in diameter. That’s half again as big as our own moon. Like any object that reflects sunlight, Ganymede casts a shadow, and tonight, beginning at 9:40 p.m. (CDT) you’ll see that shadow take a bite out of Jupiter’s south polar region. Over the next two hours the remarkably black, perfectly circular dot makes its way from one end of the planet to the other until departing the western limb at 11:41 p.m. (CDT). Astronomers call the event a shadow transit.

Ganymede casts the largest shadow of all of Jupiter’s moons, making it easy to see in almost all telescopes. If you could somehow fly a plane or arrange a balloon ride into the shadow and looked up, you’d see the sun eclipsed by the moon. Lucky Jupiterians!

Auroras possible tonight through Monday Sept. 2-3

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A spectacular blast from the sun occurred Friday afternoon August 31. Material from the event will reach the Earth later tonight and may spark auroras. The photo was taken with the coronagraph – an instrument that blocks direct sunlight with a special disk. Credit: NASA/ESA

I had a sneaky feeling that if I wrote about expectations for the current solar cycle, auroras might return. Time to keep a look-out. They may be out as soon as tonight through tomorrow evening. A large filament of hot gas hovering in the sun’s atmosphere on August 31 became unstable and erupted, producing a flare and strong CME (coronal mass ejection). Visually it was one of the most dramatic blasts I’ve ever seen. A beastly-looking thing. The photo and video tell the story.


Wonderful video of the filament blasting off from the sun taken in UV light.

Material from the explosion wasn’t aimed directly at Earth – you can see much of it blasting off to the sun’s left side – but NOAA space weather forecasters predict it will graze the planet sometime tonight through tomorrow night. Those living at polar latitudes may well see a full bore storm; auroras are also possible for the northern U.S. and southern Canada. As of 8:45 p.m. tonight (CDT) the Kp index, an indicator of magnetic activity high overhead, has clicked up to “4″ – just below minor storm level. When it hits “5″ and the indicator bar is red, it’s worth pulling the curtain back to see if the aurora’s dancing around in the northern sky.

What’s in store for sunspot cycle 24

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At least seven sunspot groups dot the sun this morning at 10 a.m. (CDT) as photographed by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Sunspots are cooler regions where magnetic energy is concentrated. Sometimes that energy is released as a solar flare, propelling solar particles and radiation toward the Earth. Credit: NASA

Like you and I the sun has cycles. None of us escapes the day-night rhythm of sleep and wakefulness. The most visible of the sun’s rhythms is the 11 year solar cycle also called the sunspot cycle. These vary from 9 to 14 years but the average is 11.

In a typical cycle, the number of sunspots and solar storms begins at a minimum, rises to a maximum and then returns to minimum. During solar maximum the sun is peppered with sunspots and powerful, aurora-producing flares are common; at minimum the sun’s face can be blank for days or even weeks. Minimums and maximums also vary. Some peaks are longer and more sunspot-rich than others, while “valleys” can be short or long with variable spot numbers.

The peaks and valleys of the past 110 years of solar cycles. Sunspot numbers (shown at left) wax and wane in an approximately 11-year cycle.

The solar cycle was discovered by German astronomer Samuel Heinrich Schwabe in 1843 after he noticed sunspot numbers wax and wane in a regular pattern after 17 years of observation. Swiss astronomer Rudolf Wolf went back through previous sunspot records and reconstructed the sun’s ups and downs as far back as the mid-1700s.

Samuel Heinrich Schwabe

Each cycle gets a number. Solar Cycle 1 spanned the years 1755 to 1766. The last, Cycle 23, peaked in April 2000 with an average of 120 sunspots per day around the time of maximum. This was followed by a deep quiet period or minimum between cycles 23 and the current 24th with a record number of 801 spotless days between October 2005 and May 2010. This past solar minimum, which bottomed out in December 2008, was the longest and quietest in over a century. Since then, but especially over the past year, activity has been steadily on the rise.

The graph shows the last sunspot maximum in 2000 up through June this year. The current Cycle 24 is predicted to reach maximum next spring with an average of 60 spots a day. This would make it the smallest maximum in over 100 years. Credit: NASA

2012 has been a good year for sunspots, solar flares and auroras as we dig our way out of minimum and sail toward the next predicted peak in spring 2013. To date, the sun has kicked off about a half-dozen X-class flares. These are the most powerful variety with potential effects on Earth ranging from aurora creation to wreaking havoc with satellites and power grids. From late 2008 through early 2010 I recorded almost no auroras here in Duluth, Minn. In the past year however, we’ve been treated to several brilliant displays and at least 10 minor ones.

The brilliant flash is a  powerful solar flare that erupted in March 2012. Flares can affect the upper atmosphere (auroras), airplane communications, satellites, power grids and oil pipelines. Click image to see a spectacular video of a solar eruption that happened yesterday. Credit: NASA

NASA solar scientists predict a very weak maximum in 2013 with an average of 60 sunspots daily. If this holds true, Cycle 24 would be the least active since Cycle 14 which peaked in February 1906 at 64. While this sounds like bad news for aurora watchers, don’t put on your long face just yet. Every cycle max, even the wimpier ones, feature powerful flares and crazy space weather.

“Even a below-average cycle is capable of producing severe space weather,” says Doug Biesecker of the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center. “The great geomagnetic storm of 1859, for instance, occurred during a solar cycle of about the same size we’re predicting for 2013.”

That storm, called the Carrington Event, is named after astronomer Richard Carrington who spotted a brilliant flare through his telescope on September 1, 1859.  Shortly before dawn the next day, the sky blew up in a brilliant display of northern lights visible as far south as Jamaica. Aurora-induced electric currents in telegraph lines shocked telegraph operators and set telegraph paper on fire.

“A report by the National Academy of Sciences found that if a similar storm occurred today, it could cause $1 to 2 trillion in damages to society’s high-tech infrastructure and require four to ten years for complete recovery,” according to a recent NASA press release.

We’ll soon see what Cycle 24 has in store. At the very least, more brilliant auroras are on the menu.

The sun’s forever blowing bubbles

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A huge bubble of high speed solar wind called a coronal mass ejection or CME leaves the sun at many miles per second yesterday morning July 17. Click photo to see a movie. Photo taken by SOHO’s C3 coronagraph. Credit: NASA’/ESA

Yesterday around 11 o’clock my wife and I were driving to Minneapolis to help move our older daughter. Little did we know that when we stopped to pick up pastries along the highway, the sunspot group that delighted us with auroras last week had just unleashed another significant flare. As we paid the clerk and walked out the door, the coronal mass ejection from the explosion was already ballooning Earth’s way.

Because the bubble is off to one side of the sun and not directly aimed at our planet, the blizzard of electrons and protons will only graze us. A small chance of auroras is possible when it arrives on Friday July 20.

The sky this evening, with the atmosphere removed, so you can see the position of the sun in Gemini and the moon just a few degrees below it. In New Moon phase, we can’t see the moon because it’s too close to sun and invisible in the glare of day. Created with Stellarium

Not far from the sun in the sky a much quieter event is happening. The moon will be in New Moon phase at 11:24 p.m. (CDT) tonight July 18.

If the sun, moon and Earth were exactly lined up in that order, we’d see a total eclipse of the sun, but because the moon’s orbit is tipped relative to Earth’s, it passes a few degrees south of the sun tonight. At other new moons, it passes to the north.

No one gets to see a new moon because it’s much too close to the sun and completely invisible in the solar glare. During a solar eclipse like this past May’s, many of us got to see our first new moon in years as its black silhouette carved the sun into a thick crescent.

Nova Sagittarii #4 photographed on July 16. Thanks and credit to: Bill Gucfa

Nova watchers – not the TV show, but that’s worth watching too – I’ve got good news for you. You can still catch Nova Sagittarii #4 in a small telescope. You might recall that this “new star” was discovered by Japanese amateurs earlier this month in the Teapot constellation Sagittarius.

It’s shining at about magnitude 9.0 and visible in any small scope. You can use the charts from my earlier blog and the photo at left to help you find it. I’ve added magnitudes from the AAVSO (American Assn. of Variable Star Observers) to Bill’s photo if you’d like to estimate the nova’s brightness on your own.

Super conjunction and auroras (we hope) highlight upcoming weekend

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Sunspot group 1520 is still ripe for more flares. It’s joined here by an entourage of additional groups. Photo taken at 8 a.m. (CDT) today July 13 by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA

Aurora watchers get ready. Yesterday’s X1.4 class flare from big sunspot group 1520 unleashed a coronal mass ejection (CME) directly toward the Earth. This powerful enhancement in the solar wind will arrive sometime tonight or early tomorrow morning bringing with it a good possibility for auroras through Sunday.


A series of short time lapse videos of yesterday’s X1.4 flare in sunspot region 1520 taken in different colors or wavelengths of light. 

Sunspot region 1520 isn’t done yet. Space weather forecasters give it a moderate chance of producing more X-class flares through the 15th. Sunspots are regions on the sun’s surface where magnetic energy is highly concentrated. Flares occur when magnetic fields of opposite directions come into close contact within a sunspot group, interact with each other and release that energy explosively.

Yesterday’s flare shortly before it popped off (left) and during the explosion (right) seen in far ultraviolet light.  Credit: NASA

Light the fuse on 160 billion tons of TNT and you’ve got the equivalent of a solar flare. Flares heat the surrounding gases to 18 million degrees and eject matter into space as CMEs at speeds over 600 miles per second. Wicked!

Tomorrow morning (July 14) and Sunday morning, watch for beautiful pairings of the moon and planets Jupiter and Venus. Created with Stellarium

The weekend’s shaping up to be a not-to-miss potpourri of celestial enjoyments. Tomorrow morning the moon moves closer to the sky’s current brightest planets Jupiter and Venus in the company of the sky’s two brightest star clusters – the Pleiades (Seven Sisters) and Hyades. Watch for them in the east starting around 3:30 a.m. as morning twilight is just beginning. They’ll be higher and easier to see an hour later, but the brightening sky may may require binoculars to see the clusters.

The BIG EVENT happens the next morning on Sunday the 15th, when the moon will be in conjunction and near both planets at dawn. Should be a wonderful sight. Get your cameras ready for both the conjunction and northern lights.

Could the sun back off a bit, please? Tune in tonight to learn about light pollution

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Earth’s distance from the sun varies because its orbit is an ellipse or oval with the sun slightly off to one side. When closest, our planet is at perihelion; when farthest, aphelion. As distance varies, so does Earth’s speed. Illustration: Bob King

Yesterday July 4 Earth reached aphelion (AP-hee-lee-un) or its farthest point from the sun this year. The difference between closest and farthest points in our orbit amounts to about 3 million miles. How I wish that would translate into cooler temperatures. Not gonna happen. While 3 million sounds like a big number, our orbit is so big we’re only about 3% farther today compared to perihelion in January.

Aphelion also occurs during the year’s warmest season, so any slight effects introduced by a closer, bigger sun are lost in summer’s heat. You be tempted to think that in the southern hemisphere, where it’s now winter, the extra distance would add a extra shiver to the air, but the vast expanse of southern oceans moderate the temperature.

Sunspot region 1515 at 11:30 a.m. (CDT) today photographed with NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. The group harbors the potential for the most powerful variety of flares called X-class. Credit: NASA

The sun has been trying to kick up a storm all the same. Sunspot region 1515, which has grown to more than 8 times Earth’s diameter, is now easily visible with the naked eye through a safe solar filter. If you bought one for the Venus transit, dust it off and give the sun a look today. The spot group is located to the lower right of the sun’s center and look like a small piece of “dirt” on the otherwise smooth disk.  1515 has been going bananas with M-class flares (big, high-energy variety); sky watchers in the northern U.S., northern Europe and Canada should be watchful for northern lights starting tomorrow night July 6 through the morning hours of July 7.

Check your local listing for tonight’s PBS show on light pollution titled “The City Dark”. Credit: Wicked Delicate Films LLC

Tonight PBS will air a POV documentary on the growth of artificial light and the effects of light pollution on the skies, our psyche and our health. Titled “The City Dark” you can watch it in Duluth, Minn. on Channel 8 starting at 9 p.m. Click HERE to check your local schedule.

While many of us love “the city lights”, we sometimes forget the price we pay in the loss of the night sky. Comfortable in our cocoons of light, we’re blinded to the stars and a visceral connection to the cosmos. Many city dwellers have no idea what constellations look like let alone the Milky Way.

Astrophysicist and director of New York’s Hayden Planetarium Neil deGrasse Tyson said it best: “When you look at the night sky, you realize how small we are within the cosmos. It’s kind of a resetting of your ego. To deny yourself of that state of mind, either willingly or unwittingly, is to not live to the full extent of what it is to be human.”