redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
2020-01-31 06:21 pm
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Something cheerful, and nice to look at

Amateur sky watchers in Finland have found a new kind of aurora. The amateurs not only got the professionals' attention after asking "what are these?" they worked together to take carefully coordinated photos that made it possible to identify these auroras' altitude.

via [personal profile] conuly, whose link notes "Not Steve, another one." These newly studied auroras have been named "the dunes" (though I don't see the resemblance). Compared to "Steve" and "Hanny's Thingie" (named for a Galaxy Zoo volunteer), "dunes" is downright straightforward.