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Steve

Citizen scientists

uncover a

strange aurora.

Purple is not a common color for

the aurora borealis. But reports of

a strange, ribbonlike purple feature

accompanying aurorae in 2015 and

2016 led astronomers to develop the

Aurorasaurus citizen science project

to unravel the beautiful mystery.

The phenomenon, given the

name Steve, is generated when

charged particles from the solar

wind encounter Earth’s magnetic

field, just like the aurora. But Steve

occurs specifically when fast-

moving, hot particles stream along

magnetic field lines close to the

equator, causing it to appear at lower

latitudes than the traditional aurora.

The key to unlocking Steve’s

nature was a combination of

ground- and space-based images,

which provide vital information

about the phenomenon but can be

hard to obtain, as Steve typically

lasts only 20 minutes to an hour.

Scientists now believe Steve (now

officially STEVE: Strong Thermal

Emission Velocity Enhancement)

could represent a link between pro-

cesses in Earth’s upper and lower

atmosphere. — Alison Klesman

KRISTA TRINDER; TOP FROM LEFT: NASA/CHRIS GUNN; ELENA KHAVINA, MIPT PRESS OFFICE; ESO/L. CALÇADA

LAUNCH DELAYS

The James Webb Space

Telescop e will launch no

earlier than May 2020,

to provide time for

additional testing and

systems integration.

TARGET PRACTICE

Researchers modeled

how a nuclear explosion

would affect an asteroid

threatening Earth by

shooting miniature aster-

oid models with a laser.

DISTANT ECHO

After a black hole

300 million light-years

away ripped apart a star,

radio telescopes picked

up echoes of the event

in the form of a jet.