Canada Aviation and Space Museum
Steve and the Power of Citizen Science
The aurora lights sometimes shine a bit differently than expected (image credit: Unsplash/Raul Popadineți).
The power of Citizen Science is continuing to show as groups around the world make more and more discoveries. For example, groups of Aurora chasers and documentarians have identified a hereto unknown phenomenon in the sky. At the time, they called it "Steve," in homage to the Movie Over the Hedge (because they didn't know what it was!), however, they have since enlisted the help of Eric Donovan from the University of Calgary. Donovan works with the European Space Agency's (ESA) Swarm magnetic field mission, an Earth-Observing constellation of satellites measuring how the Earth's magnetic field changes.
With data from Swarm, Donovan was able to characterize Steve a little better: it is a ribbon of gas that is flowing westward around the Earth about 300 km above the surface. The ribbon is about 25 km wide, travelling at 6 km/s, and measures in temperature at about 3000°C!
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Steve and the Power of Citizen Science
Jesse Rogerson, PhD
Jesse is a passionate scientist, educator, and science communicator. As an assistant professor at York University in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society, he teaches three classes: History of Astronomy, Introduction to Astronomy, and Exploring the Solar System. He frequently collaborates with the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, and lends his expert voice to the Ingenium Channel. Jesse is an astrophysicist, and his research explores how super massive black holes evolve through time. Whether in the classroom, through social media, or on TV, he encourages conversations about how science and society intersect, and why science is relevant in our daily lives.
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