{"id":622020,"date":"2026-10-06T06:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T06:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/622020\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T06:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T06:42:09","slug":"apod-2026-october-6-a-complete-auroral-oval-from-smile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/622020\/","title":{"rendered":"APOD: 2026 October 6 &#8211; A Complete Auroral Oval from SMILE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p-md margin-0 media-detail-hero__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExplanation: Have you ever seen a complete auroral oval? You can&#8217;t see one from the ground because it makes too <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/apod\/?date=ap970402.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">large a circle<\/a> around one of <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2004-september-19-earths-north-magnetic-pole\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Earth&#8217;s magnetic pole<\/a>s. But spacecraft high above <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/earth\/facts\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Earth<\/a> can see them. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/ESA_Multimedia\/Images\/2026\/09\/Smile_s_first_ultraviolet_footage_shows_auroral_substorm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">featured video<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ESA<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/english.cas.cn\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CAS<\/a>&#8216;s robotic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/Science_Exploration\/Space_Science\/Smile\/Smile_factsheet2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SMILE spacecraft<\/a> shows not only a <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2021-march-24-aurorae-and-lightning-on-jupiter\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">full auroral oval<\/a>, but using <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/ems\/10_ultravioletwaves\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ultraviolet light<\/a>, one that occurred during the day. The time-lapse covers about an hour in late July and shows visually how <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2015-june-1-pulsating-aurora-over-iceland\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">variable<\/a> and turbulent <a href=\"https:\/\/spaceplace.nasa.gov\/aurora\/en\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">auroras<\/a> really are. The points of light on the sides are <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2022-april-6-earendel-a-star-in-the-early-universe\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">distant star<\/a>s that appear to move only because <a href=\"https:\/\/sci.esa.int\/web\/smile\/-\/59194-ultra-violet-imager\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SMILE&#8217;s camera<\/a> view shifts as the spacecraft <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/earth\/earth-observatory\/catalog-of-earth-satellite-orbits\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">orbits<\/a> the Earth. A goal of SMILE is to <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/calico-kitten-standing-in-front-of-macbook-pro-g3B53PbBfwU\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">better understand<\/a> how the Sun&#8217;s wind interacts with the <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/science-research\/earth-science\/earths-magnetosphere-protecting-our-planet-from-harmful-space-energy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Earth&#8217;s magnetosphere<\/a> &#8212; and so better understand how to protect astronauts, spacecraft, and ground-based <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spaceweather.gov\/impacts\/electric-power-transmission\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">electrical grids<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod\/apod-2025-september-15-earth-during-a-powerful-solar-storm\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">solar storms<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow&#8217;s picture: a ghost\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Explanation: Have you ever seen a complete auroral oval? You can&#8217;t see one from the ground because it&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[271739,111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-622020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-apod","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}