{"id":630125,"date":"2026-10-14T07:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T07:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/630125\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T07:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T07:00:09","slug":"apod-2026-october-14-mars-and-the-beehive-under-an-aurora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/630125\/","title":{"rendered":"APOD: 2026 October 14 &#8211; Mars and the Beehive Under an Aurora"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p-md margin-0 media-detail-hero__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExplanation: What a cosmic coincidence! In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.petrhoralek.com\/?p=26662\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">today\u2019s image<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mars\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mars<\/a> joins the <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2022-april-30-m44-the-beehive-cluster\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Beehive cluster<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/hubble\/science\/explore-the-night-sky\/hubble-messier-catalog\/messier-44\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">M44<\/a> or Praesepe) below an <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2026-march-8-the-aurora-tree\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">auroral curtain<\/a> and above a horizon of <a href=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/shorts\/1VXZhqbxsng?si=J9_AydZHXiweXx81\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">happy little trees<\/a> near <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/ALGu8Yu_66s?si=HWByw9OqhcsnNX8i\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lansj\u00e4rv, Sweden<\/a>. An <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/sun\/solar-storms-and-flares\/#coronal-mass-ejection\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">eruption off the Sun<\/a> reached Earth on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spaceweather.gov\/news\/strong-g3-geomagnetic-storms-expected-10-oct-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">October 10th, 2026<\/a> causing strong <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spaceweather.gov\/phenomena\/geomagnetic-storms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">disturbances in Earth\u2019s magnetic field<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=E3T2ldsdtMg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Energetic particles<\/a> from the eruption collide with and energize the molecules in Earth\u2019s atmosphere, which release that extra energy as the colorful <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/sun\/auroras\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">aurora<\/a> captured here. Auroras, or guovssahasat in North S\u00e1mi, is traditionally viewed with respect by the <a href=\"https:\/\/sweden.se\/life\/people\/sami-in-sweden\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">S\u00e1mi people<\/a> indigenous to Sweden and other Arctic regions. Coincidentally, <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2025-march-23-ancient-ogunquit-beach-on-mars\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mars<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Apparent_place\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">appeared closest<\/a> to the center of the Beehive cluster in the sky at the time. Although <a href=\"https:\/\/texasarchive.org\/2024AC06462\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bees have been to space<\/a>, the Beehive cluster is actually a swarm of young stars. <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/pdf\/2106.13250\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Their rotation periods<\/a> have helped humanity learn about how <a href=\"http:\/\/cfa.harvard.edu\/news\/stars-spins-reveal-their-ages\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">stars spin slower over time<\/a> as they lose mass through their <a href=\"https:\/\/esahubble.org\/wordbank\/stellar-wind\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">stellar winds<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow&#8217;s picture: open space\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Explanation: What a cosmic coincidence! In today\u2019s image, Mars joins the Beehive cluster (M44 or Praesepe) below an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[271739,111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-630125","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\/630125","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=630125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}