Scientist Proposes to Girlfriend in Amazing Northern Lights Time-Lapse Video

Dazzling green, purple and turquoise auroras glimmer in the sky over Iceland while a man proposes to his girlfriend in a new time-lapse video.

Neuroscientist Alex Rivest shot the amazing aurora time-lapse video, which featured his own proposal, over several days and nights in September 2012.

"On a trip to Iceland I asked my girlfriend to marry me under the aurora borealis," Rivest wrote in a video caption. "She said yes."

The couple is seen hugging after Rivest bows down on one knee toward the end of the footage, all while gorgeous displays of the Northern Lights dance in the night sky.

"Iceland is a pretty amazing place to watch the stars and the aurora," Rivest told SPACE.com.

The aurora borealis, as well as its Southern Hemisphere counterpart, the aurora australis, is created when charged particles from the sun hit atoms in Earth's high-altitude atmosphere, which are directed by the planet's magnetic field. The resulting light show has been dubbed the northern lights in the north, and the southern lights in the south.

Rivest has a Ph.D. from MIT and studies how brains form episodic memories. Rivest is also the founder of a non-profit called Blue Kitabu, which works to build sustainable schools in Ghana and Kenya. And of course, he's also an avid photographer and videographer.

The aurora time-lapse was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon 40D, using a triggering device from pclix.com.

This isn't the first time an astronomical event has served as a backdrop for a marriage proposal caught on video. Last year, stargazer Shookie Basuroy proposed to girlfriend Rajeep while watching a total solar eclipse from a hot air balloon above Cairns, Australia, on Nov. 14.

Rajeep, like Rivest's girlfriend, said "yes."

Follow Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook & Google+

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Alaska Northern Lights Expedition Wants Your Help to Find Science Balloons

Want to tramp around in Alaska's backcountry, do a good deed for science and snag a free high-definition camera at the same time? If so, a team of northern lights researchers has a job for you.

Members of an expedition called Project Aether: Aurora lofted nearly two dozen instrument-laden weather balloons toward central Alaska's dazzling northern lights displays during the first two weeks of April. The researchers were able to retrieve all but six of the fallen payloads before they had to leave Alaska this past weekend.

They want your help in getting those six payloads back, and they're willing to pay for it. If you find one of the balloons, you get to keep the GoPro camera that launched with it — as long as you send in the SD memory card, along with the payload's GPS device.

Retrieving a balloon won't be easy. While all of them were launched from the vicinity of Fairbanks, the remaining six fell back to Earth in rugged and remote areas that the Project Aether: Aurora team didn't have time to get to. [Photo Journal: Alaska Northern Lights Expedition]

Still interested? Expedition leader Ben Longmier, a plasma physicist at the University of Houston and chief research scientist at Ad Astra Rocket Co., gave SPACE.com the go-ahead to publish the latitude and longitude coordinates of the six payloads' current locations:

1. 65.90440 degrees north, 146.67557 degrees west

2. 65.12816 degrees north, 147.88901 degrees west

3. 65.06421 degrees north, 148.50345 degrees west

4. 65.13792 degrees north, 148.53404 degrees west

5. 64.89979 degrees north, 148.54439 degrees west

6. 64.62183 degrees north, 148.47850 degrees west

Payload No. 3, just northwest of Fairbanks, is the team's highest priority, Longmier said, because it was launched into a particularly stunning northern lights show. (This balloon also carried a SPACE.com T-shirt high into Earth's atmosphere, if that sweetens the pot any. If you find the shirt, feel free to keep it — but please send us a photo.)

Payload No. 4 is the second-highest recovery priority. Number 6 doesn't have a camera, but Longmier said he'd provide a GoPro to anyone who returns that payload's GPS device. He also threw a further piece of mystery and intrigue into the mix.

"One of these payloads contains a Le Petit Prince action figure," Longmier told SPACE.com via email. "The person to recover the payload that contains the Le Petit Prince will receive a special GoPro accessories package. Le Petit is a brave explorer, but he is becoming cold, lonely, and waiting in the darkness surrounded by wolves and other wild Alaskan animals. Please bring him back soon!"

To give you a better idea of what you're looking for, Longmier provided a brief description of the fallen balloons.

"They contain a mixture of GPS [equipment], parachutes, PVC, carbon fiber and modified GoPro cameras," he said. "The most notable feature of the payloads is the bright orange and white 36-inch-diameter parachute, and the burst 3- to 4-foot-long white latex balloon."

Project Aether: Aurora modified its GoPro cameras to make them work better in low-light conditions. If you recover a payload but would like a "normal" GoPro, Longmier said he'd exchange with you. In any case, recovery teams should contact him at blongmier@uh.edu for shipping details.

The expedition launched a variety of other instruments along with the cameras in an effort to gain a unique perspective on the northern lights. Project Aether: Aurora also aims to inspire schoolkids all over the world to get more interested in science, technology and math, and ultimately to consider a career in these fields.

The team hopes it captured stunning aurora footage that will help catch students' eyes, and it's working with GoPro to get these images out to the public.

You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Dazzling Northern Lights Display Possible This Weekend (SPACE.com)

The first wave in a volley of solar storm particles from the sun hit Earth Friday (Sept. 9), setting the stage for what could be a striking weekend light show for observers at high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, skywatching experts say.

The charged solar particles were expelled by the sun during a series of sun eruptions (called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs) this week. They arrived at Earth Friday, were funneled toward the poles by the planet's magnetic field and began interacting with the upper atmosphere in what scientists call a geomagnetic storm.

That interaction, when solar particles hit bits of the atmosphere and cause them to glow, can create spectacular northern lights displays, also known the aurora borealis. [Amazing Aurora Photos of Summer 2011]

"This could be the first of several hits from a series of CMEs to reach Earth during the weekend," the space weather and skywatching website Spaceweather.com wrote in an alert. "High-altitude sky watchers should b e alert for auroras after nightfall."

The sun erupted with three major solar storms this week between Sept. 5 and Sept 7. The third and largest of the storms was an X2-class solar flare, placing among the strongest types of storms the sun experiences. The coronal mass ejections from the flares were not aimed directly at Earth, so they were not expected to interfere with satellites, power grids or other infrastructure, space weather experts said.

Major solar flares have already created dazzling northern lights for skywatchers throughout this summer. In August, a series of solar events set the stage for an amazing weekend display, according to some observers.

On Aug. 5, skywatcher and photographer Colin Chatfield witnessed an impressive aurora display just outside Saskatoon in Saskatchewan, Canada.

"We don't actually see the aurora too often here, even though we are more north than lots of your audience," Chatfield told SPACE.com in an email, adding that while this year's auroras were a bit dimmer than those of August 2010, he did manage to catch a meteor streaking across the sky this time. "Even though the ones [on Aug. 5] were not as impressive as last year, they were still amazing to watch them develop, then dance overhead."

Editor's Note: If you snap an amazing photo of the northern lights displays this weekend and would like to share it with SPACE.com for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at: tmalik@space.com.

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Solstice Sun Storm May Spark Dazzling Northern Lights Today (SPACE.com)

A wave of sun particles unleashed during a strong solar flare this week is arriving at Earth today (June 24) and could touch off a dazzling northern lights display, NASA officials say.

The solar storm occurred Tuesday, June 21, during Earth's solstice, which marked the first day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the start of winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

The storm triggered a powerful explosion on the sun, called a coronal mass ejection, which sent a vast wave of solar particles directly at Earth at a speed of about 1.4 million mph (2.3 million kph). Those particles are now buffeting Earth's magnetic field in interactions that could amplify the planet's polar auroras, also known as the northern and southern lights.

"High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras," officials with NASA's Goddard Space Center said in an update today. [Auroras Dazzle Northern Observers]

Supercharged auroras

Auroras occur when solar wind particles collide with atoms of oxygen and nitrogen in Earth's upper atmosphere. The interaction excites the atoms, which then emit light (the aurora) as they return to their normal energy level. [Video: Fantastic Aurora at Earth's Poles]

Tuesday's solar flare registered as a class C7.7 flare (C-class flares are the weakest types of flares), but lasted for several hours. There are three classes of solar flares. M-class solar flares are medium-strength flares, while the most intense solar storms register as X-class flares.

There is a 30 percent to 35 percent chance of a minor geomagnetic storm in Earth's atmosphere today from this week's storm, NASA officials said.

The active sun

This week's solar flare was detected by the space-based Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) operated by NASA and the European Space Agency. It came just weeks after another strong solar flare on June 7, which unleashed a massive coronal mass ejection that stunned astronomers with its intensity.

The June 7 event  kicked up a wave of plasma that rained back down on the sun over an area 75 times the width of Earth. The leading edge of the particles that erupted from the sun were traveling at about 3.5 million mph (5.7 million kph), SOHO officials have said.

Another coronal mass ejection on June 14 unleashed an eerie wave of material that formed a partial halo as it expanded into space.

The most severe solar storms, when aimed at Earth, can pose a danger to astronauts in space, satellites and even ground-based communications and power systems. This week's solar flare, however, is not powerful enough to pose a serious risk, NASA officials said.

The sun is currently in an active period of its 11-year solar cycle. NASA and other space and weather agencies are keeping a close watch on the sun using space-based observatories, satellites and ground-based monitoring systems.

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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