As a fairly covid-cautious person, this quote from the astrobiology textbook talking about the possibilities for lithopanspermia makes me shudder with horror every time I teach this section:

“In a sense, Earth, Venus, and Mars have been ‘sneezing’ on each other for billions of years, offering the possibility of microscopic life hitchhiking between worlds on one of the meteorites.”

*Comes back inside and picks up my "light reading" book on my desk for a brain-reset*

*remembers my "light reading" book right now is actually @adambecker.bsky.social's "More Everything Forever"*

*Walks back outside into the middle of the hay field*

Too many meetings about too many stupid awful techbro satellites that benefit a few people for massive costs to everyone and everything else.

I need to go rage-scream in the hay field again.

I should add that the red colour is almost completely invisible to your eyes. But the greens were gorgeous and easy to see!! WOW.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ooooo yes!!! they're here!!!! Also clouds, but the auroras are easily visible in between them!

https://www.aurorasaurus.org/ is still looking promising! Guess I'm going to drink some tea then bust out the fancy camera and pretend like I know what I'm doing.

Still not dark enough... though definitely getting dark a LOT earlier than even a week ago! It's nearly 4 minutes less between sunrise and sunset every day at this time of year at this latitude.

While we wait, the internet needs some happy animal vibes, so here's a cat in a basket, and my herd happily eating new grass (it's been super dry, until it rained like crazy the last 2 days, so there will be a bit more grass before winter hides all of it).

https://www.aurorasaurus.org/ shows a few positive aurora views in New England! Go outside and look if you're in the northeastern US or eastern Canada!