A Newly Discovered Rogue Planet's Rapid Accretion Startles Astrophysicists

 

              Artist's conception of the newly discovered rogue planet Cha 1107-7626

The nature of ‘rogue planets’, we should note, is typically not taught in conventional introductory astronomy courses. Instead attention is focused on either our solar system’s stable orbs, or more recently the ex0planets systems revealed by the Kepler mission, e.g.

Brane Space: New "Goldilocks" Planets Found: But Do They Harbor Life?

 But more recently, untethered planets ("interstellar loners")  have come to attention such as a newly studied object known officially as Cha 1107-7626, which has a mass five to 10 times the mass of Jupiter.  This entity- moving through space without a star to orbit - is located about 620 light-years away in the constellation Chamaeleon. Officially, this particular rogue planet is still forming and is fed by a surrounding disc of gas and dust formed about 1 million years ago. 

In June, researchers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile noticed gas and dust accreting around an object at a much faster rate than a month earlier. (Any material constantly falling onto another object under gravitational attraction is a process known as accretion. For example we note a similar process of gas etc. accreting onto black holes forming what is called 'an accretion disk'.). 

In this case when the European team enlisted observing time on the James Webb telescope - whose infrared telescope can penetrate dust clouds -  the researchers confirmed that the rogue was funneling hot gas and other material from the accretion disk onto itself. It actually increased its consumption of material 8-fold between May and August adding 6 billion tons per second.  This was a rate never before seen by astrophysics.

The documentation of the discovery was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Oct. 10 by R. Jayawardhana,  Victor Almendros-Abad et al:

Discovery of an Accretion Burst in a Free-floating Planetary-mass Object - IOPscience

 Prof. Jayawardhana  noted how the finding provides information on the origin and formation of rogue planets and how they can behave like mass-consuming objects such as black holes, e.g.

One theory of origin is that rogue planets actually get kicked out of existing solar systems. Another is that they form on their own. According one co-author of the paper: Victor Almendros-Abad:  "The object actually formed like a star and we were fortunate to be able to observe the whole process together."

And in the words of  Prof. Jayawardhana:

"It's quite conceivable this rogue planet would be accompanied by a set of mini-planets of its own, a kind of solar system in miniature."

A conclusion not yet supported by evidence but totally reasonable.

See Also:

Young rogue planet displays record-breaking 'growth spurt' | Hub

WSJ Editorial: "Epstein Follies Return" - But The Emails Aren't 'Follies' To The Epstein Victims

 Letter to Congress From Epstein Victims (Friday):

"There is no middle ground here. There is no hiding behind party affiliation. Epstein and Maxwell's crimes exposed a double standard of justice where rich and powerful men and women evade repercussions. Despite years of work to bring them to justice most of  Epstein and Maxwell's co-conspirators remain completely free and continue to amass power and prestige, having no apparent shame."

And as Jessica Gross put it in her Saturday NYT piece:

"As we were reminded with the release of a new tranche of Jeffrey Epstein emails, some of the richest, most powerful men in the world either abused young women, or knew that their buddy did, and didn’t seem to care."

And neither does The Wall Street Journal  seem to care, as per its lead editorial Friday, i.e.

The Epstein Follies Return

First order of business after the shutdown: Emails from the grave!

Wading into the first paragraph, just as clueless:

“Could there be a better example of Congressional dysfunction than that its first pressing business after the government reopens is . . . the return of the Jeffrey Epstein follies? This is exactly what the American people weren’t waiting for.

But this is Washington in 2025, so everyone is obsessing about Epstein’s emails from the grave that mention Donald Trump long before he was President. Democrats selectively leaked the emails (acquired as part of a Congressional investigation) that refer to Mr. Trump. Republicans countered by releasing thousands of other emails that are embarrassing for many but tell us little new about the deceased sexual offender.”

Incredibly, the same Wall Street Journal that exposed Trump’s “bawdy 50^th birthday letter” connections to Jeffrey Epstein back in July e.g.

Is now trying to wash it away with snide humor that mocks the hundreds of victims with “Emails from the grave”.  Actually no. We have real firsthand evidence, compliments of the Epstein estate,  of the deep connections of Trump to Epstein in at least 300 mb of emails.  Material that Deputy AG Todd Blanche could also have obtained but chose not to – when he went to interview Epstein’s comrade in sexual predation – Ghislane Maxwell.

The Journal editors, however, believe now is the time to yuck it up and dismiss the case, despite the fact what Epstein did (and Trump as well – else he’d not fight so ferociously to hide the files) was deadly serious to the hundreds of survivors. Victims of thousands of rapes and other sexual offenses traced to a global sex trafficking ring that Epstein operated with Maxwell to assist.

And yeah, you’re damned right this is what Americans have been waiting for because a majority (excluding hard core MAGAs like Alex Jones) believe members of a pedophile sex predation ring shouldn’t be rewarded, like Ghislane Maxwell has – by being transferred to a country club camp –“prison” in  Bryan, Texas, where she has nice comfy surroundings, the warden at her beck and call and her own puppy.  As Michelle Goldberg described in her Friday column:

"Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, has had custom meals delivered to her cell. The warden personally arranged for Maxwell to meet privately with family members and other visitors and even provided snacks and refreshments. According to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), her guests were allowed to bring computers, potentially allowing her unauthorized communication with the outside world.

Maxwell was allegedly taken to the prison’s exercise room after hours so she could work out alone, and “allowed to enjoy recreation time in staff-only areas,” wrote Raskin. An inmate who trains service dogs was reportedly instructed to give her special access to a puppy. Raskin claimed that a top official at the prison said that he is “sick of having to be Maxwell’s bitch.”

Some of the details in Raskin’s letter were confirmed on Thursday by CNN, which added one more. Whereas other inmates carefully conserve their toilet paper because they’re given only two rolls a week, CNN reported, Maxwell “is given as much toilet paper as she needs. All she has to do is ask.”

So are the what the WSJ’s illustrious editors getting shits and giggles out of Maxwell's top class treatment? Of course not. They'd rather adhere to the FOX party line and protect Trump.

So what they call “obsessing about the Epstein emails”  is in reality seeking justice for the survivors call a demand for full transparency to nail every last child sex pedophile who’s thus far escaped.  

So who are the WSJ editors protecting? The Epstein ring pedophiles including Trump, whom Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse asked AG Bondi about being with “half naked girls” less than two months ago in a Senate oversight hearing. And which Bondi refused to answer, instead attacking  Sen. Whitehouse. The obvious ploy of an authoritarian who believes she's sitting in the catbird seat and need show no deference to U.S. Senators in an oversight hearing.

 As Ms. Goldberg notes. The relative pampering she’s enjoying seems particularly significant given newly released emails between her and Epstein suggesting she’s harboring some sort of secret about Trump.  What is it? Or does the WSJ want us to just ignore further investigations as wasteful follies with the congress having more pressing business to do?  But they miss the point that this is about protecting our democracy which they now seem willing to give away for a Trump autocracy.

With the discharge petition already signed by the requisite members of the House- and ready to vote next week on Epstein files release in FULL, one wonders why the WSJ is suddenly scoffing at his victims and willing to protect pedophiles. Or is it only Trump they seek to protect?

Instead of making light of the Epstein-Maxwell victims, The WSJ Editors would do better to focus on Thomas Hartmann's recent post in his Hartmann Report:

"The documents — now the focus of fierce scrutiny and verification efforts — raise three searing questions: What did Trump know, and when did he know it; what did he do and who did he do it to/with; and is he preparing to start a war to distract us from his exposure?

The allegations are shocking, but the larger danger lies in what happens next. Every time the walls close in, this man reaches for spectacle — rage, chaos, or even war — to change the subject."

This is not navel gazing or 'obsessing' over "emails from the grave". It gets at the root of what a democracy ought to be about: Transparency and holding high level predators to the same laws as everyone else. Yet the WSJ editors seem now to want us to turn a blind eye, just when Trump is set to launch a 'wag the dog' distraction attack on Venezuela.

Newsflash for WSJ editors: The coverup of a massive crime involving hundreds of innocent victims is not "follies" nor should it be treated as such. Stop protecting Dotard and his collaborators in the Epstein cover-up with more editorial twaddle i.e. mocking the released emails as unbefitting a serious congress. Or, worse, making any attention to the emails political by attributing a sinister motive to the Democrats.

See Also:

Donald Trump | Jeffrey Epstein

Republicans Keep Pushing Out ‘Bombshell’ Epstein Emails — and One Name Keeps Coming Up

by Lesley Abravanel | November 17, 2025 - 6:21am | permalink

— from Alternet

When the 20,000 pages of documents received from the estate of late convicted Jeffrey Epstein were released, the Republicans in control of the majority on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee couldn't avoid the fact that President Donald Trump’s name keeps coming up and as a result, it's unleashing "political friendly fire," reports the Washington Post.

This "bombshell document drop," the Post reports, "began after Democrats on the Oversight Committee released on Wednesday just three select emails from the Epstein estate that the convicted sex offender had sent to his friends and allies, including one alleging that Trump 'knew about the girls.'"

Trump has spent the past several days attacking Democrats for what he deems another "hoax," but the Post says that Republicans are actually more embroiled in a tenuous situation than their political opponents.

» article continues...

And:

 The Epstein Affair Has Moved From Sleaze to a Crisis for American Democracy Itself

by Thom Hartmann | November 14, 2025 - 6:08am | permalink

— from The Hartmann Report

The New York Times reported that Donald Trump personally called Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and then had Bondi, Blanche, and Patel take her into the top-secret no-recording-devices-allowed Situation Room to urge her to drop her support for releasing the Epstein files. He apparently also tried to reach Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) for the same reason.

Yesterday’s newly surfaced details about Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump again reveal something far larger than the tawdry specifics of their relationship, as grotesque as those are.

They point to a structural crisis at the heart of American democracy.

As Republican President Theodore Roosevelt said:

» article continues...

And:

Donald Trump | Jeffrey Epstein

‘I Am the One Able To Take Him Down’: Epstein Bragged to Friends About Power Over Trump

by Carl Gibson | November 13, 2025 - 6:39am | permalink

— from Alternet

Before launching his political career, President Donald Trump was close friends with multimillionaire financier (and eventual convicted child predator) Jeffrey Epstein. But after their falling out, Epstein reportedly bragged to friends and acquaintances about having compromising information about the eventual president of the United States.

The New York Times reported Wednesday evening that Epstein repeatedly insulted Trump in exchanges with various people, referring to him as "borderline insane" in a conversation with former Treasury Secretary and Harvard University President Larry Summers. He also referred to Trump as "demented donald" and "dopey donald" in correspondence with author Michael Wolff.

Epstein also hinted that he had what the Times characterized as "potentially damaging" information about Trump pertaining to his finances and business dealings, though none of the Epstein-related emails the House Oversight Committee released on Wednesday give specifics on what Epstein was referring to. But he gave several hints regarding Trump's debts and real estate holdings.

» article continues...

 And:

Donald Trump | Jeffrey Epstein | Marjorie Taylor Greene

‘This Is What Sent Him Over the Edge’: MTG Releases Texts She Sent Trump About Epstein

by Carl Gibson | November 15, 2025 - 6:47am | permalink

— from Alternet

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is now responding to President Donald Trump's attacks on her and his push for her ouster in next year's Republican primary.

On Friday night, Trump called Greene "wacky" in a 294-word post to his Truth Social account, and that he didn't have time to take constant phone calls from "ranting lunatic." He added that the "right person" could win his endorsement should they mount a primary challenge to the three-term congresswoman.

Shortly after Trump wrote his post, Greene authored a lengthy post of her own on her official X account. She accused Trump of erupting at her in response to text messages she sent him on Friday urging him to publish the unreleased Department of Justice (DOJ) files about deceased child predator Jeffrey Epstein.

» article continues...

And:

Donald Trump | Jeffrey Epstein | Ukraine | Vladimir Putin

Did Epstein’s Knowledge of Trump Become Putin’s Most Dangerous Weapon Against Ukraine?

by Thom Hartmann | November 15, 2025 - 6:11am | permalink

— from The Hartmann Report

“Russia unleashed a massive combined attack on Kyiv” last night, The Guardian reports. “Five people were hospitalised, including one man in critical condition and a pregnant woman, after a series of powerful explosions sounded in the city and air defenses were activated. …

“Pictures posted on social media showed different sites in flames and residents gathering in rubble-strewn streets outside apartment buildings.”

The child victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes are apparently not the only ones who‘ve paid the price for Donald Trump’s long relationship with that notorious pedophile.

Epstein’s “partying” with Trump has apparently also led to thousands of civilian deaths abroad, the collapse of America’s credibility around the world, and a serious threat to the future of democracy in Europe.

» article continues...

And:

Opinion | Epstein, Fuentes and Trump’s Political Erosion - The New York Times

A.I.-Bubble Angst Spills Into Bond Market - What It Means

 

                                                                           

The NASDAQ Composite index spiked in 2000 and then fell sharply as a result of dot-com bubble.

Speculative money is once more pouring into risky investment schemes, with staggering sums of money being thrown at artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies. But rather than heed a century of hard-won lessons, the Trump administration’s financial regulators are embracing dissolute policies to keep the punch flowing. 

Maybe these incompetent clowns and grifters didn't see The Financial Times headline from Tuesday:

Why exactly would the hyped up A.I. spending spill into the bond market? Basically, because the A.I. tech chieftains are spending like 'drunken sailors' on a night on the town, which is worrying the buyers of debt in the bond markets. By some reckonings several trillions in debt have already been plowed in, mainly on infrastructure.  According to one European Finance Journal (not FT):

"The world’s largest technology companies are now committing extraordinary sums to infrastructure. The expansion ranges from hyperscale data centres and custom AI chips to power and cooling networks required to support dense computational workloads. For some companies, annual capital investment budgets have doubled in under two years.

Executives insist the spending is strategic and long-term. Artificial intelligence, they argue, will underpin almost every form of digital activity—search, advertising, enterprise computing, consumer devices and the next generation of industrial automation. The companies that control the infrastructure of AI, the logic goes, will command the dominant platforms of the next decade.

But for bond investors, the arithmetic has shifted. Where Big Tech once delivered reliable cash flows, modest leverage and buyback programmes, the emerging landscape is defined by heavier capital requirements and multi-year horizons before returns are realised. The question is no longer whether AI is transformative—it is whether the cost of getting there is being priced correctly."

Many bond investors are betting the pricing is not correct and a bubble is forming. Also, with many similarities to the dot.com bubble which burst back in 2002. But did anyone learn from that burst bubble? Not really. As before too many are buying in after the first 'pop', as well as placing hopes in the 'greater fool theory' - especially if they are leveraging their buys - i.e. using debt. Recall the greater fool theory says someone else will be willing to pay more per share tomorrow even if the stock is already overpriced.  For reference, Open AI not long ago attained a valuation of more than 38 times revenue.

Bubbles typically happen when the laws of standard finance diverge or other peculiar distortions creep in, such as to the tax code. Calvin Coolidge signed into law the Revenue Act of 1924 , which lowered personal income tax rates on the highest incomes from 73 percent to 46 percent.  Two years later, the Revenue Act of 1926  law further reduced inheritance and personal income taxes; eliminated  many excise imposts (luxury or nuisance taxes); and ended public access to federal income tax returns. The tax rate on the highest incomes was reduced to 25 percent.

The result was a speculative frenzy in the stock markets, especially the application of structured leverage in what were called at the time "investment trusts." These 'investment trusts' were the forerunners of today's mutual funds) and then - as now - touted as "the little guy's way to enter the stock market".

 In September 1929, this edifice of false prosperity began to wobble, and finally crashed spectacularly in October,  1929.

So it appears the financial excesses of 100 years ago seem not to have taught the A.I. tech bros that bubbles can still come back and wreak havoc. And while the dot.com stocks of the early 2000s were hard to short because there was little available to borrow. The same is not true now with the splurging on crypto driving many A.I. buys and leverage.

The FT warning about the A.I. spending is thus a shot over the bow of today's would be high finance billionaires and bigshots - who don't give two spits if the little guys buying in lose their shirts and savings.  But see, these arrogant fools never processed how high the costs of negligent oversight of our markets can be.  And hey, as one wit once said "When sentinels sleep, fraudsters flourish"  and they are doing so now. 

But do the A.I. magnates see it? Hell no. Nor do they see that, despite their frenzied celebration of unreal profits pumping froth into the market, ultimately, this bubble will also burst. As the more savvy among us behold stages of that cycle recurring, we must decide whether to intervene now — or to mop up the mess later.  A paragraph in the WSJ 'Guide to Wealth Management'  in the Oct. 21 Journal ought to raise alarms:

"AI appears to be running up against some immutable laws of common sense. First, we don't have that power. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory predicts that by 2028, AI will require the same amount of energy it takes to power 22% of U.S. households.  Second, there is a circularity problem with all the investment in AI.  Most of the money is changing hands among the largest tech companies.  Nvidia, the world's leading AI chip maker, generates about half its revenue from Microsoft and Amazon.com.  ...

Eight of the market's 10 biggest stocks are tied in part to AI investment and represent $23 trillion in total market value."

In other words, when the AI bubble bursts it will be colossal.

The parallels between the 1920s and the 2020s are numerous — and ominous. The 1920s economy boomed while America recovered from a deadly pandemic, the flu of 1918.  The 2020s economy is still recovering from the covid 19 pandemic and the supply side issues still with us - which Trump's tariffs have made worse. The AI irrational exuberance has compounded all of these, as well as driving debt to the point investors may well demand a higher return for holding longer-dated bonds - which means higher operating costs for government.

 In the 1920s Americans used installment plans — the precursor to today’s ubiquitous “buy now, pay later” plans at online checkouts — to spend liberally on consumer products, and they poured money into speculative new investments. Automobile and telephone stocks were the high-flying tech investments of their day; Tesla and Apple are two of ours along with Open A.I..

And as with today, masses of Americans took advantage of easy credit and ubiquitous stock brokerages to speculate in finance. In 1929, a New York Times editor quoted a major newspaper’s financial expert who said that the “huge army that daily gambles in the stock market” had come to include, in the editor’s words, “the woman nonprofessional speculator,” whose share of market trading grew by one estimate from less than 2 percent to 35 percent. That influx of buying from 1919 to 1929 drove the stock market up more than sixfold over the decade — a growth rate our market has actually surpassed over the past three years.

But the unsustainable cannot be sustained. Between 1929 and 1932, the stock market dropped 77 percent, and the global economy staggered into the Great Depression while unemployment and malnutrition spiked. In 1932, suicide rates soared to their highest in recorded history.

Financial failure on such a massive scale ought to have taught Americans important lessons, including the need for prudent regulation.  But even as I write this, the crypto bogey has been released and threatens to bring the whole system crashing down, thanks to Dotard rewarding the crypto bros.  Hell, even pardoning crypto criminals. As David French noted in the NY Times yesterday:

"Look at Trump's pardon of the crypto billionaire Changpeng Zhao.The pardon came after Zhao’s company, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, “took steps that catapulted the Trump family venture’s new stablecoin product, enhancing its credibility and pushing its market capitalization up from $127 million to over $2.1 billion.”

But why be surprised when we have a regime of grifters, liars and criminals soiling everything in their path. And yeah, that includes destabilizing the financial future of this nation.

Best advice?  Look before you leap into anything now being offered as the easy path to wealth. A new Trump "meme" coin? Save you money. A new A.I. release ten times better than ChatGPT? Save your money.  Be satisfied with lower yields and saving as opposed to shorting A.I. or other tech stocks.  If you still want a buy in Apple may be the best bet. Again, from the WSJ Wealth Management piece:

"Apple carries a triple-A credit rating from both Moody's Investors Service and S&P Global. It generates nearly $100 billion in free cash flow each year, and unlike its megacap tech peers, isn't spending like an inebriated sailor on artificial intelligence."

As a separate (Oct. 24) WSJ column on bubbles in the A.I. realm warns:

"If Open AI quickly comes up with a vital service everyone proves willing to pay big bucks to use, maybe even its price can be justified. After all, the only absolute proof of a bubble is when it bursts."

See Also:

Opinion | Facing a $38 trillion debt, America hopes maybe AI will save the day - The Washington Post

Excerpt:

The International Monetary Fund forecasts the U.S. government debt will be above 7 percent of GDP every year until 2029, with the debt reaching 143.4 percent of GDP by the decade’s end. The Congressional Budget Office projects the debt increasing for decades. As a percentage of their GDPs, Italy’s and Greece’s debts are expected to decline, and to be exceeded by the U.S. debt’s percentage in 2030.

Last week, the undiscourageable Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which shoulders the Sisyphean task of warning Americans about their ruinous fiscal habits, published five essays by six fiscal and economics writers on “Lessons from History for America Today.” The essays probably will make no difference in this sleepwalking nation’s behavior, but they are, in their way, as riveting as Walter Lord’s 1955 “A Night to Remember,” about the “unsinkable” Titanic sinking. 

And:

Democrats | Donald Trump | Economic Policy

Trump’s Truly Sh*tty Economy

by Robert Reich | November 17, 2025 - 6:31am | permalink

And 10 things Democrats should pledge to do about it when they’re back in power

Friends,

Trump claimed last week on social media that “Our economy is BOOMING, and Costs are coming way down,” and that “grocery prices are way down.

Rubbish.

How do I know he’s lying? Official government statistics haven’t been issued during the shutdown — presumably to Trump’s relief (the White House said Wednesday that the October jobs and Consumer Price Index reports may never come out).

But we can get good estimates of where the economy is now, based on where the economy was heading before the shutdown and recent reports by private data firms.

First, I want to tell you what we know about Trump’s truly sh*tty economy. Then I’ll suggest 10 things that Democrats should pledge to do about it.

» article continues...

And:

The Stock Markets' Carnage Is Only Getting Started.

And:

The 'Game Stop' Speculative Frenzy And The Emerging Stock Bubble..

And:

 Yet More Reasons To Get Rid Of Bitcoin - And Other Cryptocurrencies

Powerful Geomagnetic Storm Triggers Auroral Displays in Colorado and Across U.S.

 

             Some of the auroral displays captured in Colorado Tuesday night

A wave of new solar activity has triggered marvelous light shows in Colorado skies - and across the nation - the last few nights. Two of those energy bursts arrived Tuesday evening painting the skies of Colorado cities pink, blue and green. Coloradans across the state reported being able to see the colors with their naked eye, and the effect was boosted by phone cameras.

The magnetic field of Tuesday night's storm was estimated to be eight times stronger than normal and favorable to "continued activity," NOAA space forecasters said in a video update.  A new storm then was forecast to arrive Wednesday, according to space weather forecasters.  We looked out toward the northern horizon just after sunset but cloudy conditions prevented us from seeing anything.

Unfortunate, because the energy burst expected to arrive would likely have generated a spectacular aurora. I.e. hitting the "severe" G4 category, and possibly reaching the "extreme" G5 levels, forecasters said in one NASA video. An extreme G5 storm can collapse power grids, cause blackouts and disrupt satellite navigation and radio frequencies, according to the NOAA.

For reference, the  five-step ranking scale e,g,

SANSA Space Weather - Geomagnetic Storm Scale

predicts how the storm will impact Earth -- not just in the vibrancy of the aurora borealis, but in the potential disruption or damage to power grids and communications systems.

 The brightness of auroras and how far south they can be observed depends on when the solar bursts arrive and how they interact with Earth’s atmosphere. If the Wednesday night storm is as strong as Tuesday's, as forecasted, Coloradans should once again be able to see it on the horizon just after sunset.

What causes these magnificent multi-colored displays?

One can visualize the Earth as a giant spherical magnet, with magnetic field lines extending from its north to south magnetic poles. These magnetic field lines, have the property that any charged particles (+protons, - electron or ions) that approach, will spiral along them.

The Earth itself, is "bathed" in the solar wind, a stream of high speed
charged particles that flows into space, originating from the Sun's
corona. (A hot, gaseous envelope that spews these particles out continuously – more so when there is a violent explosion known as a Solar Flare)

Around the Earth the speed of these particles can reach 400- 500
km/second. Because of its high temperature, over a million degrees, we know the corona gas is ionized so must consist of charged particles, mainly (+) protons, and (-) electrons).

During high solar activity (e.g. near sunspot maximums) a higher flux of these charged particles inundates the solar wind, and the region around the Earth. The Earth's magnetic field then traps these charged particles, and the highest density occurs around the polar regions. We refer to as the "auroral ovals". In these ovals, very high electric currents are set up, as the charged particles start moving in unison about the magnetic field lines.

As this discharge occurs, one or more outer electrons is stripped from the atoms, for example from oxygen in the atmosphere - then recombines to form new e.(g. oxygen) atoms.

With this recombination there is emission of light, for a certain part
of the visible spectrum. For example, in the case of recombination of oxygen atoms - the emitted light is in the GREEN region of the spectrum. The aurora or northern lights we see displays a kind of green curtain-like shimmering. 

The remarkable red aurora, visible in Colorado skies the past two nights, is produced by emission at the 630 nm (nanometer) line of oxygen and at relatively high altitudes (e.g. 200-600 km) compared to green - which tends to form below 100 km when the oxygen line at 557 nm is excited.

Auroras can display as both diffuse and discrete. In the first case the shape is ill-defined and the aurora is believed to be formed from trapped particles originally in the magnetosphere which then propagate into the lower ionosphere via wave-particle interactions.
has 

A great analogy by Prof. Syun Akasofu (Univ. of Alaska-Fairbanks) compares the aurora to images on a TV screen. In this case the (polar) upper atmosphere corresponds to the screen and the aurora to the image that would be projected on it, say for a TV. The electron beam in the TV (remember we are talking about the old-style cathode ray jobs!) corresponds the electron beam in the magnetosphere. 

In the conventional TV motions of the image are generated by the changing impact points of the electron beam on the screen. Similarly, with the aurora, its motions – such as moving sheets or curtains- are produced by moving impact points of the magnetospheric electron beams.

In gauging the power and intensity of auroras at different times, it is useful to remember that ultimately the aurora derives its power and potential from the Sun and specifically the charged particles of the solar wind. This is why the most spectacular displays are usually near sunspot maximum. Around those times the currents which I noted earlier are “amped” up – no pun intended- to 1 million amps  or more. 

To give an example, during a quiet Sun interval the residual power for the magnetospheric generator is on the order of maybe a tenth of a megawatt. If we see a new cycle coming on and solar wind activated –as it is now -  we may get that power up to a million megawatts for a few hours.

If intense enough, such solar storms can herald the onset of enormous induction currents such as caused parts of the Ottawa grid to melt down in 1989.

See Also:

Latest Auroral Display - From G4 Level Solar Storm- Lights Up Skies As Far South As AL, MS, TX

And:

A Threat To U.S. Power Grids? Solar X-Ray Flares Presage Active Solar Cycle 25 And Potential Earlier CMEs As Well As Aurora

And:

The Northern Colorado Aurora - And Why Space Physicists Were Less Obsessed With Appearance Than Effects

And:

• How Changing Solar Magnetic Fields Complicate Space Weather Forecasting...