255 miles above EarthWeird but True
An astronaut photographed purple aurora from 255 miles up. Its color is a clue
The September 7 frame stacks city lights, white airglow and aurora above Central Asia. Different gases and altitudes make the colors.
OMG editorial voice
Rowan Price
OMG Culture & Curiosity Desk
The beat
Culture, communities, history, objects, and the ideas moving through them.
The voice
Polished, observant, and curious about the detail that makes a wider cultural story click.
The method
Rowan begins with one concrete object or moment, then widens the frame without turning the story into a lecture.
Latest work
Stories in this voice
Different rhythm. The same obligation to source it, explain it, and correct it.
255 miles above Earth
164 votes to 1Culture
The UN voted 164 to 1 for maps that show Africa at its true relative size
The resolution encourages Equal Earth and other equal-area maps when size matters. It does not ban Mercator, a projection built for navigation.
41 days between viewsCulture
This Nunavut tundra changed color in 41 days. Peak autumn can last a week or less
Landsat 9 saw the same Coppermine River landscape on July 27 and September 6, as green tundra gave way to reds, oranges and yellows.
77 minutes in sunlightCulture
Apollo 11 held up a sheet of foil for 77 minutes. It came home carrying solar wind
Before Apollo 11 raised the flag, Buzz Aldrin aimed a 30-by-140-centimeter aluminum sheet at the Sun. The particles it trapped returned to Earth for analysis.
18 km from sourceCulture
Tiny mineral grains traced Yorkshire’s Devil’s Arrows to rocks 11 miles away
Zircon and apatite fingerprints link Britain’s tallest surviving standing-stone row to Brimham Rocks, while regional ice-flow evidence rules out a glacier making that journey.
50 degrees of real-world dramaEntertainment
Star Trek’s famous alien rocks look like gray scratches from orbit
Landsat 9 turned a longtime science-fiction backdrop into a patch of curved gray stripes, revealing the real geology beneath the fiction.
50 states, one mapCulture
Every state's geology now fits inside one searchable federal map
A new USGS release adds Alaska, Hawaii and most U.S. territories to the same standardized digital view as the Lower 48.
Free circus finaleCulture
The Smithsonian's second-oldest building is closing again. Its last weekend comes with a free circus
The Arts and Industries Building will host aerial performances, costume work and circus-science demonstrations before it closes September 7.
13.8 million visitsCulture
After 13.8 million visitors, this Smithsonian museum is planning a four-day reunion
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is marking ten years with four days of events at the museum and The Wharf.