Expert: Tom Whiting - 2/11/2010

Question
WHat  are the lights people are talking about that are coming closer to the earth?

Answer
Hi Kelly,
I have no idea of what you're talking about... Send me the internet reference.  Sounds like a little too much Kool-aid being drunk out there.  (You're not reading National Enquirer again,
are you?) ;-)
Clear Skies,
Tom

FOLLOW UP:
If you stick with the boring (non-sensationalized) but truthful websites on astronomy, such as
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/
and
http://www.spaceweather.com
you won't be confused with astronomy; neither website cover any alleged lights coming "at us".
Sorry they are boring and non-sensationalized, but at least you get the honest truth of
what's going on in space on those honest websites.
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA

FOLLOW UP:
Oh, perhaps you've read where solar activity is back on the increase now, after a very deep
solar minimum, (I hear the false Global Warmists breathing a sigh of relief!) so the sun will be producing more energetic particles toward the Earth, leading to more Northern Lights (Auroral) displays over the next few years, which will be seen farther south of the Arctic Circle.  This is perfectly normal and occurs at every solar sunspot maximum.  It will give people living at 40 N. Latitude at least 5 displays annually, of which half will be not seen due to clouds, a bright moon, city light pollution, etc.  So the average observer at 40N Latitude is lucky to see perhaps 2 displays every year. These are totally harmless to us, in fact it's the Earth's atmosphere and magnetosphere protecting us from highly charged incoming solar particles.  Perhaps that's what you were thinking of...Auroral displays coming back to our night skies in the near-future, as the Northern Auroral ring works its way southward during the next couple
of years.
Clear Skies,
Tom