SDO Sundog Mystery

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), best known for cutting-edge images of the sun, has made a discovery right here on Earth.

"It's a new form of ice halo," says atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley of England. "We saw it for the first time at the launch of SDO--and it is teaching us new things about how shock waves interact with clouds."

Ice halos are rings and arcs of light that appear in the sky when sunlight shines through ice crystals in the air. A familiar example is the sundog—a rainbow-colored splash often seen to the left or right of the morning sun. Sundogs are formed by plate-shaped ice crystals drifting down from the sky like leaves fluttering from trees.*

Last year, SDO destroyed a sundog—and that's how the new halo was discovered.

SDO lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Feb. 11, 2010—one year ago today. It was a beautiful morning with only a handful of wispy cirrus clouds crisscrossing the wintry-blue sky. As the countdown timer ticked to zero, a sundog formed over the launch pad. Play the movie, below, to see what happened next—and don't forget to turn up the volume to hear the reaction of the crowd:

Africa's Daughters wins Best Short Documentary Award in Nashville

Nashville may be known as "Music City" but it's also a great place to see independent films. Attending the International Black Film Festival of Nashville was an exciting and informative experience.

It was the kind of environment where the exchange of ideas was constant, with more established filmmakers making it a point to share their experiences and offer advice to those who've entered the industry fairly recently.

"Southern Style, Feels Like Home," the slogan the festival used this year, was right on the mark and carried over into the workshops.

The panels were a great opportunity to meet with people on the business side of the industry who, with great candor, shared their perspectives on how to balance the commercial viability of a film with the passion that drives us to create films.

Hearing about the challenges faced by filmmakers and actors in other parts of the world like Nollywood (Nigeria’s growing film industry) and meeting one its leading actors, Ramsey Noah, was also a unique experience.

And what an honor to find out that “Africa’s Daughters” which had won the Best Short Documentary award at the Eugene International Film Festival two weeks before, was selected by a jury as the Best Short Documentary winner at IBFF Nashville.

I know I’ll keep in touch with many of the filmmakers, film aficionados, and members of academia I met in Nashville and have a feeling I’ll be back in Music City very soon.