On October 4 and 5, a coronal mass ejection from the sun sent an
explosion of particles speeding toward earth. Three days later,
those particles hit the earth's magnetic field. The magnetic
field funneled the particles into the atmosphere near the poles,
where they collided with gases in the upper atmosphere to
release dramatic waves of colorful light over Canada's Quebec
and Ontario provinces. You don't get to see the green and purple
colors in the photo above—taken early on the morning of October
8, 2012, by a NASA satellite—but you do get a pretty good idea
for the size and scope of the massive swell of light. Pointing
to the sacredness of the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff,
Arizona, a coalition of Native American tribes has been fighting
the development and expansion of Arizona Snowbowl ski resort
since 1979. It remains the New York Times, despite having
suffered a key legal defeat this winter. A federal court ruled
against the tribes in a nearly decade-old lawsuit that claims
the ski resort's pla