I'm an astronomy geek.

Many nights, my eyes are on the skies. I've learned a lot about very nifty space phenomena... stuff I had never heard of before. Thought y'all might think it's cool, too!

Noctilucent Clouds (NLCs)

They hover on the edge of space. Thin, wispy clouds, glowing electric blue. Some scientists think they're seeded by space dust. Others suspect they're a telltale sign of global warming.
They're called noctilucent or "night-shining" clouds (NLCs). And whatever causes them, they're lovely. Noctilucent clouds are a relatively new phenomenon. They were first seen in 1885 about two years after the powerful eruption of Krakatoa hurled plumes of volcanic ash as much as 80 km high in Earth's atmosphere. One reason for the recent spread of noctilucent clouds might be global warming. Extreme cold is required to form ice in a dry environment like the mesosphere. Ironically, global warming helps. While greenhouse gases warm Earth's surface, they actually lower temperatures in the high atmosphere. NLCs were first spotted during the Industrial Revolution--a time of rising greenhouse gas production. They are most often spotted at higher latitudes.