Guillaume Gronoff was my former PhD student. Very bright, very nice person, he is now not only a colleague but also a friend. As a PhD student, he was immediately attracted by the Planeterrella and made many demos, including one on and French TV channel. He is now under contract with NASA in the Langley center. It was no surprise to me that he managed to convince his colleagues to make their own Planeterrella.
It was completed on August 20th, 2013. A press communiqué was immediately released (http://www.nasa.gov/larc/scientists-recreate-earth-s-northern-lights/#.UmEuSb--OmM). I cannot resist to show here the picture of my friend Guillaume (on the left) with his Planeterrella and his summer intern Sam Walker...

NASA has such a big recognition that the news immediately turned around the blogosphere :

http://www.ibtimes.com/scientists-successfully-recreate-earths-northern-lights-other-planets-auroras-1393359
http://www.geekosystem.com/planeterrella/
http://www.metafilter.com/131183/Simulation-of-Auroras
http://www.flickr.com/photos/larc-science/9526160594/

In the UK
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/10257983/Northern-Lights-bottled-by-Nasa.html

In Mallorca
http://www.periodistadigital.com/renovacionbalear/mallorca/2013/08/22/ver-una-aurora-boreal-sobre-la-mesa-de-tu-propia-casa-es-ya-cosa-de-la-nasa.shtml

In South America :
http://www.universocanario.com/ciencia-tecnologia/investigacion/recrean-auroras-boreales/316938

In Indonesia :
http://www.pikiran-rakyat.com/node/247713

Even in France, where the Planeterrella was created, did some newspapers discover it thanks to NASA and thanks to Guillaume !

Updated on 6 décembre 2013