The Space News Archive *Warning, massive resolution pictures inside*

[LLR]

The Solar News Thread

I've been keeping track of what the Sun does for a few years now.  I like to keep an eye on what goes on out there and see how it relates to what goes on here on Earth.  Over the years I've noticed a relation to Storms/Spots on the Sun and increased storm strengths here and else where.  I thought that we could all keep track of it in one thread and ramble about it a bit.  Good excuse to see what goes on in the Solar System anyway.  Some folks my like this thread, some may not and think its all a pile of piffle.  Thats ok!  I really just like showing people how the Sun is changing and the reasons behind it.  

This thread wont just cover the Sun, we can post up anything related about the Solar System.  8)
So I'll start off by posting up some of the most interesting things the Sun has done in the past few years and give the dates.  The Sun is going through a new Solar Cycle and changing from cycle 23 to cycle 24.  During this time we will get Sun spots and other solar storm type events.  Scientists have never seen many of these new phenomenon and are still trying to understand what the Sun is actually doing and why.  At the moment we are at a Solar minimum and that means we will see few Sunspots and storms...  However that doesn't mean the Sun is totally quiet...  Each year we draw closer to a Solar maximum and excuse the phrase but all hell will break loose on the Sun then.  

So with out further adieu, here are some of the most bizarre things that Scientists have saw the past years.

Dec 9th - Dec 15th 06

Solar Tsunami, Never seen before and the explosion then lead to this video..

Which lead to this story that was carried by most major news networks

Jan 12, 2007: It's enough to make you leap out of your seat: A magnetic vortex almost as big as Earth races across your computer screen, twisting, turning, finally erupting in a powerful solar flare. Japan's Hinode spacecraft recorded just such a blast on Jan. 12, 2007.
Video 1

Video 2

Video 3


May 10th, 2007


MAGNETIC EMERGENCE: Sunspot 955 is growing rapidly. Only two days ago it was nearly invisible; now the dark region is larger than Earth.

When a sunspot emerges from the depths of the sun, what we're really seeing is the growth of a giant magnet. Consider this 3-day movie of sunspot 955 recorded by a magnetogram onboard the SOHO spacecraft:

in the movie, white denotes magnetic north (N) and black denotes magnetic south (S). Sunspot 955, like all magnets, has two poles, except unlike the magnets on your refrigerator, the poles of sunspot 955 are the size of planets. These magnetic fields are so intense, they block the flow of heat from the sun below, causing the area to cool and darken--hence the sunspot.

Recently,
IS THAT AN ASTRONAUT? On the night of May 11th, the ISS flew over Sonnenbuehl-Genkingen, Germany, where Martin Wagner was waiting with his 10-inch telescope and a Canon 400D. He snapped this picture, and wants to know, "is that an astronaut?"

The disembodied point of light denoted by the flashing circle is, in fact, not a body. There were no spacewalks in progress on May 11th; all the astronauts were indoors. Barring unauthorized EVAs, the answer probably lies in the shadows--the increasingly complicated shadows of a growing space station. The ISS is bristling with sun-tracking solar arrays, zig-zagging thermal radiators, a bewildering assortment of modules and habitats--and don't forget there are two other spacecraft (Jules Verne and Soyuz 16) currently parked at station docking ports. This assembly casts shadows across itself, occasionally creating the appearance of disconnected pieces.

Our best guess for the spot in Wagner's photo: The sun-exposed tip of a thermal radiator. Better ideas are welcomed.

If you got some 3D Glasses put them on and check out this pic!


Very interesting stuff imo.   So whats the Sun doing today?

Lets take a look!

May 15th 08



SOLAR VORTEX: "In spite of solar minimum, there seems to be plenty of action on the sun," reports amateur astronomer Peter Schlatter of Wohlen, Switzerland, who yesterday witnessed a spectacular vortex swirling on the sun's eastern horizon. Click on the image to launch the movie he made using his backyard telescope and a Coronado solar filter:
AVI Video
or
Quik Time Video

Indeed, the limb of the sun is where the action is. "A huge prominence emerged today looking like a monster rising from a sea of fire," reports David Leong of Hong Kong: photo. None of this activity is explosive or threatens to cause geomagnetic storms on Earth--it's just a pretty show.

Auraus can be seen in the in the following locations.

[NinJa]

I thought this was very interesting. I enjoy looking at information about our solar system, and I really hope something different happens, same ol' stuff on Earth.

[LLR]

Three new sunspots (encircled) are emerging. They are still small and pose no threat for solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI

[Wyocaster]

How long does it take for a sunspot to grow to the point for the ability to have solar flares?

[LLR]

How long does it take for a sunspot to grow to the point for the ability to have solar flares?

Randomly. It could be instantly (within a few hours) or it may take days.  Depends on the strength. 


Today:


 8)

[Link Reborn]

Didn't a solar flare cause a huge power outage in Quebec` in the 80's or something?

And what can the magnitude or power of a solar flare range form, and how oculd it affect us?

[LLR]

Didn't a solar flare cause a huge power outage in Quebec` in the 80's or something?

Yes, your right!  That was an X Class Solar Flare.

Heres an article about that

As for “real life consequences,” a high period of solar activity – expected during the solar cycles peak in 2011/12 – plays havoc with much of the electrical equipment here on Earth. GPS signals, power grids, cell phones, civilian and airline communications, military communications and a whole lot more are just waiting to fritz out due to increased solar activity.

An example of such an outage came in 1989, in Canada’s province of Quebec, when thanks to a major solar storm, the entire provinces power-grid was knocked offline.

More

And what can the magnitude or power of a solar flare range form, and how could it affect us?

The Classification of X-ray Solar Flares
or "Solar Flare Alphabet Soup"

A solar flare is an explosion on the Sun that happens when energy stored in twisted magnetic fields (usually above sunspots) is suddenly released. Flares produce a burst of radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to x-rays and gamma-rays. [more information]

Scientists classify solar flares according to their x-ray brightness in the wavelength range 1 to 8 Angstroms. There are 3 categories: X-class flares are big; they are major events that can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms. M-class flares are medium-sized; they can cause brief radio blackouts that affect Earth's polar regions. Minor radiation storms sometimes follow an M-class flare. Compared to X- and M-class events, C-class flares are small with few noticeable consequences here on Earth.

This figure shows a series of solar flares detected by NOAA satellites in July 2000:



Each category for x-ray flares has nine subdivisions ranging from, e.g., C1 to C9, M1 to M9, and X1 to X9. In this figure, the three indicated flares registered (from left to right) X2, M5, and X6. The X6 flare triggered a radiation storm around Earth nicknamed the Bastille Day event.




Last year when that Tsunami type flare happened weird stuff happened all day.  First of all on our way to work the birds were down right suicidal, diving in front of every car on the road.  When we got to work (our Italian restaurant) our phones were static-filled all day.  People in the dinning room with cell phones just wondered around trying to get a signal and went out side and still failed to hold a good signal.  Our TV in the dining room too could not hold a picture well and our security system that makes a "beepbeepbbbbeeepbeep" sound when someone opens the door went nuts and would go off when the door was closed.  Then someones car broke down in front of the building, felt bad for the people, they were stranded for hours.  Then when we got off work... our car broke down too...
 

Solar flares can cause a huge amount of problems.  So when you take a look at this thread and see something odd going on with the Sun, take extra care when out doors that day.  Believe me, odd things can happen.

 



As for news today..

LUNAR TRANSIT: Last night, the International Space Station flew over Slovakia--and right in front of the Moon. A team of astronomers led by Roman Piffl had their Nikon D200 ready and they caught the winged silhouette passing just south of the Sea of Tranquility:
Picture of the Moon with ISS in front

Now is a good time for Europeans to see the International Space Station with their own eyes. For the next two weeks, the behemoth spacecraft will be making a series of bright flybys of Europe, sometimes three or four times a night.

As Jack Horkheimer use to say.  "Keep looking up!"

-SpaceRancher

 

[Link Reborn]

poor birds xD

I rememeber seeing a movie called CORE when that happened(birds committing suicide) but it had nothing to do with the sun.

[LLR]

I've heard of that movie but never seen it.  From what I understood though is it did talk about the electromagnetic field around the Earth, right?

 Same thing.  In the movie what caused the magnetic field to go nuts?  Just wondering.  Save me 2 hours from watching a movie.   

*update*

Three new sunspots have emerged. These are small, old-Cycle 23 spots that pose no threat for solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI





SOLAR CONJUNCTION: There's a nice sky show underway that would surely make news except for one thing: looking at it hurts! Venus and the Pleiades star cluster are converging on the Sun.

Bigger picture
Humans eyes can't see the conjunction because of the sun's painful glare. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has no such trouble; a coronagraph onboard the spacecraft blocks bright sunlight to reveal stars and planets on the verge of the sun itself. On May 22-23 the Sun-Pleiades-Venus triangle will shrink in width to only 5o.

Large asteroid approaching.
Orbit Diagram
2008 HW1     
May 14
   
72 LD*
   
17
   
1.4 km

*Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach.

[Wyocaster]

Large asteroid approaching.

look up May 13 2091 in that orbit diagram.
()

  extremely close at least.

[LLR]

True!

however Apophis Comes closer in 2029 and in 2036.  That one will dip below our satellites and it may even look like we have 2 moons when it passes by.  That asteroid might actually hit us. 

But thats FAR away..  Scientists should come up with a plan to stop that long before that day comes. 

[LLR]

TWIST AND SHOOT: Last week, over a period of two days (May 9th and 10th), NASA's Stereo-B spacecraft observed a troupe of magnetic filaments dancing along on the limb of the sun. For reasons that will become clear when you watch the performance, mission scientists have entitled the movie Twist and Shoot : 4.4 MB Quicktime, & 8.1 MB mpeg.





ISS FLYBY: "A new period of visible ISS transits over Europe has begun and will last for nearly three more weeks," says Dirk Ewers of Hofgeismar, Germany. "I took these pictures during the early morning hours of May 12th using a 5-inch refracting telescope."

Video

Ewers tracked the ISS across the sky and his movie of the entire 75o transit is a Must SEE.

HALE'S LAW: No offense to younger readers, but "the sun has broken out [in spots] like a teenager on hormones," reports Stephen Ames of Hodgenville, Kentucky. He sends this sketch of the view through his Coronado PST. "Four active regions have appeared for us to look at in awe and wonderment!"

Because these active regions straddle the sun's equator, they nicely illustrate a basic law of sunspots: Hale's Law states that sunspots on opposite sides of the sun's equator have opposite magnetic polarity. Consider this magnetic map made by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) on May 17th:



White represents N magnetic polarity; black represents S.

Each sunspot (or proto-sunspot) has its own "personal" north and south magnetic pole. Above the sun's equator, the poles are arranged S-N; below the sun's equator, they are reversed, N-S. That's Hale's Law, named after George Ellery Hale, who studied the magnetism of sunspots in the early 20th century. (Human acne, for the record, obeys no such rule.)


Also,
Wandering Poles Left Scars On Jupiter's Moon Europa: Could Life Exist Beneath Icy Crust?

[LLR]

These small sunspots pose no threat for solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI

Larger



Neat "S" on the Sun.

 8)


Also here is a Solar Chart of where we are in the Solar Cycle.

[chibimoon]

Very interesting photos and graphs about the sun's characteristics etc, LLR. Definitely interested in your updates and such. Quick question: you said you've been monitoring the sun for a few years and make regular updates on your own site. Where did this interest come from? 

[LLR]

100 EXPLOSIONS ON THE MOON: NASA astronomers have been watching the Moon to see how often meteoroids crash into the lunar surface and they've just video-recorded their 100th explosion. This bountiful data-set allows researchers to start drawing conclusions about when, where, and how hard the Moon gets hit. Get the full story and a video from Science@NASA
Full story here


@ Chibi,
I've always been interested in space since I was a kid but I started monitoring the Sun back in the middle of 06.  There were some gigantic flares that year and it got my attention.   8)  After finding some websites about the sun and seeing pictures and then finding out that the sun is going through some NEW cycles that we really don't know anything about....  I got hooked.  I'm an info junkie so I eat this kinda stuff up.  hehehe,  also I find that no one really covers this kinda stuff on tv or anything so I started posting it on my website and am happy to do the same here.  Hope you guys enjoy this stuff!  Alot of it is pretty interesting.

-JackHorkheimerRancher

[NinJa]

I really do enjoy looking and reading about the Solar system.

Lon, what are your views on black holes?

[Beh]

I really do enjoy looking and reading about the Solar system.

Lon, what are your views on black holes?

To make it more interesting: What about white holes?

[LLR]

First, THE NEWS!

MAGNETIC RAIN: There's a rainstorm underway on the sun's eastern limb. You'd better bring your asbestos umbrella, though, because the "droplets" are Texas-sized blobs of hot plasma:

This is prominence finery at its best," says photographer Pete Lawrence of Selsey, UK. "Small bright points within the prominence that were seen on the capture screen have been recorded as blurs due to the rapid motion of material in just a few seconds!"

Prominences are clouds of hydrogen held above the surface of the sun by magnetic fields. While this particular cloud appears to be raining like a summer shower on Earth, the true situation is more complicated. Look carefully: Some of the plasma raindrops are falling "up." That's because the motions are controlled by not only gravity but also magnetism, a force of little importance in terrestrial rainstorms. The solar magnetic field is rooted below the sun's visible surface; roiling motions in the body of the sun itself cause magnetic fields high overhead to shift, wriggle, and "rain" in all directions. No wonder prominences are so much fun to watch.



Earth is inside a solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope


About black holes.... Whoo boy..  This might take some time and ya'll might just think ol lon lon has gone mad..  But I'll try as best as I can to explain what I think about black holes.

So black holes are huge holes in the galaxy that are thought to be caused by MASSIVE stars exploding.  Ok so we all know that, but whats on the other side of them and what is it?  Steven Hawking recently reversed his 30 year old theory about black holes and it really makes a lot of sense. More here.
Steven Hawking reverses his 30 year old theory
Now in Hawkings new theorys that black holes are not just vacuums sucking matter and light into them but they might hold information and some things might even come out of a black hole.  Now I'm not for 100% on this stuff and if anyone has any ideas on any of this, feel free to jump in!  My mind is totally open to this stuff and I love to learn more.  Now with that theory that if a large object spins in space, such as a planet/star or moon that the point where it is at its center could make a small black hole.  The gravity would be so great that it would "tap" into that kind of energy.  There in that black hole is another dimension, where it is or what it is we have no idea of.  However I kinda like to think of it like this, if you take a flash light and turn facing up and put a box over top of it then the box cancels out the light.  Take a pen or nail and poke holes in the box and you can see the light beaming out of the holes.  Now all of the holes in the box are spaced at different distances apart from each other but they all have in common one thing, they get their energy/light from the flash light under the box.  Everything gets energy from this kinda thing in space.  Weather the light is in the same place as the black hole goes is beyond me but I think its kinda related.
 
Torsion Physics are also related to this, more info here

I've brought this up a few times in the Global Warming thread, its the idea of growing planets. 
Earth could have grown
Yup, its nuts but ...who knows..
pangea didn't exist?
More Videos:
Ganymede
The Moon
Earth
Europa

If its true then the Earth/planets have to be getting the mass from somewhere, it could come from a black hole. 

If these videos are right then this would explain why the dinosaurs were so big back then.  For some people they see dinosaur bones and think that that animal is impossible.  Its simply too big to support its self.  I agree, and it wasn't just dinosaurs that were huge, insects and other creatures a few hundred million years ago were massive in size.  It would make sense that if the creatures actually weighed less because there wasn't as much gravity on earth at that time.  And eventually.... as the planet grew the dinosaurs would weigh more and more..  eventually they would either have to evolve to be smaller and weigh less or go extinct.

About Pangea, I never really bought into that idea anyway either.  When I was a kid and I read about that in text books I did a neat thing, I got a map of the world and cut out all the continence.  I made Pangea the way the book showed then I put all the pieces together backwards, meaning, I took the Americas and lined them up with China, India and Australia and found they fit that way too..  I then figured out something was kinda flawed about Pangea.

Now with that theory that would mean black holes could be produced... And that is exactly what a company is trying to do..

Cern in the news
more

The scary thing about this is it might actually kill us all...  The pros of this machine are 1) it works and we learn more about black holes. 2) it gives us a new kind of power source that we may be able to use.  The cons are 1) IT WORKS and we learn more about black holes... really fast and in a bad way..  One danger is they make one and have no way to tell if it worked at first..  One idea of what might happen is it is made and we can't detect it at all because it is so small, it then is drawn the the center of the planet like a magnet where once it reaches it, it is shot out the other side and through the earth and into space.  Once there it will sling shot back as if it was on a bungee cord and do the same out the other side.  It would do this for years and each time it went through the earth it would only take 1 or 2 atoms..  After so much time it would grow larger and nothing could be done..  But that could take anywhere from 5 years to 5 million years... And thats if it even works...

About black holes in space, we know that all galaxies have a super massive black hole at its center.  The Milky Way does and we are just now starting to understand what is at the heart of our own galaxy.  Well... Galaxy we happen to be in at the time. 

A freaky new bit of information is down right freaky!  Our solar system, the Sun and all its planets are NOT FROM THIS GALAXY!  Meaning the Milky Way.  Here is why,  first you must see this..



Soooo our Sun isn't as big as we think it is..  Its actually an oddball in the milky way.  All those huge stars were perfectly normal in the milky way, small yellow suns are not..  Oddly, all the smaller stars (from the exception of neutron stars, thats totally different) are located NEAR US!  and if you follow the trail of small stars like ours they leave a trail of bread crumbs (made of similar stars) all the way to the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy!

we arn't from here! ok well our Sun isn't anyway..

 THAT is where our star came from, not the milky way.  Why is this relevant to black holes?  Well in each galaxies center there is a black hole, it seems black holes are drawn towards each other in such a way that a large galaxy (with a bigger black hole) will absorb smaller galaxies.  And even  2 very large galaxies can merge together.  Just like how the milky way is doing with our closest neighbor, Andromeda.

Galactic Merger


Small movie of what the merger will look like over the course of several billion years

find out more here
http://www.galaxydynamics.org/futuresky.html

The NEW galaxy what will be left will be called Milkamedia and is expected to form in the next 5 billion years.  It was thought in earlier years when we got pictures from WAY out there and saw distant galaxies that were egg shaped that they were NEW galaxies because they were farthest from the big bang.  Scientists now know that egg shaped galaxies are the end result of 2 (or more) galaxies merging together and colliding.   Usually one of the massive black holes are ejected from the new galaxy if it cannot merge with the other black hole.   These roaming black holes have been seen near other galaxies.

With that said, something odd about all the galaxies we have seen..  all of the spiral galaxies are spinning in a counter clock wise fashion.  If it was just a point of view where it looks like that to us when we look out that far we should see 50% clock wise galaxies and 50% counter clock wise galaxies...  But we don't...  We only see that one way of spinning, that spin is probably because thats the rotation of the black hole in the center of the galaxy.  No big deal, right?  Well it is odd..  Think about it..  If all galaxies are spinning one way here that we see, don't you think there would be a place in the universe that ALL GALAXIES WOULD SPIN CLOCKWISE?  Go flush your toilet, what way does it spin?  depends on what hemisphere of the world your on, right?  Wouldn't it make sense that some where else, somewhere FAR away they spin the other way.  This is really a clue as to how big the universe is.

WARNING!  MASSIVE PICTURE BELOW!
OMG  large picture
Save this picture and zoom in on parts.  Its very interesting.

Thats a map of the universe as we currently know it.  It is my guess..  (now here comes another crazy theory of mine..)  That all these black holes in our part of the universe will eventually collide.  Bringing with them all the stars and matter they each have captured in galaxies and such.  They will then turn into one huge super galaxy.  Larger than anything you can really fathom.  Eventually all those black holes will either rupture space its self even more, or trigger a huge explosion.  That explosion would be a NEW big bang.  RE-spreading all the matter for stars and galaxies all over our part of the universe.  It is my theory that the big bang isn't something that has happened just once... it happens over and over and over... and in many parts of the universe.  Its just so far away we can't see it.   Space its self seems to be like a liquid more than nothing it behaves like water.  Look at the holes that the black holes make, looks like water going down a drain.  Astronauts train underwater before going out into space.  The similarities are just too many.   Perhaps the universe is actually just one part of something much much larger...  But thats the subject of a different topic.
 8)

I am Lon Lon Rancher, and yes I wrote every bit of that.   
And yes I'm a little crazy... hehehe

[Link Reborn]

sniff..i am proud to be LLR's apprentice. Hes so smart, isn't he?

[Minish Majora]

I just read through the thread then, It's an amazing read Lon Lon 
The images and videos are breathtaking.

Are you hoping to make a career from Solar Studies?