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

[LLR]

Yah, that sun spot is HUGE.. I expect some trouble out of this one.  IMO Related - our phones at work were really bad and our closed circuit monitor for the front door were all staticy and quite obnoxious.   Sounds funny but I do notice on days with stuff like this staring at us our electronics goes wonky.

Monday?  Lemme check -

Ah yes there was.  The above post of "Parting of the Red Sea" was last Sunday and that carried over.  Here is exactly what was going on Monday.

Monday Sept. 13th 2010
SUNSPOT WITH A TAIL:  Sunspot 1106 is coming around the sun's southeastern limb, and it seems to be dragging a magnetic filament behind it. Michael Borman sends this picture from his backyard observatory in Evansville, Indiana:







If the tugging of the sunspot makes the filament unstable, it could erupt and crash to the stellar surface with a bang that would be very satisfying to photograph. Good news for photographers: The filament is more than 100,000 km long, making it an easy target for backyard solar telescopes.

And then a pro shot from SDO


Dayum, SDO puts anything we can buy to shame.. lol


Total sun spot count that day was 2 with NO coronal holes.






BTW, a big update coming tonight on just NEW news stories about space and up coming alignments.

As ol Jack use to say - "Keep looking up"

[LLR]

Eruptions abound...  Well.. sort of..

19th


Sept. 19th around 0200 UT, magnetic fields around the sun's north pole became unstable and erupted. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the action:

This was an "empty eruption"--it did not hurl a significant cloud of plasma away from the blast site. Even if it had, Earth would not be in the line of fire.

This event shows that sunspots are not required for explosions on the sun. Sunspots are rare at the sun's poles (indeed, a polar sunspot has never been observed) and there was no sunspot at the base of this eruption. Even when sunspots are absent, the solar disk is festooned with twisted, writhing magnetic filaments that can become unstable and erupt at any time. The sun's underlying magnetism drives many forms of space weather: X-ray flares, coronal mass ejections, solar tsunamis. Add spotless polar blasts to the list!



FAILURE TO LAUNCH:  Sept. 21st began with a eruption on the sun's northeastern limb that ... couldn't ... quite ... lift off. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the action:

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/21sep10/bounce.mpg

The one-hour blast produced neither a bright flash of electromagnetic radiation (a "solar flare") nor a substantial coronal mass ejection (CME). It just bounced up and down above the stellar surface. More potent events may be just around the corner. A magnetic active region crackling with B- and C-class solar flares is about to emerge over the northeastern limb. Indeed, this event probably came from its leading edge. Stay tuned for solar activity.









Other news:
CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH JUPITER:  Tonight, Earth and Jupiter converge for their closest encounter until 2022. The giant planet will soar overhead at midnight, outshining everything except the Moon itself. At this time, even a small telescope pointed at Jupiter will reveal the planet's moons, cloud belts and swirling storms. Take a look!

If Jupiter is up at midnight, it must be opposite the sun: diagram. Indeed, astronomers call this "Jupiter's night of opposition." The effect of opposition may be seen in the shadow of Jupiter's moon Io, shown here in a photo taken last night by Anthony Wesley of Australia:






"Io was almost on top of its own shadow," points out Wesley. "This is due to the near-perfect alignment of Jupiter, Earth and the sun."


"I couldn't resist aiming my laser at Jupiter, knowing that it had to travel 75 million km less than usual to reach the planet," says Pete Glastonbury who sends this picture from Devizes, Wiltshire, UK:

Astronomers who aimed their telescopes instead got an eyeful of alien moons, swirling storms and cloud belts. "What a night," he says.

I can't help but feel this might trigger an earth quake...  just saying

In a coincidence of interplanetary proportions, Uranus is also at opposition tonight. This rare double opposition of two giant planets is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Unlike Jupiter, Uranus is barely visible to the naked eye, a result of its smaller size and greater distance. It looks great, however, through a small telescope. Just point your optics at Jupiter and you will find emerald Uranus about 1o away






SPACE STATION RADAR ECHO:  The US Air Force Space Surveillance Radar is scanning the skies above the USA for Earth-orbiting objects. Yesterday, Sept. 19th at 16:09 UT, the International Space Station flew through the radar's primary beam, producing a strong echo. Click on the dynamic spectrum to listen:

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/20sep10/issradar.wav

 The sound you just heard came from the loudspeaker of a receiver in Roswell, New Mexico, operated by radio engineer Stan Nelson. "The ISS was passing over Lubbock, Texas--midway between me and the Air Force radar," he says. "It was the perfect geometry for catching the echo."

As the ISS raced through the radar beam at 17,000 mph, its velocity vector rotated with respect to the transmitter below. That's why the echo sounds like the frequency-shifting whistle of a passing train. It's the Doppler effect, working in space the same way it does on Earth.

The space station will be making more passes through the radar beam in the days ahead. Next up: Sept. 24 @ 2142 UT (1642 CDT)


Pretty Aurora:
http://gizmodo.com/5642766/this-aurora-photo-is-the-most-insane-ive-ever-seen

This is from that eruption last week.  Nice show!

The Night When NASA Let People Watch as They Fired Lasers at the Moon
http://gizmodo.com/5642625/the-night-when-nasa-let-people-watch-as-they-fired-lasers-at-the-moon



Jupiter And Saturn Played Pong With Uranus
no, srsly.
http://gizmodo.com/5641776/jupiter-and-saturn-played-pong-with-uranus

New simulations suggest that Jupiter and Saturn may have played a bit of planet Pong with Uranus. That is, Uranus got in Saturn's orbit so it was tossed to Jupiter's orbit and then tossed back and forth until it finally settled.

Neat theory.

Earth 2 to be discovered next May?
http://gizmodo.com/5641705/will-we-discover-an-earth+like-planet-by-may-2011

Hubble Spots Ghostly Space Spiral
http://news.discovery.com/space/hubble-spots-ghostly-space-spiral.html

Anyone think this looks just like the Norway spiral last year?
Building Hubble's heir in deep space
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727776.500-nobel-physicist-building-hubbles-heir-in-deep-space.html

Very nice picture
http://gizmodo.com/5634770/oh-man-those-astronauts-have-the-best-views

Just because you need to check this site out.
http://hubblesite.org/

Strange stepp shaped hills found on Mars
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/12/01/index.html
HD-
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/12/01/2003.12.01.R1002850.gif

Zany Scientists Claim the Laws of Physics Change Throughout the Universe
http://gizmodo.com/5635559/zany-scientists-claim-the-laws-of-physics-change-throughout-the-universe
I believe they are on to something with this... and it isn't drugs..  lol.  It would make sense why thy CENTER of our glalaxy looks younger than the outer arms.  Time flows slower there.  Time is only constant and normal to US... out there... laws do not apply..

And finally, something controversial



God didn't create universe- Steven Hawking
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/god-didnt-create-universe-says-hawking-2068289.html
So the universe created God?  Interesting concept.   It is an odd statement coming from the man who built the LHC in his mind..


Thats all this time.. remember, "Keep looking up!"

[LLR]

Daily Sun: 22 Sept 10

GLOBAL ERUPTION:  This morning between 0230 UT and 0600 UT, the northern hemisphere of the sun erupted in a tumult of activity. At least two dark magnetic filaments became unstable and lifted off the stellar surface, a B8-class solar flare flashed from sunspot 1109, and a bright coronal mass ejection billowed into space (SOHO movie)




pay attention to the circled regions:


The eruption is reminiscent of the global event of August 1st, which hurled a CME toward Earth and sparked Northern Lights in the United States as far south as Iowa. This time, however, the CME will miss Earth (unless it veers off course) so there should be no resulting geostorms.





Emerging sunspot 1109 poses a greater than 40% chance of C-class  solar flares during the next 24 hours. Credit: SDO/HMI.




A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on Sept. 22nd or 23rd. Credit: SDO/AIA

Other news:

WATCH OUT FOR THE SUPER HARVEST MOON:  For the first time in almost 20 years, northern autumn is beginning on the night of a full Moon. The coincidence sets the stage for a "Super Harvest Moon" and a must-see sky show to mark the change of seasons. Get the full story from Science@NASA.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/22sep_harvestmoon/





SOUTHWESTERN FIREBALL:  Last night (Sept. 21st) around 09:01 pm MDT, a dazzling fireball glided across the skies of New Mexico and west Texas. "We’ve been getting a lot of calls in the newsroom about an object – maybe a meteorite – falling from the sky," says Peter St. Cyr of KOAT TV in Albuquerque. An all-sky camera outside Santa Fe caught the object in flight. Click on the image to launch a 5 MB movie:

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/22sep10/fireball_highres.mp4

"It took 23 seconds to cross the sky and was nearly as bright as the full Moon," says Thomas Ashcraft, who operates the camera. "The fireball made a sonic boom loud enough to be heard inside above fan noise and household din. At first I thought it was thunder."

After passing over New Mexico, the fireball apparently continued on to Texas. "At 10:05 pm CDT, my wife and I witnessed a slow moving fireball coming from the west," reports Matthew Byrd of Amarillo. And then a second fireball appeared: "About 7 or 8 min later we saw another fireball moving in the same direction directly over Amarillo. It was bright white and shedding white sparks."

US Space Command reports no satellites or pieces of space junk decaying at the time of the sightings. This was probably a random meteoroid--and maybe two--disintegrating in Earth's atmosphere.

September 21, 2010 - Aurora Borealis Webcam Now Online.
“Yellowknife is situated perfectly underneath the aurora oval,
which is this zone of geomagnetic activity. ... The idea is if we can watch the
sun and the aurora, we can learn about the relationship between
sunspot activity and auroral activity.”
- James Pugsley, Astronomy North

Swirling, green aurora borealis over Yellowknife in Northern Territories
north of Alberta, Canada. The Canadian Space Agency launched on
September 20, 2010, a new AuroraMax website that shows real-time images of
auroras so common over Yellowknife. AuroraMax is being launched in time for
scientists to observe the solar maximum, now expected to take place
in 2012-2013.
http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/astronomy/auroramax/default.asp




Crater Dunes On Mars.

The image above shows a dune field on a crater floor
made by an asteroid impact. High Resolution Imaging Science
Experiment (HiRISE) camera is currently the most powerful camera on any
NASA spacecraft and has been circling Mars on the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter since 2006. Image: NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona.
A new batch of Martian close-ups taken between July 8 and July 31, 2010, by NASA's HiRISE camera was released on September 1st. The camera can focus on objects the size of a beach ball from more than 180 miles away. NASA is encouraging the public to suggest new terrain to explore using their “HiWish” feature
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/releases/hiwish.php
 and more images:  NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona.  http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/katalogos.php



September 21, 2010 - Methane Surprise in Martian Atmosphere.

“The source of the methane could be geological activity
or it could be biological – we can’t tell at this point.”

- Sergio Fonti, Ph.D., Universita del Salento, Italy


Map of methane concentrations in Martian autumn at three locations:
Tharsis where Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system;
Arabia Terrae and Elysium. Mars Global Surveyor image below. Scientists Sergio
Fonti (Università del Salento) and Giuseppe Marzo (NASA Ames) reported their
findings of methane evolution over three Martian years at the European
Planetary Science Congress held this week in Rome, Italy.
Credit: NASA/Università del Salento.

A new methane puzzle in the Martian atmosphere is that the gas's lifetime is even shorter than originally thought. Using July 1999 to October 2004 Mars Global Surveyor data, scientists have determined Martian atmospheric methane lasts less than one year. So, what keeps replenishing it - biological or geothermal sources?  Dr. Sergio Fonti from Italy's Universita del Salento told the European Planetary Science Congress in Rome on September 20, 2010, “It’s evident that the highest concentrations are associated with the warmest seasons and locations where there are favorable geological – and hence biological – conditions such as geothermal activity and strong hydration. The higher energy available in summer could trigger the release of gases from geological processes or outbreaks of biological activity.”



This last one bugs me a bit.. I'll tell you why but you guys are going to think I'm nuts.  I got this weird theory that the Sun's cycles (and specifically this 22K year cycle) causes planets to create more hydrocarbons and methane.  I started thinking this earlier this year when the gulf oil well ruptured and poured out for months.   During all those studies lots of new info came out on previously DRY oil wells.  They were filling up again..  and it wasn't just here it was all over the world.  Things like this:
http://inhabitat.com/2010/08/16/rwanda-taps-volcano-power-beneath-exploding-lake/
Lakes filling up with methane and could explode.  There was a time that a 20 mile wide bubble was seen under the oil spill in the gulf..  the bubble was made of methane.  The cause of the oil rupture was most likely a methane explosion on the rig.  Also things like the natural gas line rupture and explosion in Southern Cal.   My theory is somehow the suns radiation makes these gasses expand, force to surface or even be produced (abiotic oil).  I had this theory a while back and thought "if it is happening here... it has to happen else where too.."  Then I read the article about Mars..  Something to think about.  I'm in no way an expert on any of this.. just a guy who reads news articles like this and thinks out side the box while trying to connect the dots.  Other theories are welcome!  More to come later -

[LLR]

Movies & Pix from SDO

*right click images and hit View Image*
Also click the movies, really.. it is worth it.

Grab your shades, folks.  

http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/latest/latest_1024_0193.mpg

This video cuts out at some of the eruption moments.. Why, I have no idea..  The rest looks awesome though.



http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/latest/latest_1024_0304.mpg




http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/latest/latest_1024_0094.mpg









http://jsoc.stanford.edu/data/hmi/movies/latest/M_2d.mpg

[LLR]

SOLAR FLARE:  This morning at 0948 UT, tiny sunspot 1110 unleashed a C1-class solar flare (SDO movie). The sunspot has started to grow and this event could herald a period of higher activity from the region.

http://sdowww.lmsal.com/sdomedia/ssw/ssw_client/data/ssw_service_100928_031627_39142637/www/ssw_cutout_20100928_093309_aia_304_N19W21_20100928_093308_m.mpg

Following story I thought was odd..  I thought SDO was closer to the sun than we were... guess not..

ECLIPSE SEASON FOR SDO:  NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is in a geosynchronous orbit around Earth, always hovering directly above a ground station near Las Cruces, New Mexico, where two large dish antennas receive SDO's record-breaking  data stream. Most of the time, this is a great place to be; SDO can see the sun and transmit data non-stop. But not now. Ralph Seguin of the Lockheed-Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab explains: "SDO has entered eclipse season. Around the time of the equinoxes, the spacecraft, Earth, and sun can line up almost perfectly. Once a day for about an hour, Earth blocks SDO's view of the sun." This occasionally produces strange results:



this is a composite of multiwavelength images and a magnetogram taken by SDO just as the sun was emerging from its daily blackout. "Magnetograms are computed from a series of images taken over a short time span. The ribbons of color result from Earth's motion across the sun during the series of exposures."

Seguin has prepared a movie showing what an eclipse looks like at one of SDO's extreme ultraviolet wavelengths: click to play.
http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/28sep10/sdoeclipse.mov?PHPSESSID=s54s9odm614t323b3usnr31d44

"Eclipse season will be over on Oct. 6th," he says. Meanwhile, stay tuned for strange.


 

SUNSPOT MIRAGE:  Lately, sunspot 1109 has been attracting the attention of sunset sky watchers. When the sun is dimmed by haze and low clouds, the behemoth spot can be seen and photographed as a dark mark on the solar disk. Yesterday evening in San Francisco, the spot got even bigger when it was stretched and distorted by a lovely sunset mirage:

Sunspot 1109, which stretches more than 100,000 km from end to end, is slowly growing as it transits the solar disk. The forecast calls for another week of sunset sunsets before the region disappears over the sun's western limb.




SOLAR WIND: A ~500 km/s solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field. Sky watchers around the Arctic Circle should be alert for Northern Lights.

CRACKLING SUNSPOT:  During the past 24 hours, sunspot 1110 has increased in size more than 10-fold. A white-light camera onboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory took this picture during the early hours of Sept. 29th:


bigger:
http://www.spaceweather.com/images2010/29sep10/hmi4096_blank.jpg

Although it is still small compared to behemoth sunspot 1109 right behind it, sunspot 1110 is much more active. Reconnection events in the sunspot's magnetic canopy have produced at least two C-class solar flares since yesterday (SDO movies: #1
http://sdowww.lmsal.com/sdomedia/ssw/ssw_client/data/ssw_service_100928_031627_39142637/www/ssw_cutout_20100928_093309_aia_304_N19W21_20100928_093308_m.mpg


, #2
http://sdowww.lmsal.com/sdomedia/ssw/ssw_client/data/ssw_service_100928_153930_39300108/www/ssw_cutout_20100928_220009_aia_304_N19W30_20100928_220008_m.mpg

). The eruptions were brief and did not hurl significant clouds of plasma toward Earth. If the sunspot continues to grow, however, future eruptions could become geoeffective.




And now the other news:

Earth's pulse felt at hot spots
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39305620/ns/technology_and_science-science/


And now a bit of news that seems like the start of a joke... but it isn't.. Grab your tin foil hats, folks.

United Nations to appoint space ambassador to act as first contact for aliens visiting Earth

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1315336/United-Nations-appoint-space-ambassador-act-contact-aliens-visiting-Earth.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz10ttCs3t7
 


Mars Dust-Devil Mystery Solved on Earth
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/bright-dust-devil-tracks/

Get ready for hype-
New Lunar landing tapes found, will release next week to public:
http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/new_footage_of_moon_landing_found/

[LLR]

There is a lot going on up there, lets take a look.

First our Sun:

FILAMENT ECLIPSE:  At this time of year, near the autumnal equinox, the Earth can pass directly between the sun and NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, producing a brief eclipse. Yesterday this happened just as a magnetic filament was flying off the sun's northeastern limb. The advancing edge of the Earth cut the sun in half at the moment of maximum eruption:



Even by the lofty standards of SDO, this is a shot of rare beauty. A 5 1/2 hour movie sets the scene in motion; you can see the big-picture  (5 MB gif)

 or a close-up  (2 MB mpeg)
http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/07oct10/filamenteclipse.mpg
 of the filament. Another movie

omits the Earth-shadows; it is easier to follow the filament, yet somehow less photogenic.

The eruption hurled a coronal mass ejection into space (SOHO saw it) but not toward Earth. No geomagnetic storms are expected as a result of the blast.




And that is pretty much it for out Sun.  It is getting quiet!  And now for what else is up there:

NEW COMET!

APPROACHING COMET:  Green comet 103P/Hartley 2 is approaching Earth for a close encounter on Oct. 20th. At that time, the comet will be only 11 million miles from Earth and should be dimly visible to the naked eye from dark sky sites. It already looks great through backyard telescopes:

MEGA IMAGE
http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/03oct10/rolando-ligustri1.jpg


Amateur astronomer Rolando Ligustri took this picture on Oct. 2nd using a 14-inch Global Rent-a-Scope in New Mexico. It shows Comet Hartley beside the spectacular Pacman Nebula (NGC 281), a star-forming cloud some ten thousand light years from Earth. "This is a very nice comet for telescopes and  binoculars," says Martin Gembec who took a similar picture from his backyard observatory in the Czech Republic last night. "It has a [green atmosphere] almost 0.5 degrees wide and shines like a 7th magnitude star."

Two weeks after Comet Hartley has its close encounter with Earth, NASA will have a close encounter with the comet. The EPOXI spacecraft (formerly known as Deep Impact) is hurtling toward Comet Hartley now, and on Nov. 4th it will fly 435 miles from the comet's active icy nucleus. The encounter will mark only the fifth time in history that a spacecraft has been close enough to image a comet's core.

CHART:
http://media.skyandtelescope.com/images/CometHartley2-bw.jpg


COMET HARTLEY 2 UPDATE:  Is Comet Hartley 2 sprouting a tail? A series of five-minute integrations taken last night by Gregg Ruppel of Ellisville, Missouri, seems to show a growing elongation of the comet's atmosphere: images.
http://www.spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Gregg-Ruppel-103P-Hartley_100210_1286126379.jpg




















LOST AND FOUND: XSS-11 SPYSAT:  On Sept. 20, 2010, amateur satellite watcher Kevin Fetter was monitoring the traffic over his home in Brockville, Canada, when a bright flash attracted his attention. "It can be seen at the beginning of this video," says Fetter. "At first I had no idea what it was." A rough orbit calculated by Fetter with refinements added by sat-tracking expert Ted Molczan suggested an intriguing possibility: Could it be long-lost military satellite XSS-11? Indeed it was. Follow-up sightings by Alberto Rango (Sept. 29) and Russell Eberst (Sept. 30) confirmed the recovery, and on Oct. 3rd Fetter video recorded the XSS-11 again. Click on the image to set the satellite in motion:

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/04oct10/XSS11_recovery.wmv

The washing-machine-sized spacecraft was launched by the US Air Force in April 2005 to demonstrate "autonomous rendezvous and proximity maneuvers." In other words, it would approach, investigate, and photograph other spacecraft in Earth orbit. The mission was controversial  because it aimed to prove technologies that could potentially be used for anti-satellite weapons.

For some 18 months in 2005 and 2006, amateur satellite watchers kept track of the XSS-11 as it visited at least two other orbiting objects: the body of the Minotaur rocket that launched it and a military DMSP weather satellite. "XSS-11 soon completed its mission, and in December 2006, it was manoeuvred into a disposal orbit, i.e. one with a sufficiently low perigee to reduce the time to decay from centuries to decades," recalls Molczan. "The dimensions and inclination of the new orbit were made public, but without complete orbital elements, it would have been difficult to find. I expected that eventually, it would be spotted as an unknown object, which is what happened on 2010 Sep 20 UTC, when Kevin Fetter noticed something make a brief, bright flash on his monitor."

"Except for the ISS toolbag, this is the smallest satellite I have ever recorded," says Fetter. "I might not have found it except for that flash. At maximum, it was about 4th magnitude, visible to the naked eye in a good dark sky." Presumably, some flat surface on the XSS-11 is glinting in sunlight, attracting a degree of attention that belies the satellite's modest dimensions.

Don't count on this thing always being where it is suppose to be.  It changes (surprising all) because it can actually be flown by remote to other areas.  Nifty!






ONE YEAR UNTIL THE METEOR OUTBURST:  Every year around Oct. 8th, Earth passes through a minefield of dusty debris from Comet Giacobini-Zinner, source of the annual Draconid meteor shower. This year, forecasters expect Earth to narrowly miss several of the debris streams, resulting in no appreciable display for 2010. Next year, however, could be different. On Oct. 8, 2011, Earth will have a near head-on collision with a tendril of dust, setting off a strong outburst of as many as 750 meteors per hour. People in Europe, Africa and the Middle East will have a front-row seat for what could be the strongest shower since the Leonid storms a decade ago. Mark your calendar and, meanwhile, follow these links for more information: Draconid
http://www.imo.net/imc2010/talks/Vaubaillon.pdf
 forecasts; sky map;
http://www.imo.net/calendar/2010#dra
 history;
http://meteorshowersonline.com/showers/draconids.html





In other news (with some pix!)

http://gizmodo.com/5657686/how-could-this-photo-of-saturn-be-real




New 1.4 Gigapixel Asteroid Hunter Finds Object Headed For Earth

http://gizmodo.com/5651063/a-telescope-created-to-find-asteroids-finds-an-asteroid-headed-for-earth

Venus has a vortex at its south pole... revealing the ground is FROZEN?
http://gizmodo.com/5650142/looks-like-venus-needs-an-endoscopy

New Galaxy found, baffles astronomers
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1747.html



Time lapse vidoes of Earth from Space
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=28A7BECF2E4C24F7

Earth and the Moon, the view from Mercury:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100901.html



Saturn's Southern Aurora in Infrared.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/imagedetails/index.cfm?imageId=4143


Has An Earth-like Exoplanet Been Found?  Earth 2-Gliese 581
http://iopscience.iop.org/0004-637X/


Future explorers could reach the Earthlike planet Zarmina in just 6.1 years
http://io9.com/5656375/future-explorers-could-reach-the-earthlike-planet-zarmina-in-just-61-years



This Is Russia's Next Space Station for Tourists

http://gizmodo.com/5654897/russia-putting-up-their-own-space-station-for-tourists


And speaking of stuff in the sky:
Metal From "Outer Space" Falls Down on Chinese Villages

http://gizmodo.com/5654871/metal-from-outer-space-falls-down-on-chinese-villages




Remember, keep looking up.

[LLR]

NEW SUNSPOT ERUPTS: New sunspot 1113 emerged over the sun's northeastern limb yesterday and immediately announced itself with a towering eruption. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) recorded the blast on Oct. 13th around 1600 UT:

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/14oct10/ipad/ar1113eruption.m4v

Magnetic fields reconnecting  above the sunspot produced a B4-class solar flare and hurled a narrow coronal mass ejection into space: SOHO movie. Earth was not in the line of fire--but this could change in the days ahead as the sunspot turns to face our planet

MONTANA AURORAS:  On Oct. 11th, a bright curtain of Northern Lights unfurled along the US-Canadian border. Watching from Glasgow in northern Montana, Ben Fyngyrz took this picture:



The display was triggered by a "south-pointing IMF." In other words, the interplanetary magnetic field near Earth tilted south, opening a crack in Earth's magnetosphere. Solar wind poured in and fueled a G1-class geomagnetic storm. The storm is over now, but the lights are still dancing in the gallery.

http://www.spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery_01oct10_page2.htm?PHPSESSID=5apimakfq7ib6vfsbgdk8f8ht3




ASTEROID FLYBY--DONE! Asteroid 2010 TD54 flew past Earth this morning (Oct. 12) at 6:50 am EDT only 46,000 km above the planet's surface. For comparison, geosynchronous satellites orbit at 36,000 km, so the asteroid was not far beyond Earth's satellite fleet. No damage was done--to spacecraft or to the planet below. Amateur astronomer Patrick Wiggins photographed the flyby using a 14-inch Celestron telescope: movie.



PHOTOGENIC SUNSPOT:  An enormous magnetic filament is perched directly above sunspot 1112 near the sun's southeastern limb. If the filament collapses (as they often do) and hits the sunspot below, the resulting explosion could be impressive. Actually, it's already impressive:



Dutch amateur astronomers Jo Dahlmans and Wouter Verhesen took the picture yesterday using a Lunt solar telescope. "We inverted (made negative) the sun's surface for a stunning display of the snaking filament," says Dahlmans. "In the distance you can see prominences dancing like flames along the limb of the sun. What a vista!"


SDO SEES MOUNTAINS ON THE MOON:  On Oct. 7th, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory observed its first lunar transit when the new Moon passed directly between the spacecraft and the sun. SDO's 16 megapixel cameras recorded the event in detail, revealing jagged lunar mountains backlit by solar plasma:


High res
http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/08oct10/lunarmountains.jpg

Beyond the novely of observing a such an event from space, these images have practical value to the SDO science team. Karel Schrijver of Lockheed-Martin's Solar and Astrophysics Lab explains: "The very sharp edge of the lunar limb allows us to measure the in-orbit characteristics of the telescope--e.g., light diffraction on optics and filter support grids. We can use that information to correct our data for instrumental effects and sharpen up the images to even more detail."

Ralph Seguin, also of Lockheed-Martin, has prepared a movie
http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/08oct10/doubleeclipse.mov
 of the transit which shows the Moon interrupting an eruption on the sun's northwestern horizon. Watch it again.
http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/08oct10/ipad/doubleeclipse.m4v
 Did you notice the brief blackout near the beginning of the movie? That was the Earth passing in front of the sun just before the Moon did--a double solar eclipse!

[Hyruleansoldier]

Oh my!  I've never seen the sky so green, that's awesome.  Still wouldn't want to live at one of the Poles though, the planet's magnetosphere is thinnest there, which means more radiance from the sun and space in general gets through.

[LLR]

Give it time, I think the lights will find you.  No need to move closer.  Solar maximum is still a few years away - during that time we should get some great light shows across the world.  A just over a hundred years ago there was auroras as far down as the Caribbean!  Ships at sea thought the main land was on fire.  I think we can expect great light shows where ever you live in the near future.  So get a good camera..  heeh.

In other news. "Lost and Found"

10th:
SPACE PLANE GOES MISSING:  The US Air Force's X-37B space plane has gone missing. Amateur satellite watchers who routinely monitor the secret  mini-shuttle  failed to sight it at expected times on Oct. 7th and 9th. It's possible that the X-37B has landed. More likely, the space plane has maneuvered into a new orbit and will be recovered again in the nights ahead.


Today (14th)
SPACE PLANE FOUND: The US Air Force's X-37B space plane, which disappeared last week, has been found again. Satellite watcher Greg Roberts sighted the secret mini-shuttle flying over Cape Town, South Africa, on Oct 12th. An analysis of the sighting by satellite expert Ted Molczan suggests that the X-37B has maneuvered into an orbit 54 km lower than before.


My take on it - It seems every time this plane/ship is found and it's position is posted on the internet in such a way that anyone can find it, it changes the orbit.  It just seems that way.  Lets see how long it takes for it to go missing again..



Unrelated awesomeness:
Don't see many stars where you live?  Check this out -
http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/products/virtualtours/armazones_panoramas/armazones_tour/armazones-paranal-night-ii.html

[LLR]

        

SOLAR FLARE: Sunspot 1112 erupted on Oct. 16th at 1910 UT, producing the brightest solar flare in nearly three months. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.
http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/16oct10/ipad/mflare.m4v



GREAT FILAMENT: A vast filament of magnetism is cutting across the sun's southern hemisphere today. Run a finger along the golden-brown line in this extreme UV image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory and your digit will have traveled more than 400,000 km:


http://www.spaceweather.com/images2010/16oct10/euvfilament.jpg


A bright 'hot spot' just north of the filament's midpoint is UV radiation from sunspot 1112. The proximity is no coincidence; the filament appears to be rooted in the sunspot below. If the sunspot flares, it could cause the entire structure to erupt.

UPDATE: Yesterday's M3-flare did not destabilize the filament. Stay tuned, however, because sunspot 1112 is growing and more activity is possible in the hours ahead. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.









TIME TO SEE COMET HARTLEY:  For backyard stargazers, the next few nights are the best time to see green Comet 103P/Hartley 2 as it approaches Earth for an 11-million-mile close encounter on Oct. 20th. Set your alarm for the dark hours before dawn, go outside, and look straight up. You will find Hartley 2 not far from the bright star Capella: sky map. Although the comet is barely visible to the unaided eye, it is easy to find in binoculars and looks great through a backyard telescope.

Doug Zubenel sends this picture (Oct. 9) from the Monument Rocks National Landmark in Kansas:



NASA scientists say  103P/Hartley 2 is one of the most active comets they've seen;
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/15oct_epoxi/
 it has a big atmosphere and copious outgassing from jets in the nucleus.











NEWS:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39655258/ns/technology_and_science-space/



http://www.news.com.au/technology/conspiracy-theorists-confident-photoshopped-nasa-image-is-a-cover-up/story-e6frfro0-1225936084529



*editing*

[LLR]

Getting bigger..


MEGA SOLAR FILAMENT:  An awesome, monstrous, jaw-dropping, 400,000 km long filament of magnetism is stretched across the sun's southern hemisphere. If it collapses or erupts, as filaments often do, the result could be an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection.
















Sunspot 1112 produced an M3-flare and several C-flares over the weekend. Credit: SOHO/MDI.



http://www.spaceweather.com/images2010/18oct10/hmi_2day.mpg

[LLR]

Update:
FILAMENT UPDATE: Magnetic instabilities in the filament caused an eruption today around 1600 UT. The filament was not destroyed, nor was material hurled toward Earth. SDO movies:

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/18oct10/filamenteruption.mpg

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/18oct10/ipad/filamenteruption.m4v

[LLR]

FILAMENT ERUPTION:  For days, astronomers have been monitoring a "mega-filament" of magnetism splayed across the sun's southern hemisphere. Measuring more than 500,000 km from end to end, it spans a distance greater than the separation of Earth and the Moon. Oct. 18th the massive structure erupted:

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/18oct10/filamenteruption.mpg

Instabilities in the filament sparked a C2-class flare and hurled a portion of the filament's own magnetic backbone into space. The blast was not Earth-directed. Remarkably, the structure survived mostly intact and is still visible in backyard optics. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.

http://www.spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Francesc-Pruneda-20101018_sol_1_1287421528.jpg

JUPITER-MOON CONJUNCTION:  Look east after sunset. Jupiter and the Moon are having a close encounter (< 6o) in the constellation Pisces. The bright conjunction is visible even from light-polluted urban areas, no sky map required.

[LLR]

Break from the scary news of the Sun...

Comets and Meteors!

SUNDIVING COMET:  A newly-discovered comet is diving toward the sun. Chinese comet hunter Bo Zhou found it on Oct. 19th in SOHO coronagraph images. The comet is faint now, but it should brighten in the hours ahead as it heats up. To see it, first check the finder chart, then play the movie. That tadpole is a doomed comet. Updates will be posted as the view improves.






ORIONID METEOR SHOWER:  Earth is entering a broad stream of debris from Halley's Comet, and this is causing the annual Orionid meteor shower. "The best time to look is during the hours before dawn on Thursday, Oct. 21st, and again on Friday, Oct 22nd," advises Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "Unfortunately, we have a bright Moon this year. Even so, I'd expect some bright Orionids to shine through the moonlight." An all-sky camera at the University of Western Ontario recorded this early Orionid fireball on Oct. 18th:

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/20oct10/somn_orionid_2010Oct18_qt.mov

Orionid meteors stream from the elbow of Orion the Hunter: sky map. Because the shower's radiant point is close to the celestial equator, sky watchers in both hemispheres can enjoy the show. Moonlit meteor rates will probably be around a dozen per hour.




COMET HARTLEY:

Rolando Ligustri has been observing the comet nightly using a robotic 14-inch telescope in New Mexico. Click on the image to view the most recent week, including last night:


Mega picture:
http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/19oct10/rolando-ligustri1.jpg

Many readers have asked, why is the comet green? Answer: Hartley 2's green color comes from the gases that make up its Jupiter-sized atmosphere. Jets spewing from the comet's nucleus contain cyanogen (CN: a poisonous gas found in many comets) and diatomic carbon (C2). Both substances glow green when illuminated by sunlight in the near-vacuum of space.

[LLR]

Been awhile since an update.  I'll go from newest to oldest then random news articles at the end as usual.

Lets get started.

DISCOVERY POSTPONED:  Bad weather in Florida has delayed the launch of space shuttle Discovery one more day. Liftoff is now scheduled for Friday, Nov. 5th, at 3:03 pm EDT


COMET ENCOUNTER UPDATE:  This morning, NASA's Deep Impact (EPOXI) probe flew past Comet Hartley 2 only 435 miles from the comet's active nucleus. The spacecraft has since turned its high-gain antenna toward Earth and data are being transmitted to mission control at JPL. Even without processing, the first raw images are spectacular:





UPDATE: At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, mission scientists discussed their first impressions. The comet has a dumbbell shape, they noted, with rough ends and a smooth middle. Jets come from rough terrain and seem to be correlated with specific topographic features. The middle is covered with some kind of fine dusty material that has collected in a topographic low point.

The images reveal a comet bristling with gaseous jets--even on the comet's nightside where volatile ices are temporarily protected from solar heating. Distinct lines of jets trace the comet's day-night terminator. Researchers again expressed their amazement at Comet Hartley 2's hyperactivity.

Stay tuned for more as the analysis continues.





FARSIDE FLARES--MORE TO COME? An active sunspot is about to emerge over the sun's southeastern horizon. It announced itself yesterday with a C4-class flare that hurled material high above the stellar surface, shown here in a movie from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:


http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/03nov10/ipad/farsideflare.m4v


Although the explosion happened behind the limb of the sun, it nevertheless yielded enough x-radiation to produce a wave of ionization in Earth's upper atmosphere. Researcher Rob Stammes recorded a sudden ionospheric disturbance (SID)

 when the wave passed over his lab in Laukvik, Norway. (Learn more about SIDs here
http://solar-center.stanford.edu/SID/
.) Without even showing itself, the sunspot is already geoeffective.

The source of this activity appears to be old active region 1112. It crossed the Earth-facing side of the sun back in October, a sunspot dragging a magnificent  filament  of  magnetism  behind it. Two weeks later, AR1112 t is coming around for a second pass. Yesterday's eruption may be read as "hello, I'm back." Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.

http://www.spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Jo-Dahlmans-a-Wouter-Verhesen-hydrogen-inferno_1287165855.jpg

http://www.spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Eric-Roel-Sol-del-15-de-octubre-del-2010-en-H-alfa-y-alta-resoluciAsup3n-s_1287173388.jpg

http://www.spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Paul-Maxson-Sun101810-1112-6_1287430823.jpg

http://www.spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Michael-Borman-s101610spot1112ha_1287263212.jpg






RETURN OF THE MEGA-FILAMENT:  Remember that spectacular mega-filament  of magnetism sprawling across the sun's southern hemisphere in October? It's back....almost. For the past 10 days, the filament has been out of sight transiting the farside of the sun. This image from NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft suggests that the magnificent structure is about to return:





STEREO-B is stationed above the sun's eastern limb with a good view of things just over the horizon. The ultraviolet hotspot pictured above is where the filament would be if it is still intact. A continuing series of eruptions like this one might have decimated the structure, leaving it in tatters. We'll find out soon enough. Solar rotation is turning the region toward Earth and it should begin to be visible around Nov. 5th. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.



**Editing***

[LLR]

Well I was all set to dig up past archives and post them but something big has happened.  (Check back at 10 EST tonight for a sizable update to this post)  *completed*

M5 SOLAR FLARE:  Active sunspot 1121 has unleashed one of the brightest x-ray solar flares in years, an M5.4-class  eruption at 15:36 UT on Nov. 6th. Click on the image to view a movie of the blast from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:


http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/06nov10/ipad/m5.m4v

Radiation from the flare created a wave of ionization in Earth's upper atmosphere that altered the propagation of low-frequency radio waves. There was, however, no bright CME (plasma cloud) hurled in our direction, so the event is unlikely to produce auroras in the nights ahead. This is the third M-flare in as many days from this increasingly active sunspot. So far none of the eruptions has been squarely Earth-directed, but this could change in the days ahead as the sun's rotation turns the active region toward our planet



SOLAR ACTIVITY UPDATE:  After unleashing one of the brightest X-ray flares in years on Saturday, Nov. 6th, sunspot  1121  took Sunday off. No strong flares were recorded for the rest of the weekend. Nevertheless, the active region's magnetic field is complex and harbors energy for more eruptions. NOAA forecasters estimate an 85% chance of M-flares  during the next 24 hours




Also a new comet:
NEW COMET IKEYA-MURAKAMI:  Newly-discovered comet C/2010 V1 (Ikeya-Murakami) is putting on a good show for anyone with a backyard telescope and an alarm clock. The clock is for getting up before dawn, and the telescope is for seeing this:



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Leonid Elenin took the picture on Nov. 7th using a robotic telescope in New Mexico. "The comet is rapidly changing," he reports. "The shape of its atmosphere reminds me of Comet Holmes after it had an outburst in 2007."

Indeed, Comet Ikeya-Murakami might be experiencing a similar event. The icy visitor from the outer solar system made its closest approach to the sun (1.7 AU) in late October, so it has recently received a strong dose of solar heating. Ice pockets could be evaporating, comet-caverns collapsing, who knows?

Amateur astronomers are encouraged to monitor developments. Various reports put the brightness of the comet between 7th and 9th magnitude, invisible to the naked eye but an easy target for telescopes such as the Comet Hunter. It's easy to find, too, little more than a degree from Saturn in the eastern sky before dawn. Set your alarm and happy hunting!







Back to the Sun currently,



NOAA forecasters estimate a 20% chance of X-class  flares from sunspot 1121 during the next 24 hours. Credit: SDO/HMI. 2-day movie

http://spaceweather.com/images2010/07nov10/hmi_2day.mpg







Now, I know - no one sits and reads these huge walls of text.  My hope is that you scroll through and see something that grabs your attention.  Every once in awhile though, a story that might be pretty important pops up.  I think this might be one of them.



The International Space Weather Initiative
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/08nov_iswi/

Nov. 8, 2010:  Prompted by a recent increase in solar activity, more than a hundred researchers and government officials are converging on Helwan, Egypt, to discuss a matter of global importance: storms from the sun. The “First Workshop of the International Space Weather Initiative (ISWI)” meets Nov. 6th  through 10th and is convened by the United Nations, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

"Strong solar storms can knock out power, disable satellites, and scramble GPS," says meeting organizer and ISWI executive director Joe Davila of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.  "This meeting will help us prepare for the next big event."



 A key problem organizers hope to solve is a gap--many gaps, actually---in storm coverage around our planet. When a big storm is underway, waves of ionization ripple through Earth’s upper atmosphere, electric currents flow through the topsoil, and the whole planet's magnetic field begins to shake.

"These are global phenomena," says Davila, "so we need to be able to monitor them all around the world."

Industrialized countries tend to have an abundance of monitoring stations.  They can keep track of local magnetism, ground currents, and ionization, and provide the data to researchers.  Developing countries are where the gaps are, particularly at low latitudes around Earth's magnetic equator.

Although space weather is usually associated with Earth's polar regions--think, "Northern Lights"--the equator can be just as interesting. For example, there is a phenomenon in Earth's upper atmosphere called the "equatorial anomaly."  It is, essentially, a fountain of ionization that circles the globe once a day, always keeping its spout toward the sun. During solar storms, the equatorial anomaly can intensify and shape-shift, bending GPS signals in unexpected ways and making normal radio communications impossible.

"International cooperation is essential for keeping track of the equatorial anomaly," he adds.  “No single country can do it alone.”

It's no coincidence that the inaugural meeting of the ISWI is being held in Egypt, an equatorial country.  Of 30 nations sending representatives to the ISWI, more than two-thirds are clustered around the magnetic equator.  This could lead to a revolution in studies of low-latitude space weather.



 There is much to do beyond the equator, too. During the meeting, researchers and students will learn how they can set up monitoring stations for cosmic rays, ground currents, magnetic storms, and auroras.  There’s a phenomenon for every latitude and level of expertise.

"We are offering a whole buffet of research opportunities," says Davila.

Researchers who miss the first meeting will get many more chances.  The International Space Weather Initiative is an ongoing program with get-togethers planned on an annual basis at different spots around the world.  The next meeting will be held in Nigeria in November 2011.

No country is too remote, too small, or too poor to participate.  Indeed, notes Davila, "the smallest most out of the way places are often where data are needed most.  Everyone is invited."

Interested? Details and contact information may be found at the ISWI home page: http://iswi-secretariat.org/

Sort of related to previous story.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/26oct_solarshield/



=======================================

Archive of last 15 days:


AMAZING HALOES: On Oct. 30th in Kittilä, Finland, photographer Sauli Koski witnessed a brief but unforgettable display when the rising sun shone through a morning cloud of wintery ice crystals. Fortunately he had his camera:



"These were the best ice haloes I have ever seen," says Koski. "They were there for only about 10 minutes and then gone. What a delight!"

HALLOWEEN FLARES: After two days of quiet, big sunspot 1117 is once again crackling with solar flares. Magnetic fields around the active region became unstable on Oct. 31st, unleashing a C2-class flare at 0318 UT and a C6-class flare at 0431 UT. Movies: #1
http://sdowww.lmsal.com/sdomedia/ssw/ssw_client/data/ssw_service_101030_203908_50209820/www/ssw_cutout_20101031_030809_aia_304_N21W70_20101031_030808_m.mpg
, #2
http://sdowww.lmsal.com/sdomedia/ssw/ssw_client/data/ssw_service_101030_221941_49158338/www/ssw_cutout_20101031_041009_aia_304_N22W69_20101031_041008_m.mpg
.



GIANT SUN TWISTER: On Oct. 27th and 28th, a twisted filament of magnetism on the sun decided to untwist. The result was a spectacular eruption recorded in full-disk detail by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:
http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/28oct10/twister_2048.jpg




At its peak, the twister--or rather, untwister--towered more than 350,000 km above the stellar surface. It appears to have hurled a fragment of itself into space, but not toward Earth; the blast was not geoeffective.

Now that the filament has relaxed, it is unlikely to erupt again. The next blast is more likely to come from big sunspot 1117, which NOAA forecasters say could produce an M-class solar flare.



DEAD SPACECRAFT WALKING: Two NASA spacecraft that were supposed to be dead a year ago are instead flying to the Moon for a breakthrough mission in lunar orbit. The research they conduct could lead to important advances in space weather forecasting. For more information, read "Dead Spacecraft Walking" from Science@NASA.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/27oct_artemis/




BIG SUNSPOT:  Sunspot group 1117 continues to grow, more than doubling in area during the past 48 hours: movie. Each of the primary dark cores in this Oct. 26th snapshot from the Solar Dynamics Observatory is fully as wide as Earth:



http://sdowww.lmsal.com/sdomedia/ssw/ssw_client/data/ssw_service_101025_222454_48467750/www/ssw_cutout_20101024_173009_AIA_304__20101024_173008_m.mpg

http://www.spaceweather.com/images2010/26oct10/hmi_2day.mpg


The sunspot's magnetic field is crackling with B- and C-class solar flares: 36-hour movie. So far, these impulsive eruptions have not hurled any substantial clouds toward Earth. A big flare would be geoeffective, however, because the sunspot is almost-squarely facing Earth




ARCTIC AURORA OUTBURST:  On Oct. 24th, an outburst of color bright enough to rival the Moon spread across the skies of Scandinavia. Thilo Bubek sends this picture from the outskirts of Tromsø, Norway:





THE SURPRISING CONTENTS OF LUNAR CRATERS:  Nearly a year after announcing the discovery of water molecules on the moon, scientists say there's more than just water hiding in cold lunar craters. Get the full story from

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/21oct_lcross2/

===========================================================

News:
 November 6, 2010 - Discovery's Final Flight Delayed Again
By Large Hydrogen Gas Leak.

“It is a marvel of engineering. It will be, probably,
for a long, long time the only vehicle to bring that much
payload into low-earth orbit along with a crew and be able to return.”

- Bill Roberts, Boeing Project Manager, NASA Shuttle Retirement Program

NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery at the Kennedy Space Center,
Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Thursday Nov. 4, 2010. A large hydrogen
gas leak forced yet another launch delay until at least the end of November -
the fourth postponement in a week. When it's finally allowed to blast off,
it will be Discovery's 39th flight after 26 years of space shuttle
service. Image © 2010 by Marta Lavandier, AP.
See more information at NASA.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11702015












http://www.space.com/news/mars-one-way-flight-space-colonization-101021.html

http://gizmodo.com/5672653/its-friggin-packed-with-stars-dave

http://gizmodo.com/5675916/stranded-stubborn-mars-rover-actually-makes-a-big-discovery

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/hubble-star-motion/

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827855.000-superearths-may-be-hostile-to-life.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1325931/Nasa-robot-moon-just-1-000-days.html

http://www.space.com/news/craig-venter-nasa-genetic-engineering-101101.html

http://gizmodo.com/5683444/dammit-im-supposed-to-be-in-space

[Hyruleansoldier]

Woah, that's a lot of cool stuff!

Sun twister, and colorful aurora, wasn't that because of some big CME?  Beautiful as it is, it's actually kind of violent, if you know that without a thick magnetosphere our planet would be toast pretty fast.  At the poles the magnetosphere is the thinnest, which is why you can see the bombarded particles color up the atmosphere up there.

There was a special on the sun last week on National Geographic, about stuff such as the slightly different rotation speeds of the sun's mass (well gasses and such) rotation, creating kinetic energy like a dynamo, and thus creating electricity, being the source for the magnetic bursts.   

Correct me if I missed the mark somewhere; I try to remember all the facts but there's just so much to know about the working of the universe ^^

[LLR]

^
You got the jist of it.     I should post up later how exactly the lights form and the science behind it.  I'll have another sizable update tonight.  Check back around 11est.

For now-

FRIDAY BLAST:  Active sunspot 1123 erupted during the early hours of Nov. 12th, producing a C4-class  solar flare and hurling a filament of material in the general direction of Earth. Click on the image to play a three and a half hour (0000 - 0330 UT) time lapse movie of the event:



UPDATE: Coronagraph images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and NASA's twin STEREO spacecraft show a faint coronal mass ejection emerging from the blast site and heading off in a direction just south of the sun-Earth line. The cloud could deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field sometime on Nov. 14th or 15th. High latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras on those dates.



New sunspot 1123 is crackling with C-class  solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI. 2-day movi

http://www.spaceweather.com/images2010/12nov10/hmi_2day.mpg



In short.  INCOMING!

[LLR]

^ I gotta remember to not make commitments on a Friday X_x.  lol.  Here is the rest!


All of the spots on the Earth-facing side of the sun are quiet. They are not producing strong flares. Credit: SDO/HMI.



http://www.spaceweather.com/images2010/17nov10/hmi_2day.mpg

AURORA WATCH:  A solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field, sparking geomagnetic activity around the Arctic Circle. "I was driving through the countryside near Tromsø, Norway, on Nov. 14th when bright auroras burst through the clouds," reports Ole Christian Salomonsen. He quickly pulled over to take this picture:



"The lights were amazing--green, white, purple, moving fast and strong," says Salomonsen. "I call the shot 'Colorful Clouds.'"

ACTIVE FILAMENT:  A dark filament of magnetism is snaking around the sun's southwestern horizon, and it could be poised to erupt. The 600,000 km-long structure has shown considerable instability since it began lifting up from the stellar surface yesterday



What happens next? The filament has several options: relaxing gently back into the sun, snapping explosively, or crashing down upon the stellar surface. Although an eruption from the area would likely not be Earth-directed, it could be very photogenic as tendrils of hot plasma fly into the black space above the edge of the sun


Is Jupiter's lost stripe making a comeback?
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2010/11/is-jupiters-lost-stripe-making.html
REVIVAL ON JUPITER:  Think of the turmoil at the sea surface just before a massive submarine emerges from depth. Something like that is happening on Jupiter. A turbulent plume is breaking through the giant planet's cloudtops in the south equatorial zone, heralding the emergence of ... what? Scroll past this Nov. 14th photo from astrophotographer Paul Haese of Glenalta, South Australia for further discussion:



The plume, circled in Haese's photo and known to astronomers as the "SEB Revival Spot," is a sign that Jupiter's South Equatorial Belt (SEB) is about to return. The great brown belt disappeared  earlier this year, leaving Jupiter without one of its signature stripes. No one knows where the SEB went, although some researchers have speculated that it sank beneath high altitude clouds and might now be bobbing back to the top.


November 6, 2010 - M5 X-ray Solar Flare “One of Brightest in Years.”

Active sunspot 1121 has just unleashed one of the brightest
x-ray solar flares in years, an M5.4-class eruption at 15:36 UT (11:36 AM Eastern)
on Nov. 6, 2010. Spaceweather.com reports:  “Radiation from the flare created a
wave of ionization in Earth's upper atmosphere that altered the propagation of low-frequency
radio waves. There was, however, no bright CME (plasma cloud) hurled in our direction,
so the event is unlikely to produce auroras in the nights ahead. This is the third
M-flare in as many days, and the strongest, from this increasingly active sunspot.
So far none of the eruptions has been squarely Earth-directed, but this could change
in the days ahead as the sun's rotation turns the active region toward our planet.




November 10, 2010 - Massive and Mysterious Gamma Ray “Bubbles”
Emanate from Milky Way Galaxy Center.

“Assuming the bubbles emanate from our Galaxy's center,
the scale of the bubbles is huge, rivaling the entire Galaxy in size,
and spanning about 50,000 light years from top to bottom ... cause unknown”

- NASA



No one knew until now that huge bubbles emit gamma rays
from the galactic center. NASA reports: “As the data from the Earth-orbiting
Fermi satellite began accumulating over the past two years, a large and unusual
feature toward our Galaxy's center became increasingly evident. The two
bubbles are visible together as the red and white spotted oval surrounding the
center of the above all sky image released November 9, 2010. The plane
of our Galaxy runs horizontally across the image center. The cause of the bubbles
is presently unknown, but will likely be researched for years to come.
Image credit: NASA, DOE, Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope.



November 9, 2010 - Mysterious Large Missile Launch
North of Catalina Island, California.

“It wasn't our missile. There was no Navy activity
in the area Monday evening, Nov. 8.”

- Navy spokesperson, San Diego



LINK
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40087187/ns/us_news-security/

Around 5 PM Pacific on November 8, 2010, this video was captured by a KCBS-TV News helicopter from Los Angeles that shows a large projectile launch that the Navy and other military agencies say is unknown. On Friday night November 5, California's Vandenberg AFB launched a Delta II rocket carrying an Italian satellite into orbit, but a sergeant at the base told KFMB-TV there had been no launches since then. No other known official launches are scheduled before December 2010 and that will be from Vandenberg AFB.



NASA's Chandra Finds Youngest Nearby Black Hole
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2010/sn1979c/




http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/11734434


http://news.discovery.com/space/pluto-might-be-bigger-but-eris-is-more-massive.html


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40087187/ns/us_news-security/

http://gizmodo.com/5688488/constructing-a-570mp-dark-energy-camera-in-just-four-minutes
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u8OTBj-Wc4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u8OTBj-Wc4</a>

http://gizmodo.com/5690438/this-is-why-we-need-astronauts




http://gizmodo.com/5581096/hayabusa-space-probe-may-contain-asteroid-dust-or-just-normal-dust

http://gizmodo.com/5691545/hayabusa-probe-has-successfully-brought-back-first-asteroid-dust-to-earth

http://gizmodo.com/5691156/good-morning-earth

[LLR]

STRESS RELIEF:  The tension was just too great. On Nov. 21st around 1600 UT, a twisted filament of solar magnetism suddenly untwisted, producing a towering eruption off the sun's northwestern limb. Click on the image to play a 6-hour time lapse movie from the Solar Dynamics Observatory:



Earth was not in the line of fire. No geomagnetic storms or auroras are expected as a result of the blast. Moreover, now that the filament has relaxed, it poses little threat for future eruptions. There is, however, another filament that bears watching. Stay tuned for updates.

AURORA WATCH:  High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras. Earth is entering a solar wind stream that could spark geomagnetic storms around the Arctic Circle.




HUGE story.
Have we found the universe that existed before the Big Bang?
http://io9.com/5694701/does-cosmic-background-radiation-reveal-the-universe-before-the-big-bang
 
You can read all that and scratch your head or you can read my take on it.  

Ok, so the basic theory of the big bang is that something exploded looong ago and everything came pouring out of it.  Gasses, matter (solid liquid) and gave rise to the universe that we know today.  But what the hell was it that exploded?  No one knows.... until now.  We all know what black holes are.  Super MASSIVE stars (like Cygnis Cephi) explode and poke a hole in the universe.  It begins eating all matter around it.  Other stars, planets, gasses, atoms... hell, not even light can escape it.  A black hole devours all.  Also, at the center of most galaxies is a super massive black hole.  It is what holds the galaxy together.  A cosmic vortex that spins, churning all the gasses together as they spin around the central hole.  Most stars die before being pulled into it, it takes a long time to get there.  Well, eventually the galaxies will run out of gas and material to create new stars.  Everything will expand and cool off before being sucked up by the black hole.  Eventually - everything in the universe will be devoured by a black hole.  They will begin to pull on each other.  The only thing left will be black holes.  These will then gather together and begin tearing each other apart.  The moment all these black holes merge into one.... they explode - and all the matter they have devoured over the course of billions of years pours out in an instant... in a massive explosion.  This is the birth of a new universe.  All the matter that was here before becomes recycled and re-used.  It all starts again.  How did they find this out? To imagine this.  Think of your bath tub.  The tub is the area the universe will be in.  Fill it with water and soap and rubber duckies (very small ones.. lol).  There is your big bang.  The tub is filled.  Now pull the plug, the water and soap (and tiny ducks) go down the drain.  The drain is the black hole.  Now, look at the sides of the tub.  See where the water was before?.  It probably left a bath tub ring.  Now fill the tub again.  Even though you filled the tub with new water.... you can still see the ring around the tub from the time before.  In short.  They may have found the bath tub ring from the old universe that was here before ours was.

Pretty damn neat, imo.


Now the rest of the news:


Extragalactic Exoplanet Found Hiding Out in Milky Way
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/exoplanet-different-galaxy/

Antimatter captured by CERN scientists in dramatic physics breakthrough
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/8141780/Antimatter-captured-by-CERN-scientists-in-dramatic-physics-breakthrough.html

Surprise at a Comet Visited by NASA: A Snowstorm
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/science/space/19comet.html?_r=1

Close encounter with 3838 Epona (1986 WA)
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=3838%20Epona&orb=1

US Spy Satellite Is the Largest Satellite In the World
http://gizmodo.com/5696611/us-spy-satellite-is-the-largest-satellite-in-the-world

Mars rover dead at Troy crater
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

This Is Planet Earth By Van Gogh—or Viceversa
http://gizmodo.com/5694634/this-is-planet-earth-by-van-gogh++or-viceversa






And since I posted a pretty picture, how about a few more?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1329943/Female-astronaut-looks-Earth-window-space-station.html