background preloader

Solar Activity - Solar Flares, Solar Tsunamis et al

Facebook Twitter

A strong M9.3 solar flare took place. Sunspot AR1261 unleashed a brief but strong M9-class solar flare on July 30th at 0209 UT. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the flare's extreme ultraviolet flash: Because of its brevity, the eruption probably did not hurl a substantial CME toward Earth, but this is not yet a firm conclusion. (SpaceWeather) Video by SolarWatcher Solar wind speed: 426.5 km/sec density: 4.5 protons/cm3 X-ray Solar Flares 6-hr max: B5 0515 UT Jul30 24-hr: M9 0209 UT Jul30 Planetary K-index Now: Kp= 1 quiet 24-hr max: Kp= 2 quiet Space Weather Message Code: SUMXM5 Serial Number: 77 Issue Time: 2011 Jul 30 0255 UTC SUMMARY: X-ray Event exceeded M5 Begin Time: 2011 Jul 30 0204 UTC Maximum Time: 2011 Jul 30 0209 UTC End Time: 2011 Jul 30 0212 UTC X-ray Class: M9.3 Location: N19W00 NOAA Scale: R2 - Moderate.

Nasa warns solar flares from 'huge space storm' will cause devastation. Twin Solar Flares Miss Earth. Two solar flares which erupted from the solar surface whizzed past Earth on January 28th, just barely missing Earth and safely leaving the Earth with no ill effects. The solar flares gave astronomers data that suggested they may be on the right track with thinking that the flare ups could be related.

The January 28 Eruption was separated by almost a million miles, but somehow was connected by tremendous forces at work on the surface of the sun. The two explosions happened around Earth with both being well out of range for our planet despite each being very bright and immense. Sunspot 1149, categorized as an M1 class solar flare was reported by solar activity and asteroid weather site Spaceweather as large, but not dangerous to us. The theory that the sun's activity -including solar flares- could be all connected is certainly not new.

In 2010 the ILWS (International Living With a Star) meeting convened comprising 25 of the most technologically advanced nations. Solar eclipse of May 20, 2012. Sun's coronal mass ejections reach Earth tonight. Solar flares expected to hit Earth, could cause tech disruptions. Huge Solar Flare Erupts, Sun's Most Powerful In 4 Years (PHOTOS) The sun released the most powerful solar flare in 4 years last night, a spectacular event that was captured by NASA. While the sky darkened Valentine's Day, the sun remained active. The flare caused a wave of radiation, which hit Earth in just minutes, and sent a wave of charged particles that should hit Earth within 24 hours, according to Space.com. But don't panic. The occurrence will potentially cause little more than a spectacular show of the aurora borealis, which could spread as far south as the Northern United States. From Space.com: The mega flare, which registered as a Class X2.2 flare on the scale of solar flares, was the first class X flare to occur in the new solar cycle of activity, which began last year.

Check out some absolutely incredible images of the solar event below, from NASA. UPDATE: According to BBC News, in addition to an amplification of the Northern Lights, power grids and communications could be disturbed in the coming days. Wishful thinking? Astronomers spot 'planet' in Oort Cloud, but are they mistaking Tyche for her sister? -- Science & Technology. If you grew up thinking there were nine planets and were shocked when Pluto was demoted five years ago, get ready for another surprise. There may be nine after all, and Jupiter may not be the largest. The hunt is on for a gas giant up to four times the mass of Jupiter thought to be lurking in the outer Oort Cloud, the most remote region of the solar system. The orbit of Tyche, as it is provisionally called, would be 15,000 times farther from the Sun than the Earth's, and 375 times farther than Pluto's, which is why it hasn't been seen so far.

But now scientists believe the proof of its existence has already been gathered by a Nasa space telescope, Wise, and is just waiting to be analysed. The first tranche of data is to be released in April, and astrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette think it will reveal Tyche within two years. "If it does, John and I will be doing cartwheels," Professor Whitmire said. Observing Blog - Bright Prospects for Comet Elenin? It doesn't look like much now — just a tiny, 19th-magnitude smudge tucked away in southwestern Virgo — but a newly discovered comet could become something special 10 months from now.

Comet Elenin (C/2010 X1) made its debut on December 10th when Leonid Elenin, an observer in Lyubertsy, Russia, remotely acquired four 4-minute-long images using an 18-inch (45-cm) telescope at the ISON-NM observatory near Mayhill, New Mexico. Follow-up images by Aleksei Sergeyev and Artyom Novichonok at Maidanak Observatory in Uzbekistan revealed more about the new find: it had a teardrop-shaped, very diffuse coma just 6 arcseconds across and a tiny tail.

What's gotten hearts beating a little faster since the discovery is that Comet Elenin is still more than 4 astronomical units (375 million miles) from the Sun and headed inbound. Right now, odds are that Comet Elenin will become an easy target for binoculars around mid-August and reach naked-eye visibility for a couple of weeks around perihelion. Video: Roiling Sun Captured From All Angles | Wired Science. When it comes to solar storms, there’s no longer any place to hide. For the first time, solar scientists have obtained simultaneous views of the entire sun, both the front and back sides. The unprecedented 360-degree panorama, released by NASA on Feb. 6, combines sharp images of the sun’s front side recorded by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory with those from NASA’s twin Stereo spacecraft, which have just begun an eight-year exploration of the rotating sun’s far side.

Images of the far side, recorded up to 14 days before they rotate into view from Earth, will enable scientists to better predict solar storms that can damage satellites and disrupt communications and power systems on Earth. The images can also capture eruptions on the back side so short-lived that they disappear before that region of the sun rotates into view, says Stereo scientist Joseph Gurman of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. See Also: Nasa warns solar flares from 'huge space storm' will cause devastation. Time Machine. NANOSAIL-D PHOTO CONTEST: NASA and Spaceweather.com have joined forces to launch ... a photo contest. The target is NanoSail-D, the first solar sail to orbit Earth. Cash prizes for the best photos range from $100 to $500. Visit nanosail.org for details.

DOUBLE ERUPTION: Jan. 28th began with not one but two major eruptions on the sun. Separated by more than a million kilometers, the two blasts occurred almost simultaneously on opposite corners of the solar disk. Click on the image to view a movie recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory: See the movie or browse selected high-resolution still frames: #1, #2, #3 On the lower left, a magnetic filament became unstable and erupted, hurling a portion of itself into space.

These blasts are going to miss in concert, too. More images: from Peter Desypris of Athens,Greece; from T. V-TOPPED LIGHT PILLARS: Light pillars are a common sight around cities in winter. "These light pillars are not just rare, they are exceptional! " "Suicide" Comet Storm Hits Sun—Bigger Sun-Kisser Coming? A recent storm of small comets that pelted the sun could herald the coming a much bigger icy visitor, astronomers say. Since its launch in 1995, NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, orbiter has captured pictures of 2,000 comets as they've flown past the sun. Most of these comets are so-called sungrazers, relatively tiny comets whose orbits bring them so near the sun that they are often vaporized within hours of discovery. (See a picture of a sungrazer spied in October.) The sun-watching telescope usually picks up one sungrazer every few days. Seeing "25 comets in just ten days, that's unprecedented," Karl Battams, of the United States Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., said in a statement.

According to Battams and colleagues, the comet swarm could be forerunner fragments from a much larger parent comet that may be headed along a similar path. Sun-Kissing Comet "Granddaddy" on the Way? Comet Storm Remnants of a Broken Body? Space Pictures This Week: Ring of Fire, Rare Moon, More. Solar eclipse to ring in new year - space - 02 January 2011. The moon will block part of the sun on 4 January in a partial eclipse visible in most of Europe as well as in parts of Asia and Africa. For safety, observers should not look at the sun without special filters to prevent eye damage. More information on safe viewing is available here. The fraction of the sun's face covered by the moon will vary by location. Observers in northern Sweden will be treated to the deepest eclipse, with 86 per cent of the sun covered at 0850 GMT. The start and end times of the eclipse will also vary by location.

The earliest views will be available to those in Algeria at 0640 GMT. Viewers in China will see the tail end of the eclipse at 1100 GMT. A graphic showing the path of the eclipse across the Earth is available here (pdf), and a table giving start and end times for various locations in GMT can be found here (pdf). More From New Scientist Dolphin whistle instantly translated by computer (New Scientist) A smart way to get personal with the future (New Scientist)

Huge Magnetic Filament Erupts on the Sun | Wired Science. A magnetic filament more than 50 times the Earth’s width is erupting off the surface of the sun. Update 4:25 p.m. EST: The mega-filament collapsed in a gorgeous cascade of hot plasma between noon and 2 p.m. EST. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a beautiful movie of the eruption (above). The explosion does not appear to be aimed at Earth, so we shouldn’t expect any magnetic storms or satellite troubles. The loop of hot plasma has been snaking around the sun‘s southeast limb since Dec. 4, and appears to be growing by the hour. When SDO saw it on Dec. 4, the filament was more than 250,000 miles long, about 30 times the diameter of the Earth. So far the gigantic prominence has hung suspended peacefully above the sun’s surface, but this morning it started showing signs of instability.

The image you see is in ultraviolet channels, not visible light. Via spaceweather.com Images: NASA/SDO See Also: Sun Unleashes Most Powerful Solar Flare in Years. A major solar flare erupted from the sun Saturday ? One of the most powerful in years ? Sending an energetic blast of X-rays from a hotspot of activity that may still belch more solar storms in the days to come. The X-ray blast occurred Nov. 6 at about 11:36 EDT (1536 GMT) from an active group of sunspots called 1121. It was the third major flare from the solar hotspot and registered a Class M 5.4 on the scale for sun storms, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center operated by NOAA.

"Astronomers who study the sun have five categories of flares: A, B, C, M and X," explained SPACE.com's skywatching columnist Joe Rao. At the time of the flare, sunspot group 1121 was on the limb, or the edge, of the sun's disk, so any cloud of electrified particles ejected by the flare would not reach Earth, Rao said. "But as the sun rotates, this active region of the sun will be turned more and more toward the center of its disk ?

Video: Magnetic Twister Erupts on Sun | Wired Science. InShare0 NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught an enormous plasma twister erupting on the surface of the sun Oct. 28. The explosion was triggered by a tangled coil of magnetism that suddenly untwisted, acting like a loaded spring and hurling solar matter into space. At its peak, the twister towered more than 217,000 miles above the surface of the sun. Luckily, the fragments of plasma flung into space were not headed toward Earth, where they could have caused a magnetic storm. Via spaceweather.com Image: NASA/SDO See Also: What's up with: The Sun.