Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

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Auroras from Space

Some especially intense auroras resulting from solar flares associated with sunspot 930 were visible from outer space via an Air Force satellite. Here’s the story from SpaceWeather.com:

AURORAS FROM SPACE: How bright were the auroras of Dec. 14th? As bright as city lights and easily seen from space. A US Air Force DMSP satellite took this picture from orbit 830 km above the United States:

The bright arc stretching from Montana to Maine is the aurora Borealis. In many places it completely overwhelms the city lights below.

“The DMSP satellite has the ability to detect auroral light at night,” says Paul McCrone of the Air Force Weather Agency at Offutt AFB in Nebraska. “These images are mosaics of various DMSP overflights on Dec. 12-13, Dec. 13-14, and Dec 14-15. The Dec. 14th image is quite striking.”

19 Dec 2006 by Rocket Science Technobabble

Does Mars Leak Water?

NASA Scientists announced today that there is compelling evidence that liquid water flows on Mars: From NASA:

NASA Images Suggest Water Still Flows in Brief Spurts on Mars

NASA photographs have revealed bright new deposits seen in two gullies on Mars that suggest water carried sediment through them sometime during the past seven years.

“These observations give the strongest evidence to date that water still flows occasionally on the surface of Mars,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, Washington.

Image right: A new gully deposit in a crater in the Centauri Montes Region. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Liquid water, as opposed to the water ice and water vapor known to exist at Mars, is considered necessary for life. The new findings heighten intrigue about the potential for microbial life on Mars. The Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor provided the new evidence of the deposits in images taken in 2004 and 2005.

“The shapes of these deposits are what you would expect to see if the material were carried by flowing water,” said Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. “They have finger-like branches at the downhill end and easily diverted around small obstacles.” Malin is principal investigator for the camera and lead author of a report about the findings published in the journal Science.

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06 Dec 2006 by Aerospace Rocket Science Technobabble

The Solar Neighborhood Today

There’s a lot of interesting things to see in the sky today – the bad news is they’re all happening in the direction of the Sun and impossible to see without special equipment. The good news, however, is that there are ways to see these events without looking directly at the Sun, which is ill-advised and likely dangerous to your vision.

Image: Sunspot 923 as seen through a SolarMax filter

Sunspot 923 is almost in the center of the Sun today, and can be seen using eclipse shades or making a pinhole camera. Over the weekend Damsel and I saw it when I used a pair of binoculars to image the solar disk on the floor.

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13 Nov 2006 by Astronomy Rocket Science

Mercury to Transit the Sun Today

UPDATE 2: A Segment of a heliograph taken in Hawaii shows a tiny dot near the center. The dark spot on the left is a sunspot that is rotating towards Earth.

UPDATE: Astronomy Picture of the Day shows just how unspectacular the transit will appear.

Don’t get your hopes up for a spectacular view of this event. Even with eclipse glasses, mercury’s image will appear to be so very tiny compared to the solar disk.

Left: A prior Mercury transit as observed by SOHO

If you have a pair of binoculars available, you might try and project the sun’s image onto a flat, shaded surface. Point the objective lens (the end you don’t look through) toward the sun and try to focus the solar disk onto the flat surface. DO NOT LOOK AT THE SUN THROUGH THE BINOCULARS!

If you plan to try and observe the event, for God’s sake, do not look at the sun without the proper solar filters — instant damage can be done to your eyes.

From NASA:

NASA – 2006 Transit of Mercury

On Wednesday, Nov 8th, the planet Mercury will pass directly in front the Sun. The transit begins at 2:12 pm EST (11:12 am PST) and lasts for almost five hours. Good views can be had from the Americas, Hawaii, Australia and all along the Pacific Rim.

[Read more]

08 Nov 2006 by Astronomy Rocket Science

Death of a Comet


Did you ever see a comet plunge into the sun? Not likely unless you have seen images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Watch as the comet strikes the heliosphere and causes a solar explosion.

Image: Courtesy NASA and SOHO

Spaceweather.com says:

Yesterday, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) caught a comet plunging toward the sun. It went in–but not out again. The sungrazing comet disintegrated like an ice cube in an oven.

In the animation, the white circle represents the outline of the sun. The dark circle is a shield in the optics to block the solar image so background activity and objects may be seen. Above and to the left is the planet Venus which just passed above and in front of the Sun. In a wider field of view image, the planet Mars can also be seen along with labels explaining the image.

05 Nov 2006 by Aerospace Astronomy Rocket Science

Watching the Sun in STEREO

The twin spacecraft mission STEREO blasted off from Cape Canaveral in a nighttime launch last night. STEREO, which stands for Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory, is a two-spacecraft mission to observe solar activity from two vantage points in orbit around the sun. the spacecraft, identified as A (ahead) and B (behind), will head for the Moon to get a gravitational “slingshot” into orbit. B will be flung into orbit behind the Earth while A will return to the Moon for another boost into orbit ahead of Earth. This separation in space provides a unique view of the Sun from orbits with a similar distance from the Sun as the Earth, while imaging from points away from our planet. The spacecraft will assume their stations near Lagrange points L4 and L5.

Image right: STEREO Night Launch – courtesy NASA

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26 Oct 2006 by Aerospace Environment Rocket Science

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