Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Science

Solar Tsunami

This may be more evidence that the Sun is entering one of it’s most active solar maximums in modern times. The solar flare from December 6, 2006 was so intense that it caused a virtual tsunami of solar plasma to ripple away from sunspot 930.

The interesting thing about this event is that it occurred far enough ahead of the maximum to allow it to be studied in detail without having to deal with the chaos associated with the maximum. Hang on and enjoy the ride. I have a feeling we’re in for an interesting display of climate and electromagnetic effects from our Sun.

Image courtesy SpaceWeather.com

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12 Dec 2006 by Astronomy Environment Science

A Christmas Card from the Sun

A new very active sunspot sent a coronal mass ejection Earthward which interacts with our magnetosphere to produce bright auroras.

In Finland, a photographer captured the aurora’s glow over snow-tufted conifers to produce this wonderful picture that looks like it was staged to become the front of a Christmas card. (Click on the image to see a larger version.)

From SpaceWeather.com:

AURORA WATCH: Sky watchers, be alert for auroras. A coronal mass ejection (CME) is expected to brush past Earth tonight, sparking a mild geomagnetic storm. The display will probably favor high latitudes–e.g., Scandinavia, Canada and Alaska–but it could descend as well to northern-tier US states such as Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. (continued below)

The source of the CME is sunspot 930, which has been exploding regularly since it first appeared on Dec. 5th. The “angry sunspot” is slowly turning to face Earth. As it does, it might send more CMEs our way, and they would hit head-on rather than merely brushing past. By next week, Northern Lights could reach deep into the United States. Stay tuned. (And keep your fingers crossed.)

Picture: Auroras over Finland on Dec. 8th. Credit: Vesa Särkelä

Visit the December 2006 Aurora Gallery for more beautiful pictures.

08 Dec 2006 by Astronomy Photography Science

The Great Orion Nebula

APOD has a nice astrophoto of the Great Orion Nebula today.

I highly recommend watching the The San Diego Supercomputer Center’s great video Volume Visualization of the Orion Nebula to get an amazing perspective on this immense phenomenon.

The Great Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearby starbirth region, is probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulas. Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away. In the above deep image, faint wisps and sheets of dust and gas are particularly evident. The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the unaided eye just below and to the left of the easily identifiable belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion. In addition to housing a bright open cluster of stars known as the Trapezium, the Orion Nebula contains many stellar nurseries. These nurseries contain hydrogen gas, hot young stars, proplyds, and stellar jets spewing material at high speeds. Also known as M42, the Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun.

Image, story courtesy APOD and NASA.

20 Nov 2006 by Astronomy Photography Science

2006 Leonids Meteor Shower

Late Wednesday night, as Damsel and I were walking the dogs, the skies were exceptionally clear for the urban Los Angeles area. We were looking towards the “Seven Sisters” near the zenith when we saw a shooting star. It was probably an early Leonid meteor. This weekend will be a good time to look skyward, especially in the wee hours before dawn when the radiant (located in the constellation Leo) will be above the horizon and your part of the Earth will be plowing head-on into the dust trail left by comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle.

Image: A Leonid “green fireball” meteor. (Courtesy NASA)

According to experts, you just might be able to see up to a hundred meteors per hour — that’s better than one a minute!

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17 Nov 2006 by Astronomy Science Space Rocks

Climate Clues

I recently read a report on the CO2 Science website in which the author analyzed a paper published in Space Science Reviews about solar influence on the climate over the past several thousand years.

The study provides more evidence of the actual effects taking place as a result of solar fluctuations; it completely disarms the notion of the “hockey stick” climate model and discredits politically-motivated and disingenuous individuals and groups who claim that warming is largely the result of human industrial activities.

In spite of each additional Climate Clue, global warming alarmists remain clueless. Read on . . .

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16 Nov 2006 by Global Warming Science Whacko Politics

Convergence

Over the next several days, Mars and Venus will converge on the Sun. This graphic (courtesy SOHO and NASA) is a movie of solar coronagraph pictures taken over the last few days. The outline of the Sun is the small white circle in the center. The dark circle is the solar shield in the imaging instrument. This allows images of the solar corona to be collected in spite of the bright light.

While not designed for this purpose, stars and planets are also frequently imaged. In the coming weeks planets Mars and Venus will pass behind and in front of the Sun, respectively. Neither planet will transit, or pass directly through the solar disk, but slightly above the ecliptic plane (defined by the orbit of the Earth).

Transits of Venus across the disk of the Sun are among the rarest of planetary alignments. Indeed, only seven such events have occurred since the invention of the telescope (1631, 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874, 1882 and June 8, 2004). Venus will do an encore on June 6, 2012. After that, it will pass above or below the solar disk for another 105 years or so.

05 Oct 2006 by Aerospace Astronomy Science

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