Heliopolis

Palomar · 2004-11-28 22:20:59

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020207.html]Coronal hole

*If you thought that was a big coronal hole, try http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/pickofth … .html]THIS one on for size. Nearly half the face of the Sun! Geez, I didn't know they could be that big. :-\ ::EDIT:: And what's also interesting is that continual big bright golden swirl within that region -- it even flares up brighter for a short while.

-*-

Groovy movies! :up:

*Now if only they all worked. But glad for your enjoyment. The "Sun Devil" is a one-of-a-kind, so far as I've been able to find.

-*-

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/pickofth … Prominence Eruption and "Tidal" Wave

All this change and activity is instigated by instabilities in the magnetic field that may originate in volumes as small as a breadbox...

*That in and of itself is an amazing fact. My appetite for solar astronomy and science keeps growing.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-12-02 11:31:51

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/telescop … html]Super Lens Sun Gazer: 2006 :up:

The new telescope uses visible and infrared light rays to measure simultaneously the Sun's magnetic field at different altitudes in the solar atmosphere to study the field's evolution.
What will be most unusual about the new telescope will be its ability to reconstruct and sharpen in real time the blurry images of the sun that telescopes now provide.
"Sharpening these images will be a remarkable achievement because now no observatory does this and people need this information," said Goode.
"After all, if you want to forecast space weather, you have to have sharp images now. It does no one any good to have sharp images two days after the solar event occurred."

*Also will assist in further studies of chromospheric dynamics and earthshine.

--Cindy

P.S.:

Seasons]http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/pickoftheweek/old/22dec2003/index.html]Season's Greetings from Sol-ta Claus!

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/pickofth … ml]Rudolph Makes an Appearance

John Creighton · 2004-12-02 13:45:23

Rudolph Makes an Appearance

Palomar · 2004-12-06 08:25:02

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/m … html]Solar Storms Smack a Comet

*Veddy interesting. The relation of CME's to their effects on cometary tails; the effects are not permanent, though.

...by watching comet tail behavior, researchers could learn more about changes in CME structure and speed as they move through space, researchers added...
Astronomers have pieced together what appears to be the first direct evidence that solar storms can wreck havoc with comets, destroying the ion tails of icy wanderers in a collision of highly charged particles.
The ion tails of comets constantly stream away from the Sun, pushed back by solar wind blowing at about 894,774 mph (400 kilometers per second). But the charged particles of CMEs, among the worst of solar storms, can slam into a comet's ion tail at about 2.2 million mph (1,000 kilometers per second), causing kinks, scalloped patterns or disrupting the tail altogether

*Discusses the importance of amateur astronomers to the success of this study. :up:

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/n … 218.html]A related article linked within the first.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-12-11 10:17:03

Solar]http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0412/10sunultrasound/]"Solar ultrasound" waves discovered by satellite.

The Sun's atmosphere is filled with ultrasound-like waves that may help solve decades-old mysteries about the Sun and space weather

"At 10-second period, these waves qualify as ultrasound because individual atoms on the Sun experience only a few collisions during the brief passage of each wave, just as with ultrasound here on Earth"

*Have posted a different article previously, which also discussed the mystery outlined below; nice to see the mystery is closer to being explained, if not now explained:

The waves are most likely created by the sudden collapse of magnetically induced electric currents (magnetic reconnection) or by lower frequency sound waves that crash like ocean waves as they make their way up from the surface of the Sun. Both of the sources are likely candidates for the source of the solar atmosphere's mysterious extra heat, making the new waves a valuable tool for exploring a decades-old mystery.
At up to 100,000 deg C (180,000 deg F), the chromosphere, or middle solar atmosphere, is nearly 20 times hotter than the 6,000 deg C (11,000 deg F) surface of the Sun. The solar corona, at 1,000,000 deg C (1,800,000 deg F), is about 10 times hotter still, or 200 times hotter than the surface of the Sun. Although scientists have been studying the process for more than 50 years, the reason for this difference in temperature remains elusive.

:up:

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-12-15 06:55:07

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=15686]VSO

*They're open to anyone who can make data sources possible (hey, I have a solar screen attachment for my telescope...does that count?? Let me in!)

The first working version of a "one-stop shopping" service for solar data is now on line, giving scientists a much easier way to search for data on specific solar phenomena and even to confirm the results of earlier research.
"The Virtual Solar Observatory or VSO makes it possible to access data from multiple sources, even ones you didn't know existed, at one fell swoop"

*Nice!

"The VSO puts together fifty different archives of solar data and allows solar physicists to access it from a single database without having to learn all fifty databases," Hill explained...
The VSO has several search options including time, instruments, and spectral range...
"This will let the scientists do more science and less data culling," Gurman said.

*Sounds groovy to me.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-12-15 13:14:39

Disregard. Will post in New Discoveries *4*. Sorry.

Palomar · 2004-12-16 06:42:48

*We'd be toast:

*Sunspot count is low, but solar activity isn't. The above image is being hosted by spaceweather.com. Prominences over Sol's eastern limb. Is a 2-hour video from December 15, by Mr. Didier Favre of Los Angeles, CA. :up:

-also, same event-

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2004/1 … jpg]Series of photos from Mr. Dodson of New Zealand

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2004/1 … al1.jpg]Mr. Leventhal of Australia

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2004/1 … er1.jpg]Mr. Palmer of LA, CA

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2004/1 … rto.jpg]Mr. or Ms. Porto from Azores Islands

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-12-22 15:21:10

Seasons]http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/pickoftheweek/old/22dec2003/index.html]Season's Greetings from Sol-ta Claus!
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/pickofth … ml]Rudolph Makes an Appearance

*Just in case you missed the two items above the first time. :;):

-*-

*Nice! I found this at Astronomy magazine's online newsletter, in the "December astro bytes" column:

Touch the Sun (without being burned).
Educator and author Noreen Grice has brought the wonder of astronomy to visually impaired students with her innovative books, Touch the Universe and Touch the Stars. The books contain images of familiar astronomical objects, but Grice has added texture to the images to communicate colors, shapes, and other intricate details of the cosmos.
Grice's new book, Touch the Sun (Joseph Henry Press), studies our home star and space weather, enabling visually impaired readers to feel what they cannot see. With Braille and large-print descriptions for each of the book's 16 photographs, the book is designed for readers of all visual abilities.
The book is scheduled for release in March or April 2005, and approximately 2,500 copies will be printed. Most of these will be given free of charge to visually impaired students, with the assistance of the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children, a division of the National Federation of the Blind. The public may purchase any remaining copies. Joseph Henry Press will print additional volumes based on demand. — Jeremy McGovern

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-12-29 08:06:18

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/gi … rv.html]An Interview with Sol

*Have some humor with your science.

AM: Do you have any complaints?
Sol: Well, there is one: privacy. I know that when you become a star you give up a lot of personal privacy. But what happened was ridiculous. There are people looking at me at all times of the day. And they're not just looking, they're using telescopes. Big telescopes. They look at my back, my front; no place is sacred. Privacy is really a problem.
And sometimes I break out in those unsightly sunspots. You know, those dark magnetic depressions. You would hope they would look the other way, save me some embarrassment. No way. They take pictures. It's incredible. I break out in sunspots and next thing I know I'm on the cover of Astronomy Magazine or something.
And you know what really gets me. Sometimes I can't help myself. Sometimes I accidentally let go of a little gas. It's natural, it happens to everybody. "Solar Flares" they call it. They make movies of it. They tell their friends. Soon everyone is watching. I'm so embarrassed.

--Cindy

GraemeSkinner · 2004-12-31 04:48:36

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/gi … rv.html]An Interview with Sol
*Have some humor with your science.

I must have missed this one

AM: When did you decide to have planets?
Sol: Very early in life, although I'm not exactly sure when - that part of my life was very nebulous. I didn't really plan to have planets because I never had a steady companion. They just sort of spun off of my care-free early life style.

Graeme

Palomar · 2005-01-05 13:15:35

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2005/0 … g]Gigantic Dark Filament

*Raging ocean of flames. Always enjoy those hydrogen alpha pics. Anywho -- astronomers (pros, not just the amateurs) are monitoring this thing. It stretches more than 250,000 miles from end to end (which, of course, is close to the distance between Earth and our Moon). Image hosted by spaceweather.com.

Astronomers are monitoring a gigantic dark filament on the sun. Filaments are ribbons of relatively cool gas held suspended above the sun's surface by magnetic forces.

-more-

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2005/0 … mer.jpg]Mr. Gary Palmer's photo

Ooooo...theres]http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2005/04jan05/piepol.jpg]Ooooo...there's two of them in this pic (Mr. Greg Piepol).

:up: Great shots!

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-01-15 07:50:25

*Sunspot 720. A few days ago a speck -- now 7 times larger than Earth:

The sunspot number is fluctuating rather briskly lately, too. Will watch to see if 720 grows even larger.

-*-

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/pickofth … 04/]Tangle of filaments

*From SOHO.

The long, curling, central filament, if straightened out, would appear to be able to span the diameter of the Sun, over 1,000,000 miles.

Seems they also endured a bit longer than usual?

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-01-15 22:39:37

Sunspot 720. A few days ago a speck -- now 7 times larger than Earth:

*There's an update on this Sunspot -- headline news. According to a report in from NOAA, which spaceref.com posted, 'Spot 720 continues to grow rapidly; obviously, as I made my previous post only earlier today. It is now approximately *18* times the size of Earth. This definitely is of interest to watch develop further; Sunspots don't often make a headline (even in the space-oriented news services). :up:

Spaceweather.com has updated its info too, now comparing 'Spot 720 as to nearly the size of Jupiter. "Behemoth" is the adjective they're using. Aptly, I'd say.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-01-16 06:54:54

*Aurora alert. Sunspot 720 still growing and it's already launched two powerful CME's. Yesterday they were predicting X-class flares at least (no surprise). One CME is classed as an M8, the other an X2. http://www.spaceweather.com/glossary/fl … sification of x-ray solar flares.

Definitely robust:

This 2nd one has an initial bubble-like appearance; the ejecta has a more complex pattern to it, IMO.

Besides watching how much larger it may grow, it'll be interesting to follow the duration of 'Spot 720; last July (?) a large Sunspot lasted for nearly 3 rotations of Sol.

--Cindy

Shaun Barrett · 2005-01-16 18:26:54

I thoroughly enjoyed "An Interview with Sol"!!
Very clever stuff. :up:

Sunspot 720's sure putting on a performance. Maybe 20 times Earth's diameter now(?)!

Palomar · 2005-01-17 13:28:30

I thoroughly enjoyed "An Interview with Sol"!!
Very clever stuff.
Sunspot 720's sure putting on a performance. Maybe 20 times Earth's diameter now(?)!

*Glad you enjoyed that. As for 'Spot 720, they're still referring to it as "Jupiter-sized" and no reference to it having gotten much larger since yesterday.

Just when you're not looking for an explanation, it's found. :laugh: Someone a long time ago asked what are the speckles in the SOHO coronagraphs (I'd wondered too):

(3rd CME from 'Spot 720 in as many days -- very active)

Here's the explanation for all those specks:

The many speckles in this SOHO coronagraph image of the CME are caused by protons accelerated to light speed by the blast hitting SOHO's digital camera.

Thank you spaceweather.com (which is also hosting the CME images I've posted these past days). I'd checked SOHO's site previously, to no avail, and a couple of other astronomy resources too. Nice to have an answer.

--Cindy

SpaceNut · 2005-01-17 14:05:06

So what we are seeing is the photon hitting the lense? ???
Yes I do recall, thinking that maybe these were peices of what would be considered volcanoids for mercury.

Palomar · 2005-01-17 17:06:22

So what we are seeing is the photon hitting the lense?

*Protons. Yep, hitting the digital camera's lens.

Looks like a blizzard. Or a ticker-tape parade (confetti and streamers) gone berserk. :;):

Doubtless more CMEs on the way...

--Cindy

GraemeSkinner · 2005-01-18 02:07:00

[quote=Shaun Barrett,Jan. 16 2005, 19:26 Sunspot 720's sure putting on a performance. Maybe 20 times Earth's diameter now(?)!
*Glad you enjoyed that. As for 'Spot 720, they're still referring to it as "Jupiter-sized" and no reference to it having gotten much larger since yesterday.

Excellent picture on Spaceweather.com by Jan Koeman, from the Netherlands of a plane passing 'spot 720.

Now why do I miss shots like that?

Graeme

GraemeSkinner · 2005-01-20 02:22:00

With the recent solar activity I've been keeping an eye on various Aurora prediction/alert sites I've also been having a trawl through various websites on the subject http://www.sec.noaa.gov/pmap/pmapN.html]THIS SITE seems quite a good one.

If the sun keeps on churning it may coincide with a break in the weather and i'll get to see some activity.

Graeme

Palomar · 2005-01-20 13:16:08

*Sol is keeping astronomers on their toes, LOL. Yesterday's afternoon news update was that an anticipated major event had apparently -fizzled-.

Not long after, 'Spot 720 erupted with a hugely powerful X7-class solar flare which

sparked one of the strongest radiation storms of the current 11-year solar cycle.

Mother Nature will do her thing, regardless of the musings of we befuddled humans. :laugh:

http://www.spaceweather.com/images2005/ … _big.gif]A raging blizzard of solar protons. (Coronagraph). Wow.

::EDIT:: Had to run over to a different web site -- wikipedia -- to get this (which some folks may already know):

The Sun orbits the Milky Way galaxy at a distance of about 25,000 to 28,000 light-years from the galactic centre, completing one revolution in about 226 Ma (226 million years). The orbital speed is 217 km/s, i.e. 1 light-year in ca. 1400 years, and 1 AU in 8 days.

--Cindy

::EDIT:: Just now found an item of interest at SOHO's web site. On page 11 of this thread I posted an image of the Jan 15 CME. Here's a caption of interest about it, from SOHO:

On Jan. 15, 2005 SOHO observed a substantial coronal mass ejection (CME) blast out from the Sun, heading very much in Earth's direction. But its speed is what captured the attention of scientists. When they measured it, they were surprised to find a record expansion rate of 2890 kilometers per second in the plane of the sky. LASCO C3 has such a large field of view that it gives us time to measure at least two positions for such fast events, so we can measure a speed (distance divided by time), while older space-based and ground-based coronagraphs were/are limited by much smaller fields of view. (The record speed was measured in the plane of the sky, which is not the same as its speed in our direction, but the rate at which we see the CME expanding horizontally in our images.)
In addition, it is a long way from the Sun to Earth and space is not totally empty. CMEs usually get slowed down by the slower solar wind. The particle cloud from the Jan. 15th CME arrived at Earth about 40 hours later when sensitive instruments detected a strong spike...

GraemeSkinner · 2005-01-21 06:09:37

http://www.spaceweather.com/aurora/imag … n1.jpg]WOW!!!!
Pic by Bjorn Jorgensen, Ersfjord, Tromsoe, Norway - Jan. 18

http://www.spaceweather.com/aurora/imag … f]Animated Pic
Roman Krochuk, Fairbanks, AK, USA - Jan. 17

Graeme

Shaun Barrett · 2005-01-21 19:46:35

Graeme, I think that picture of the Norwegian Aurora is among the most beautiful photos I've ever seen. Magnificent! :up:

And, as for that "raging blizzard of solar protons", Cindy, the SOHO picture makes it easier to imagine how such radiation can carve up the cell structure inside living tissue! {Gulp! }
I think our human missions to Mars are really going to need some kind of magnetic shield, based on superconducting systems. Earth's magnetic field is relatively weak .. but it's BIG (! ), and has enormous distances over which to influence the paths of even high speed ions:-

I guess, with a smaller field around a spacecraft, it'll have to be a stronger one in order to deflect particles, especially these almost light-speed protons, forcefully enough to prevent them reaching the people on board.
???

[Hope this isn't too far off-topic. ]

Palomar · 2005-01-21 20:30:59

*Hi Shaun: There is much to be gleaned from SOHO's findings, even in a "peripheral" sense. Besides the protons issue, SOHO has revealed hundreds of sungrazing comets thanks to the coronagraphs.

Interesting how one hand washes the other, and unexpected consequences to a study may prove even more beneficial than anticipated -- even (and perhaps especially) where manned missions are concerned.

BTW, spaceweather.com's web master is elated Sunspot 720 is now disappearing around the solar limb -- he indicated it'll be a much-needed "respite." :laugh:

Nice image you posted, too. The interrelatedness of it all is amazing.

--Cindy

P.S.:
http://www.spaceweather.com/glossary/co … l]Kamikaze comets, swirling CMEs, sungrazers... I've not posted this previously. More info on coronagraphs too.

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