Heliopolis *2* - ...Sun, Solar Science Cont'd...

Palomar · 2005-10-13 04:59:26

*Sunspot 798 might now be a mere "ghost" but what's left of it has come back around and is producing radio bursts:

Who says the sun is quiet? Yesterday, Thomas Ashcraft of New Mexico, heard it making "swoosh" noises.
Ashcraft is an amateur astronomer with a shortwave radio telescope. On Oct. 12th he tuned his receiver to 18.7 MHz and pointed the antenna at the sun. Although solar activity was supposedly low--yesterday we claimed the sun was "quiet"--he recorded some loud radio bursts: listen.
The source of these emissions was, apparently, old sunspot 798. Last month, sunspot 798 was enormous and very active. Did you see the auroras of Sept. 11th? Those were caused by sunspot 798.
Since then the 'spot has decayed. All that's left is a dark filament separating two vast regions of weak positive and negative magnetism.

This "ghost" of sunspot 798 is incapable of strong solar flares, but still capable of radio bursts. Compared to flares, radio bursts are low-energy; even a ghost can produce them.

Solar Radio Sweeps

All courtesy spaceweather.com

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-10-25 05:10:57

*Just saw a brief report at spaceweather.com for this date. Solar activity is currently extremely low, and x-rays are at their dimmest level since 1997. The entire solar disc is at -A1 on the "alphabet soup scale of x-ray intensity." Links are provided at the site explaining that.

The ongoing quiet follows a furious outburst of flares and coronal mass ejections just last month, highlighting the unpredictability of the sun on month-to-month time scales.

Mentions the Sun's activity is consistent with it being in a Minimum period. The lowest point in the Minimum of the 11-year solar cycle will be 2006.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-11-09 10:35:05

*Sunspot 798 might now be a mere "ghost" but what's left of it has come back around and is producing radio bursts:
What remains
Who says the sun is quiet? Yesterday, Thomas Ashcraft of New Mexico, heard it making "swoosh" noises.
Ashcraft is an amateur astronomer with a shortwave radio telescope. On Oct. 12th he tuned his receiver to 18.7 MHz and pointed the antenna at the sun. Although solar activity was supposedly low--yesterday we claimed the sun was "quiet"--he recorded some loud radio bursts: listen.
The source of these emissions was, apparently, old sunspot 798. Last month, sunspot 798 was enormous and very active. Did you see the auroras of Sept. 11th? Those were caused by sunspot 798.
Since then the 'spot has decayed. All that's left is a dark filament separating two vast regions of weak positive and negative magnetism.
This "ghost" of sunspot 798 is incapable of strong solar flares, but still capable of radio bursts. Compared to flares, radio bursts are low-energy; even a ghost can produce them.
Solar Radio Sweeps
All courtesy spaceweather.com

*The ghost of Sunspot 798 lingers still:

Was surprised to read this at spaceweather.com (photo is also courtesy that site):

This filament is just where sunspot 798 used to be. It traces a line of magnetic neutrality. On one side of the filament, magnetic force fields are positive (north); on the other side, negative (south). These force fields are weak now, but two months ago they were very strong, and when they bumped together--north against south--they produced some scary solar flares.

Two months later and it's still identifiable. Hmmmmm. Pic by J. Stetson of Maine, taken Nov. 8. Is being referred to as "a dark remnant."

--Cindy

SpaceNut · 2005-11-09 11:15:57

I am curious as to the element that makes up the filament. Since it has a north and south magnetization poles, is it possibly iron or is there another that at the extreme levels of heat would have such poles or orientations....

STEREO Spacecraft Arrive at NASA Goddard for Final Testing

The two Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft arrive at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. on Nov. 9 for major testing as they near completion. Set to launch in Spring 2006, STEREO is the first mission to image the sun and solar wind in 3-D. This new view is critical to improving our understanding of space weather and its impact to space and on Earth systems.

Nasa Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory

Palomar · 2005-11-13 23:57:24

http://www.thesurfaceofthesun.com

*Just now discovered this web site. Gave it a cursory look-over; seems very good. Is late at night, am signing off.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-11-15 12:09:46

*Thanks for posting that update about STEREO, SpaceNut.

The next big thing on Sol

Currently dubbed NOAA 822. Pic and info obtained from spaceweather.com. Says this baby is crackling with M-Class flares. Currently it is not pointed in our direction...but soon will be of course. Maybe some solar flares soon coming our way...

Will keep an eye on this pup.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-11-17 06:28:27

The next big thing on Sol
Currently dubbed NOAA 822. Pic and info obtained from spaceweather.com. Says this baby is crackling with M-Class flares. Currently it is not pointed in our direction...but soon will be of course. Maybe some solar flares soon coming our way...
Will keep an eye on this

*It's now officially Sunspot 822 and is aprox 140,000 km in diameter; roughly Jupiter-sized or a bit bigger.

Oceanside photo, setting Sun with 'Spot seen

The sunspot is turning to face our planet, increasing the chances of an Earth-directed eruption. Stay tuned.

I wonder if it'll rival Sunspot 798, which we kept tabs on recently. Guess we'll find out. They're so unpredictable; could go bonkers, could fizzle out.

--Cindy

P.S.: All info/pics from spaceweather.com.

::EDIT:: Sunspot 822 @ space.com's Image of the Day

That site rarely hosts photos of sunspots. I was hoping to get a photo of it to post here...guess my wish came true. The accompanying caption gives the best explanation of sunspot phenomena I've ever read.

Palomar · 2005-11-21 08:10:39

The next big thing on Sol
Currently dubbed NOAA 822. Pic and info obtained from spaceweather.com. Says this baby is crackling with M-Class flares. Currently it is not pointed in our direction...but soon will be of course. Maybe some solar flares soon coming our way...
Will keep an eye on this
It's now officially Sunspot 822 and is aprox 140,000 km in diameter; roughly Jupiter-sized or a bit bigger.
I wonder if it'll rival Sunspot 798, which we kept tabs on recently. Guess we'll find out. They're so unpredictable; could go bonkers, could fizzle out.

*Sunspot 822 is apparently fizzling out:

SUBSIDING SUNSPOT: Sunspot 822 is decaying and now poses little threat for strong solar flares. It is still, however, a big sunspot...If you have a properly filtered solar telescope, be sure to look at sunspot 822 this week before it fades away.

That's from spaceweather.com.

Perhaps it'll surprise astronomers and go ballistic tomorrow, teehee. It's happened before...[c'mon, 822, give us a riproaring farewell! Life's too short...especially for you sunspots.] :twisted:

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-11-26 07:21:34

Get your 3D glasses out

*Stereo view of Sol. It's a composite image, and the starfield was added.

Sunspot 822 is rotating over the Sun's western limb. Last I read it was Neptune-sized, didn't produce much in the way of solar weather (considering what it could have done), but is currently projecting prominences.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-11-29 06:43:05

SOHO Celebrates 10 Years

*Incidental discoveries too: Over 1,000 near-Sun comets discovered. Scientists even figured out a way use SOHO to probe Sol's far side.

Highlights:

The mission has revealed the true nature of the Sun's violent atmosphere as it flings clouds into space and as huge magnetic loops tie themselves in knots to generate solar flare explosions. Scientists have discovered that the solar atmosphere is riddled with Earth-sized explosions and occasional tornadoes and the mission has also revealed how the interior of the Sun rotates. SOHO has even discovered over 1000 comets as they pass close to the Sun - a world record. Sophisticated observations have allowed scientists to monitor the far-side of the Sun and instruments have enabled weather maps of the Sun's atmosphere - probing temperatures, densities, solar wind speeds and even what the Sun is made of, from a distance of 150 million km.

--Cindy

SpaceNut · 2005-12-13 13:41:29

Another article on stereo (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatories ):

NASA readies for 3D view of the sun

Palomar · 2005-12-16 06:49:41

Some "beaches"

The white regions surrounding these two sunspots (822 and 835) are plage--French for beaches. Plage are made of seething-hot magnetic "flux tubes" that poke through the surface of the sun, rising into the sun's atmosphere where they glow brightly. These deadly-hot beaches are beautifully revealed by "CaK" filters tuned to the violet glow of solar calcium. Gary Palmer took this picture using a Coronado SolarMax90 CaK telescope on Dec. 14th.

*I wish Sol would do something exciting for the holidays. Like grow a chain of humongous 'spots which all go ballistic with CME's (not directly facing Earth)... C'mon Sol, you're the ultimate Ornament.

47 is the 'spot count. The largest are about as big as pepperflakes by comparison to the disc.

Photo and caption courtesy spaceweather.com

--Cindy

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2006-01-20 07:18:46

ESAmission : Study magnetosphere using 4 cluster formation
http://www.newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4219

Satellites see largest jet of particles created between Sun and Earth
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=18733
A flotilla of space-weather satellites – ESA's Cluster and NASA's ACE and Wind - observed for the first time steady large-scale jets of charged particles in the solar wind between the Sun and Earth

Solar Orbiter describes exactly what the spacecraft will do - it will orbit the Sun
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMTWG1A6BD_index_0.html
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/obj...objectid=38633
17 Jan 2006
The assessment study of the Solar Orbiter has addressed all mission areas, from the scientific requirements to the payload complement, the space and ground segments, and the respective technology readiness, including all corresponding programmatic aspects.

Palomar · 2006-02-07 16:34:19

*There's no little black spots on the Sun today [or the 8 previous]:

SPOTLESS SUN: The sunspot number has been zero for nine consecutive days--the longest stretch of blank suns since October 1996. This is a clear sign that solar minimum has arrived. Solar activity should remain low, although surprises are possible.

From spaceweather.com. I'd noticed quite a few spotless days, but didn't realize it was 9.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2006-07-31 10:34:55

*This is a "first"...first I've seen, anyway.

On July 29th, an enormous, ring-shaped coronal mass ejection (CME) billowed over the sun's western limb:
Earth won't feel a thing; the ring is not heading in our direction. Even if the ring did come our way, however, it still might miss." The inner hollow is more than 200 Earth diameters wide--plenty of room for a heavenly hole-in-one.

From spaceweather.com

Palomar · 2006-12-08 13:51:20

Solar Tsunami

That's SOME energy ripple. Ka-POW!

Palomar · 2007-02-07 07:11:51

Ulysses (ESA/NASA) flyby of Sol's south pole TODAY (Feb. 7)

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007 … thpole.htm

Only two previous flybys of Sol's poles.

The sun's north magnetic north pole sticks out the south end of the sun. Magnetically, the sun is upside down!
"Most people don't know it, but we have the same situation here on Earth"

There are holes over the sun's poles--"coronal holes."

Just as the sun's polar magnetic field allows solar wind out, it also allows galactic cosmic rays in. Could the space above the sun's poles be a place where we can sample interstellar matter without actually leaving the solar system? "That's what we thought before our first polar flyby in 1994," recalls Posner. "But we were wrong.

That's new to me (allows galactic cosmic rays in).

Another mystery: There is evidence from earlier flybys that the north pole and the south pole of the sun have different temperatures. "We're not sure why this should be," says Posner, "and we're anxious to learn if it is still the case."

Me too.

Today's south polar flyby will be followed by a north polar flyby in early 2008, allowing a direct north vs. south comparison.

God's lightbulb is SO groovy.

Palomar · 2007-02-21 09:58:42

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0 … spole.html

Intense solar storms raging at Sol's south pole (Ulysses discovery). This is a surprise, considering Sol's currently at minimum (sunspot cycle).

Also, the south pole is currently cooler than the north pole.

Palomar · 2007-03-22 06:14:33

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/21...hromosphere.htm

Japan's "Hinode" (which means "sunrise") returning some surprising results, one of which concerns activity in the chromosphere. Will download that movie later (can't spare the time/energy with work-related downloading). Cool.

A magnetic vortex almost as big as Earth races across your computer screen, twisting, turning, finally erupting in a powerful solar flare.

This particular movie is visually stunning, but the most amazing thing about it, notes Davis, is where the scene unfolded--in the sun's chromosphere. "We used to think the chromosphere was a fairly uneventful place, but Hinode is shattering those misconceptions."

Further into the article:

There is nothing gentle, however, about "spicules" shooting into the chromosphere from the underlying photosphere. "These are jets of gas as big as Texas," says Davis. "They rise and fall on time scales of 10 minutes."

Palomar · 2007-05-22 12:54:08

Tracing Sol's Family Tree...

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0705...sun_family.html

New research into the chemical composition of stars could identify our Sun's long lost family

They're examining 3 open clusters in our Galaxy.

Our Sun was born in an open cluster some 4.6 billion years ago, growing alongside its sibling stars like grapes on a vine

Aawwwww. I bet they were cute.

Meteorites hold evidence for this close companionship in that they contain traces of the radioactive decay of the isotope Iron-60 which is only produced when a large star explodes in a supernova.

Cool.

The VLT data obtained has now confirmed the stars in each open cluster have their own distinctive "flavor."

Ours tastes like chocolate. Or peach pie...

"The main result was that the member stars of each cluster shared the same chemical composition. Such chemical homogeneity is expected if all the stars are formed together within the same parent gas cloud..."

The preservation of chemical identity could one day enable the identification of the Sun's errant siblings. These stars lost touch with our own billions of years ago when our unstable open cluster dispersed

...and they don't even send postcards to each other. :-\

but these stars cannot conceal their roots.

They can avoid gift exchanges, Thanksgiving and the annual family reunion picnic...but they cannot conceal their roots.

Wherever in the galaxy they may now lurk, these stars will "taste" like our Sun and betray their origins in much the same way wines from a particular vineyard are unmistakable to an expert.

"To do this sort of 'chemical tagging' we need to have quality high resolution spectroscopic data. The upcoming ESA's GAIA mission will surely give a boost to testing these techniques, plus future high efficiency spectrographs on Extremely Large telescopes will also provide much of the required data..."

Happy hunting!

--Cindy

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2007-05-26 07:09:18

NASA SOHO Spacecraft Aids in Forecast of Solar Radiation Storms
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=22708

Upcoming events : Seismology of Magnetic Activity
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object … ctid=40934

Palomar · 2008-01-09 08:42:37

Solar Cycle 24 begins

From spaceweather.com (Jan 5):

Solar physicists have been waiting for the appearance of a reversed-polarity sunspot to signal the start of the next solar cycle. The wait is over. Yesterday, a magnetically reversed sunspot emerged at solar latitude 30 N, shown in this photo taken by Greg Piepol of Rockville, Maryland:

http://www.sungazer.net/010308a.html

If that doesn't show up it's posted at spaceweather.com date Jan. 5.

For reasons explained in a recent Science@NASA story, this marks the beginning of Solar Cycle 24 and the first step toward a new solar maximum. Intense solar activity won't begin right away. Solar cycles usually take a few years to build from solar minimum (where we are now) to Solar Max (expected in 2011 or 2012). It's a slow journey, but we're on our way!

Yay! Come on massive chains of sunspots and raging CME's!

By then I'll have my Corona solar telescope. 8)

Palomar · 2008-01-15 07:17:27

NORTH POLE FLYBY: This week, at a pivotal moment in the solar cycle, the ESA/NASA Ulysses spacecraft is flying over the sun's North Pole. The sun's polar regions are central to the ebb and flow of solar cycles, so this is a good time to visit.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008 … thpole.htm

Many researchers believe the sun's poles are central to the ebb and flow of the solar cycle. Consider the following: When sunspots break up, their decaying magnetic fields are carried toward the poles by vast currents of plasma. This makes the poles a sort of "graveyard for sunspots." Old magnetic fields sink beneath the polar surface two hundred thousand kilometers deep, all the way down to the sun's inner magnetic dynamo. There, dynamo action amplifies the fields for use in future solar cycles

One big puzzle revealed by previous flybys is the temperature of the sun's poles. In the previous solar cycle, the magnetic north pole was about 80,000 degrees or 8% cooler than the south. Why should there be a difference? No one knows.
The current flyby may help solve the puzzle because it comes less than a year after a similar South Pole flyby in Feb. 2007. Mission scientists will be able to compare temperature measurements, north vs. south, with hardly any gap between them.

Palomar · 2008-04-01 06:28:59

And it's about time. Dang that stupid Sun; we'll get it to cooperate one way or another.

SOLAR MAX RESCHDULED: Impatient with the quiet sun, NASA researchers have rescheduled solar maximum. The peak was due in 2012, but now it's going to happen this month. "We've launched millions of dollars worth of spacecraft to study solar activity, and what are we getting? Puny little A-flares and feeble old sunspots," complained a high-ranking source at NASA headquarters. "We need some real explosions! Rescheduling Solar Max should solve the problem."

Yay!

News of the shift was announced on April 1st.

That from spaceweather.com

Mars_B4_Moon · 2021-11-28 14:27:56

Parker Solar Probe Completes a Record-Setting Swing by the Sun

http://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/News … icleID=172

New Mars Forums

Announcement

#76 2005-10-13 04:59:26

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#97 2008-01-09 08:42:37

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