X-FLARE! Big sunspot AR1520 unleashed an X1.4-class solar flare on July 12th. Because the sunspot is directly facing Earth, everything about the blast was geoeffective. For one thing, it hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) directly toward our planet. According to a forecast track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the CME will hit Earth on July 14th around 10:20 UT (+/- 7 hours) and could spark strong geomagnetic storms. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras this weekend. Geomagnetic storm alerts: text, voice.

The explosion also strobed Earth with a pulse of extreme UV radiation, shown here in a movie recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:

The UV pulse partially ionized Earth's upper atmosphere, disturbing the normal propagation of radio signals around the planet. Monitoring stations in Norway, Ireland and Italy recorded the sudden ionospheric disturbance.

Finally, solar protons accelerated by the blast are swarming around Earth. The radiation storm, in progress, ranks "S1" on NOAA space weather scales, which means it poses no serious threat to satellites or astronauts. This could change if the storm continues to intensify. Stay tuned.

Sun Flaring

"ALMOST X-FLARE: Big sunspot AR1515 erupted on July 2nd at 10:52 UT, producing an M5.6-class solar flare that almost crossed the threshold into X-territory. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash:
 ...

A pulse of x-rays and UV radiation from the flare illuminated Earth's upper atmosphere, producing waves of ionization over Europe. Such waves alter the propagation of low-frequency radio transmissions. In Lofoten, Norway, Rob Stammes recorded the ionospheric disturbance using a 60 kHz receiver: data.

The eruption also hurled a CME into space, but not directly toward Earth. The south-traveling cloud could deliver a glancing blow to our planet's magnetosphere on July 4th or 5th. Stay tuned for updates. [SDO movie]"

click on image to download

from Spaceweather.com

Us-niverse

via

Vesta Visit

... and a funny comment from the Youtube page:

This is why we have nothing to fear from AI robots. Why would you sit around on Earth farming humans when you could spend your thousands-of-years lifespan watching youtube? I mean, soaring through space? crewnumber169

Earth tripping

From APOD today:

Flying Over the Earth at Night
Video Credit: Gateway to Astronaut Photography, NASA ; Compilation: Bitmeizer (YouTube);
Music: Freedom Fighters (Two Steps from Hell)

Explanation: Many wonders are visible when flying over the Earth at night. A compilation of such visual spectacles was captured recently from the International Space Station (ISS) and set to rousing music. Passing below are white clouds, orange city lights, lightning flashes in thunderstorms, and dark blue seas. On the horizon is the golden haze of Earth's thin atmosphere, frequently decorated by dancing auroras as the video progresses. The green parts of auroras typically remain below the space station, but the station flies right through the red and purple auroral peaks. Solar panels of the ISS are seen around the frame edges. The ominous wave of approaching brightness at the end of each sequence is just the dawn of the sunlit half of Earth, a dawn that occurs every 90 minutes.

Eclipse

First in a brand new saros cycle today, the eclipse was near Antarctica, and over the next 18 years-plus will wend it's way up to the Arctic.

 

Astronomers Studying an Eclipse painted by Antoine Caron in 1571

from

Venus Rising

"Now it is time for Venus to emerge from the light of the Sun, any day now, as the heliacal rising planet. Keep your eye on the pre-dawn sky, as many star priests and priestesses have done through millennia. This is just about the strongest position any planet or star can take, announcing the day."

— M. Kelley Hunter

Venus [rising], Orion and Sirius by Tristan Gooley @ The Natural Navigator

            "The Lady of the Morning is radiant on the horizon.

             Honored Counselor, Ornament of Heaven…
             When sweet sleep has ended in the bedchamber,
             You appear like bright daylight.

             You render a cruel judgment against the evildoer;
             You destroy the wicked.
             You look with kindly eyes on the straightforward;
             You give that one your blessing."

— from a hymn to Inanna, as given in Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth 

   by Wolkstein and Kramer, via Cosmic News by  M. Kelley Hunter

The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli
(look at all those wonderful, beautiful pudges!
forget the Twiggies, Bunchens, et al... Botticelli is the word!)

APOD - Astronomy Picture of the Day

Venus and the Moon at dawn, Nov 5, 2010

Total Solar Eclipse

Tomorrow there will be a total solar eclipse.
We'll not be seeing it here where I live, but at the southernmost part of the country, right before sunset, the end of the eclipse may be seen, if not cloudy.

First Light

From Minas, a short hop to our Sun....
Courtesy Nasa's Sun Dynamics Observatory - SDO First Light

from Solar Dynamics Laboratory

Smileys are from Mars!

I love smileys!

Both the traditional ones with the yellow faces, and others that soon followed.
With the advent of msn (there named "emoticons") they have proliferated and have become delightfully animated.

I've been collecting them for a while now — I know, I know: a totally infantile pastime. I guess it nourishes part of my inner child. (I do hope that's what it is!)

What I didn't know until recently:

The First Smiley is from Mars!

Just goes to show that the War God has a lighter side... or smileys a meaner.

 The iconic Smiley

(the Earthling version!)

The Martian Ancestor

The First Picture: 1976 Viking I Mission

Originaly called "Happy Face" Crater, the Original Smiley is the Galle Crater on Mars.

Seasons

Today is the our Autumn Equinox, exact at 14:33.
The Earth will slowly slide into longer nights, shorter daylight.

This year I'm rather relieved at this, as we'll soon be having cooler weather.
Also, with the colder nights, "cold" for us that is, The Very Noisy Neighbors tend to quiet down, much to my relief.

When I read about the reasons for the having seasons here on Earth, many explanations say something like "the tilt of Earth's axis changes, thus receiving more or less sunlight in the southern or northern hemisphere". But that is rather falacious, implying that the Earth changes its tilt, that it "moves about", from an angle of 23°plus to one side of a "vertical axis", swinging to the 23°plus on the other side.
The axis does not change: it always "points" in the same direction. It is the Earth's movement on its orbit around the Sun that causes the effect of more sunlight in one hemisphere than the other.

Below, a very cool interactive site that lets you "play" with the perspective, the viewpoint, and the Earth's orbit, which makes it very easy to see the mechanics of the seasons:

This is an image of the flash site. 

Click HERE to go there: 
http://astro.unl.edu/naap/motion1/animations/seasons_ecliptic.swf

Old Moon and Sister Stars

APOD - Astronomy Picture of the Day - 29.06.2006

Credit & Copyright: Vincent Jacques

Explanation: An old crescent Moon shares the eastern sky over Menton, France with the sister stars of the Pleiades cluster in this early morning skyscape recorded just last Friday, June 23rd. (Bright Venus was also near the eastern horizon, but is not pictured here.) Astronomical images of the well-known Pleiades often show the cluster's alluring blue reflection nebulae, but they are washed out here by the bright moonlight. Still, while the crescent Moon is overexposed, surface features can be seen on the dim lunar night side illuminated by earthshine - light from sunlit planet Earth. Of course, you can spot a young crescent Moon in the early evening sky tonight. Having left the Pleiades behind, a lovely lunar crescent now appears in the west, lining up with planets Mars, Saturn, and Mercury along the solar system's ecliptic plane.

Beauteous

From an email from my friend Mari.
Beauty for the soul, after a looong, tiring day!

Para quem gosta de uma boa fotografia...
26 de Janeiro em Perth, na Austrália, uma multidão juntou-se numa praia local para testemunhar um espetáculo de fogos de artifício. Entretanto, um raio apareceu do lado direito.
Mas o mais inesperado foi, entre estas duas manifestações de luz, aparecer uma terceira, o Cometa McNaught, visível no hemisfério sul.
Um autêntico três-em-um que resultou nesta foto fantástica.

"For those who enjoy good photography...
On January 26 in Perth, Australia, a crowd gathered a a local beach to see a fireworks show.
Suddenly, to the right, a lightning bolt fell.
And, between these two manifesttions of light, there was a third: the McNaught Comet, visible in the southern hemisphere.
A true three-in-one that resulted in this fantástic photo:"

Click to enlarge

Far Side of the Moon

Far side of the Moon
from: Federation of American Scientists
Section 19: The Solar System and Planetary Exploration

Hideaway

"Hideaway"

Illustration Credit & Copyright: Inga Nielsen
from APOD 20 June 2006 - "Hideaway"

Update: Inga Nielson's site Gate to Nowhere