<<TIMEWATCHER'S>> DAILY SPACE/SUN NEWS((UPDATES DAILY OR AS NEEDED)) 4MIN NEWS UPDATE 05/17/2013 "How to Watch the Sun"

, 5

02/01/2013

Picture of the Day: Spiral Galaxy NGC 3621

NGC 3621 is a bright spiral galaxy of some 93,000 light-years across, located about 22 million light-years away in the constellation of Hydra (The Sea Snake). It is moving away from us at approximately 727 kilometers per second.

NGC 3621 is a truly remarkable galaxy. Like other spirals, it has a flat disk permeated by dark lanes of material and with prominent spiral arms where young stars are forming in clusters (the blue dots seen in the image). But while most spiral galaxies have a central bulge — a large group of old stars packed in a compact, spheroidal region — this galaxy doesn’t. There is simply a brightening to the centre, but no actual bulge. Thus, NGC 3621 is a pure-disk galaxy.

The galaxy has a flat, elliptical pancake shape, indicating that it hasn’t yet come face to face with another galaxy as such a galactic collision would have disturbed the thin disk of stars, creating a bulge in its center.

PICTURE AT LINK: [link to annesastronomynews.com]


Russia-launched satellite plunges into Pacific: official

A Russian rocket carrying a US telecommunications satellite plunged into the Pacific Ocean on Friday only moments after being launched from a mobile sea platform in Moscow's latest space failure.

The rocket may have veered off course from the moment of take-off because of heavy waves battering the former northern seas oil platform, initial reports said.

The Intelsat-27's loss means the giant Boeing aerospace corporation would for now be unable to fit the final piece of a constellation mean to provide TV feeds across Europe and the United States.

"There was an accident during the Zenit rocket launch," a source at the Energia corporation that makes the Zenit-3SL rocket used to lift up Intelsat satellites told AFP.

LINK: [link to www.space-travel.com]

South Korean Satellite Makes First Contact with Ground

After a successful Wednesday launch, South Korea's scientific satellite made its first contact with a ground station on Thursday, the Yonhap news agency said.

The country's Satellite Technology Research Center at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon announced that the first communication contact with the Science and Technology Satellite 2C (STSAT 2C) was made at 3:27 a.m. local time on Thursday [6:27 p.m. Wednesday GMT]

The homegrown 140-ton Korean Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), also known as Naro, delivered the satellite to orbit on Wednesday afternoon, becoming the country's first space success following two unsuccessful attempts in 2009 and 2010.

LINK: [link to www.spacedaily.com]

AAS Division For Planetary Sciences Issues Statement On Mars 2020 Program

The following statement from the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences was prepared in collaboration with the Planetary Society, the American Geophysical Union's Planetary Science Section, and the Geological Society of America's Planetary Geology Division

"NASA recently announced a return to Mars in 2020 with a new rover derived from the MSL Curiosity design. Continued exploration of Mars is crucial to the scientific community and important for building upon our decades-long investment in technology and engineering capability.

"We strongly believe that the mission should carry a payload consistent with the recommendations given in the National Research Council's decadal survey for planetary science, Vision and Voyages. It is of the utmost importance that NASA and Congress follow the recommendations laid forth in the Decadal Survey in order to maximize science return and support a balanced and affordable approach to exploration in our solar system.

LINK: [link to www.marsdaily.com]


TW Hydrae: There's more to astronomers' favorite planetary nursery than previously thought

Using ESA's Herschel Space Telescope, astronomers including Thomas Henning from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg have used a new method to determine the mass of the planetary nursery around the star TW Hydrae. At a distance of merely 176 light-years from Earth, this is the closest star that is currently forming new planets - hence one of the most important objects for astronomers studying planet formation.

The precise new measurement shows a much larger mass for TW Hydrae's disk than in previous studies, indicating that the system could be forming planets similar to those of our own Solar System. The study is published in the January 31 issue of the journal Nature.

Where Egyptologists have their Rosetta Stone and geneticists their Drosophila fruit flies, astronomers studying planet formation have TW Hydrae: A readily accessible sample object with the potential to provide foundations for an entire area of study.

TW Hydrae is a young star with about the same mass as the Sun. It is surrounded by a protoplanetary disk: a disk of dense gas and dust in which small grains of ice and dust clump to form larger objects and, eventually, into planets. This is how our Solar System came into being more than 4 billion years ago.

LINK: [link to www.spacedaily.com]

Sun News 02/01/2013

Issued: 2013 Feb 01 1230 UTC
Prepared by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center

Solar Activity

.24 hr Summary...
Solar activity was very low. The largest flare of the period was a B6
flare at 01/0342 UTC from Region 1665 (N12E30). A new Region emerged
from the northeast limb and was numbered as Region 1667 (N24E69). The
rest of the spotted regions were relatively stable. After further
analysis of the filament eruption in the northeast quadrant at
approximately 31/1543 UTC (SDO AIA 304 imagery), the resulting CME
appeared to be directed off the northeast limb and is not expected to be
geoeffective.

.Forecast...
Solar activity is expected to continue at very low levels with a chance
for C-class flares for the forecast period (01-03 Feb).

Energetic Particle

.24 hr Summary...
The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was at
normal to moderate levels. The greater than 10 MeV proton flux at
geosynchronous orbit was at background levels.

.Forecast...
The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected
to be at normal to moderate levels. The greater than 10 MeV proton flux
at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at background levels.

Solar Wind

.24 hr Summary...
Solar wind speed, measured at the ACE spacecraft, ranged from
approximately 300 km/s to 350 km/s. The total field ranged from 2 to 7
nT while the Bz component of the interplanetary magnetic field did not
vary much beyond +4/-5 nT.

.Forecast...
A coronal hole high speed stream is expected to become geoeffective on
day 2 (02 Feb) causing an enhancement to solar wind speeds followed by a
glancing blow from the 31 January CME on 03 February. The latest WSA
ENLIL model run suggests wind speeds of approximately 450 km/s.

Geospace

.24 hr Summary...
The geomagnetic field was quiet.

.Forecast...
The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet on day 1 (01 Feb). On day
2 (02 Feb), an increase to quiet to unsettled levels is expected as a
coronal hole high speed stream moves into geoeffective position. By day
3 (03 Feb), continued coronal hole effects combined with a glancing blow
from the 31 January CME are expected to cause unsettled to active levels
with a slight chance for periods of minor storming.

LINK: [link to www.solarham.net]

Flux level data

LINK: [link to www.solarham.net]


Space Weather Alerts and Warnings Timeline

LINK: [link to www.solarham.net]

3MIN News February 1, 2013: Quake Watch Update, Solar Magnetics


Last Edited by <<TIMEWATCHER>> on 02/03/2013 12:30 PM

Excellent thread/ idea OP-

so important now to track and keep a running record of these developments/ changes.

(Halcyon Dayz, FCD) Gave me the Idea, Big thanks to him

B U M P and 5*'s to both then!

Will be interesting to see what affects 2012DA14 will have as it approaches/ passes on Feb. 15/16, and ISON later this year- bigger perturbations and a much bigger concern imo.

I count myself lucky to be here to witness all of this, in an age where we have the technology to observe, and share information (separating the wheat from the chaff, of course ;).
I find your threads to be sound, informative, and enjoyable- keep up the very good work!

Seeing the Aurora in a New Light: Sounding Rocket to Help Scientists Study Northern Lights

On a cold February night in Poker Flat, Alaska, a team of scientists will wait patiently for the exotic red and green glow of an aurora to illuminate the sky. Instead of simply admiring the view, this group from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center of Greenbelt, Md., and The Aerospace Corporation of El Segundo, Calif. will launch a sounding rocket up through the Northern Lights. The rocket could launch as early as the night of Feb. 2, 2013, but the team has a two-week window in order to find the perfect launch conditions.

LINK: [link to www.sciencedaily.com]

From One Laurel to Another: a Letter from Columbia

On this Day of Remembrance, February 1, 2013, NASA will mark the 10th anniversary of the STS-107 Columbia accident with a wreath-laying ceremony at the astronaut memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, paying tribute to the lost crews of Columbia, Challenger and Apollo 1, as well as other space explorers and NASA colleagues who have passed on. Most of us have our own personal memories of the tragic events that took the lives of these brave few who risked everything in the name of exploration, knowledge, and discovery, and I’ve agreed to share one person’s connection to the Columbia crew.

Laurel Nendza, a fellow space blogger over on that social media site that begins with F and rhymes with “acebook,” has a particular connection with STS-107 Mission Specialist Laurel B. Clark… if only that they both love space and share the same first name. Still, it’s enough to hang one’s heart on, and Laurel (the blogger) recently posted a particularly touching note that was sent by Laurel (the astronaut) to her family just before Columbia headed back on its ill-fated return trip home. Here’s Laurel’s (and Laurel’s) story:
On February 1, 2003, the seven [STS-107] crew members were lost with the Space Shuttle Columbia over North Texas during the shuttle’s re-entry. They were brave men and women who gave their lives for space exploration.

Read more: [link to www.universetoday.com]

No comparison between space programs of two Koreas

The U.S. government made clear Thursday that it makes no sense to compare the rocket launches of the two Koreas.

"You know our view that there is no basis for comparing the behavior of the ROK in space with the behavior of the DPRK," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said at a press briefing.

She was using the acronym of the formal names of the Koreas -- the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Earlier in the day, South Korea succeeded in its third attempt to put a scientific satellite into orbit. South Korea has secured communication with the satellite at 3:27 a.m. (local time).

Nuland confirmed that South Korea's launch was successful, citing an assessment by U.S. officials who observed it.

South Korea has become the 11th nation to send a rocket out of the planet, although the realization of its long-time goal has been a bit overshadowed by a successful launch by North Korea over a month earlier.

The U.S., however, drew a clear line between the two in terms of the transparency of their programs.

"The DPRK (North Korea), obviously, is completely proscribed under binding U.N. Security Council resolutions from -- based on its ballistic missile activity -- from any kind of launching, whereas the ROK (South Korea) has developed its space launch program completely responsibly," she said.

LINK: [link to www.spacedaily.com]

Planet Alert February 2013

January was very challenging for many people. What a month that was with all the flu and colds that were going around and more stuff from the past coming up to be looked at and released. We were moving through the sign of Capricorn which is ruled by Saturn, and Saturn is in the sign of Scorpio. This means there was the interchange between those two planets. Saturn rules karma and old stuff, and Pluto rules transformation. The energy felt very heavy last month, at least to me.

Now the sun is moving through the sign of Aquarius, which is ruled by Uranus. This is the planet of change, and Uranus is in the sign of Aries which means this month will bring us some kind of new beginning. We are getting closer to the Spring Equinox in March. This is when the Sun moves into the sign of Aries and we will start the astrological New Year. I am really looking forward to spring. I can hardly wait until the flowers start blooming.

I think many of us were looking forward to being in a new energy after December 21, 2012, and thinking everything would be alright from now on. The new energy is here, although we need to adjust to it so we can create what we choose to experience. We are in the time when what we think manifests almost instantly. This means to really pay attention to what you think, and focus on “Thinking with your heart”.

There was a Super Nova in February of 1987. After that we had the Harmonic Convergence which pushed us into a new time-line. This year the Bubbles at the center of our galaxy erupted, and it is like a huge fountain ejecting all kinds of magnetic energy into our galaxy. Magnetic energy is blue. Could this be what the Hopi talk about as the blue star dancing in the heavens? This event was stronger than thousands of Super Nova, and was announced on January 2, 2013 when the Sun was at the closest point to Earth. What will this cause on Earth? The saying is “As above-So below” because we are all one. We are already feeling this new energy.

We are getting ready to enter The Year of the Water Snake on February 9, 2013 at 11:20 PM PST. There will be more water events this year. Water also rules emotions and it rules spirituality. We are still in the year of the Storm in the Dreamspell calendar. Saturn is in Scorpio which is a water sign, Neptune is in Pisces which is another water sign, and Jupiter moves into Cancer in June. Jupiter moves into forward motion today (January 30) and this is a huge planet so we will start to see things moving forward. It’s time to tune into the new energy.

The Water Snake is more compassionate than the other types of snakes. This snake is gifted with strong charisma and is very inquisitive. It is shrewd in business and is materialistic. This snake possesses great mental abilities and powers of concentration. He can brush aside unimportant issues for effective overall planning. He never gets out of touch with reality. This snake is good at managing people and finances. Sounds like the economy might improve.

This year will be good for those who are able to tune into the higher frequency Earth. For those who are not able to do that yet there will be lots of challenges. Scorpio and Pluto rule the dark side of life. Scorpio rules the very depth of darkness and Pluto is transforming this darkness into light. This means that a lot of dark stuff will be brought out into the open to be looked at and transformed. Scorpio also has the symbol of the high flying eagle for those who have balanced their dark side. Hopefully a lot of people will reach for the eagle in the next two years.

These dark dramas are being played out by many different people. The most recent drama is about Lance Armstrong. He is really shaking up the field of sports. Everyone will have to look at the use of performance enhancing drugs and how unfair that is to the other performers. This is just one example. These dramas are being played out in all areas of life, including governments, financial systems, and the Vatican.

With Pluto in Capricorn lots of governments, businesses, corporations and structures have been coming down and new structures are being built. Look at all of the Earth changes that are happening and all of the houses and other structures that are gone. It sure has been hard on the people who have had to endure these changes. They have gone through their own personal Armageddon.

REST AT LINK: [link to blog.mahalasastrology.com]

Great idea Timewatcher for a Thread - Perhaps you could run this one in tandem with our SolarWatch Thread



Last Edited by Spittin'Cesium on 02/01/2013 11:10 AM

5

This was my favorite coronal hole...

that coronal hole looks quite a bit like USA

02/02/2013

Pictures of the Day

The Cat’s Paw Nebula

The Cat’s Paw Nebula (NGC 6334) is an emission nebula of about 50 light-years across, located some 5,500 light-years away in the constellation of Scorpius, while crawling toward us at approximately 1.6 kilometer per second. The nebula resembles a huge paw print in the sky, hence it’s nickname.

This vast region of star formation is one of the most active nurseries of massive stars in our galaxy, where numerous bright blue stars, nearly ten times the mass of our Sun, have been born in the past few million years. The complex region of gas and dust is also home to many baby stars that are buried deep in the dust. In total, the Cat’s Paw Nebula could contain several tens of thousands of stars.

Particularly striking is the red, intricate bubble in the lower right part of the image. This is most likely either a star expelling large amount of matter at high speed as it nears the end of its life or the remnant of a star that already has exploded.

The Cat’s Paw Nebula is very close to the equator of our Milky Way galaxy, and is seen through thick dusty clouds. The dust both scatters and absorbs blue light along our line of sight, giving this nebula a deep red hue. This color originates predominantly from an abundance of hydrogen gas, glowing under the intense glare of hot young stars.

LINK WITH PICTURE: [link to annesastronomynews.com]

Dead Sea Sinkholes

Sinkholes are depressions or holes in the land surface caused by karst processes that generally takes place slowly but can open suddenly, drawing in everything above. These craters, abundant on the western side of the Dead Sea (near Ein Gedi, Israel), stem from a severe water shortage, magnified in recent years by the reduction in the amount of water flowing in the Sea's main tributary, the Jordan River. The Dead Sea's water level has declined over 80 ft (25 m) from 1939 to 1999 -- it's now shrunk by about one third of its mid-1960s volume.

These swallow holes or sinkholes form when a subterranean salt layer, buried about 65-230 ft (20–70 m) beneath the surface that once bordered the sea, is dissolved by underground fresh water. As the sea level drops, groundwater from adjacent aquifers flows in to replace the retreating seawater. This fresh water meets a layer of rocky salts and dissolves it, creating an underground void. The surface usually stays intact until there's no longer sufficient support, when a sudden collapse can happen.

LINK WITH PICTURE: [link to epod.usra.edu]

Herschel's Andromeda

This infrared view from the Herschel Space Observatory explores the Andromeda Galaxy, the closest large spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way.

LINK WITH PICTURE: [link to apod.nasa.gov]

Lack Of Dwarf Galaxies Around Milky Way Perplexes Physicists

Studying the physics of the universe can be a controversial and often contradictory proposition, with theories and calculations often not matching with observations.

However, new research from Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam in Germany, has shed some light on one situation involving differences between theory and observation.

Scientists at the institute have found that a phenomenon known as “cosmic web stripping” is responsible for the lack of dwarf galaxies near the Milky Way that should be there according to the theory of cold dark matter and dark energy.

Based on the last two decades of observational data, astrophysicists have determined that the universe is composed of 75 percent dark energy, 20 percent dark matter and 5 percent ordinary matter.

Contrary to what you might see on paranormal investigation reality shows, dark energy is the term used to describe a theoretical form of energy that permeates the entire universe and causes the expansion of the universe to accelerate.

Dark matter cannot be seen directly, but its effects can be observed through its manipulation of visible matter and radiation. Its unseen mass can warp light and radiation from nearby stars and this effect can be observed using modern technology. Astrophysicists came to acknowledge the existence of dark matter when they determined that there is more mass in the universe than what is visible.

Throughout the universe, galaxies and matter bunch together into an intricate network of filaments and voids that scientists refer to as the cosmic web. Supercomputer simulations designed to model the cosmic web have shown that there should be a large number of dwarf galaxies, about one thousandth the mass of the Milky Way, within relatively close proximity to Earth–about 10,000,000 light years. However, only a few of these galaxies have been seen orbiting the Milky Way.

LINK: [link to www.redorbit.com]

Alien Moons May Be Easier to Photograph Than Planets

Scientists looking for habitable worlds to photograph could have better luck searching for moons than for alien planets, scientists say. A moon heated by the pull of its parent planet could be visible even when the planet is hidden from view.

Powered by gravitational tugging from a planet, these exomoons would remain bright throughout their lifetimes, not just in their youth. This means stars of various ages could be hosting planets with photogenic moons.

LINK: [link to www.space.com]

Night Sky: Visible Planets, Moon Phases & Events, February 2013

The night sky tonight and on any clear night offers an ever-changing display of fascinating objects you can see, from stars and constellations to bright planets, often the moon, and sometimes special events like meteor showers. Observing the night sky can be done with no special equipment, although a sky map can be very useful, and a good beginner telescope or binoculars will enhance some experiences and bring some otherwise invisible objects into view.

Complete list of what's in View this Month: [link to www.space.com]

Sun News 02/02/2013

Issued: 2013 Feb 02 1230 UTC
Prepared by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center

Solar Activity

.24 hr Summary...
Solar activity reached low levels due to a C1 flare at 02/0511 UTC from
Region 1665 (N11E17). Slight growth was observed in Region 1667
(N22E56). Slight decay was observed in Region 1663 (S09W43). A
filament eruption was observed in SDO/AIA 304 imagery beginning at
01/2100 UTC. A subsequent CME was seen off the southeast in SOHO/LASCO
C2 imagery beginning at 01/2212 UTC. The majority of the ejecta was
directed off the southeast limb and is not expected to be geoeffective.

.Forecast...
Solar activity is expected to be very low with a chance for C-class
flares for the forecast period (02-04 Feb).

Energetic Particle

.24 hr Summary...
The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was at
normal levels. The greater than 10 MeV proton flux at geosynchronous
orbit was at background levels.

.Forecast...
The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected
to be at normal to moderate levels. The greater than 10 MeV proton flux
at geosynchronous orbit is expected to continue at background levels.

Solar Wind

.24 hr Summary...
Solar wind speed, measured at the ACE spacecraft, was relatively
constant near 340-350 km/s until just after 01/2030 UTC when an increase
in wind speed and temperature was observed. Wind speed rose to a
maximum near 480 km/s while total field increased from 4 nT to 11 nT.
The Bz component of the IMF fluctuated between +/- 9 nT. Phi angle was
predominantly negative (towards). The parameters were indicative of the
onset of a negative polarity coronal hole high speed stream.

.Forecast...
Solar wind speeds are expected to continue to be enhanced into days 1-2
(02-03 Feb) as coronal hole high speed stream effects continue combined
with a glancing blow from the 31 January CME by mid to late on day 2 (03
Feb). Solar wind conditions are expected to slowly return to nominal
levels by late on day 3 (04 Feb).

Geospace

.24 hr Summary...
The geomagnetic field was at quiet to unsettled levels due to effects
from a geoeffective coronal hole high speed stream.

.Forecast...
The geomagnetic field is expected to continue at quiet to unsettled
levels on day 1 (02 Feb) due to continued effects from a geoeffective
coronal hole high speed stream. By day 2 (03 Feb), continued coronal
hole effects combined with a glancing blow from the 31 January CME are
expected to cause unsettled to active conditions with a slight chance
for periods of minor storming. Mostly unsettled conditions are expected
on day 3 (04 Feb) as coronal hole and CME effects begin to diminish.

LINK: [link to www.solarham.net]
Streamer: [link to iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov]
[link to iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov]
[link to www.gdgps.net]

ACE Magfield: [link to www.swpc.noaa.gov]
Magnetometer: [link to www.swpc.noaa.gov]
Neutron Monitor : [link to helios.izmiran.rssi.ru]
GOES Disk: [link to www.weatheroffice.gc.ca]
Surface Heat Index (USA): [link to weather.unisys.com]
Sea Surface Temps(02/01/2013: [link to www.ssec.wisc.edu]

Great Sites to check out

[link to www.numbersleuth.org]
[link to www.planethunters.org]
[link to www.solarsystemscope.com]
[link to www.helioviewer.org]





3MIN News February 2, 2013: Leaked UN Report Supports NASA/Alternative Climate


2013 Recap to Now - February 2nd


Last Edited by <<TIMEWATCHER>> on 02/04/2013 08:25 AM

02/03/2013

Pictures of the Day

Galaxy Cluster Abell 2125

Abell 2125 is a galaxy cluster that lies about 3 billion light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Ursa Minor, and is seen at a time about 11 billion years after the Big Bang, when many galaxy clusters are believed to have formed.

It reveals a complex of several huge elongated clouds of multimillion degree Celsius gas coming together from different directions. These hot gas clouds, each of which contains hundreds of galaxies, appear to be in the process of merging to form a single massive galaxy cluster.

The bright gas cloud on the upper left is the core of Abell 2125 and envelopes hundreds of galaxies. Several galaxies in this core cluster are being stripped of their gas as they fall through surrounding high-pressure hot gas. This stripping process has enriched the core cluster’s gas in heavy elements such as iron.

The bright large cloud on the lower right also envelopes hundreds of galaxies but has an extraordinarily low concentration of iron atoms. It is thought that this cloud, which is several million light-years from the core cluster, has not yet been enriched by the stripping of iron-rich gas from its member galaxies and must be in a very early evolutionary stage. Over time, as this cloud merges into the core and the hot gas pressure increases, iron atoms should be swept from the galaxies.

LINK: [link to annesastronomynews.com]

LL Ori and the Orion Nebula

This esthetic close-up of cosmic clouds and stellar winds features LL Orionis, interacting with the Orion Nebula flow. Adrift in Orion's stellar nursery and still in its formative years, variable star LL Orionis produces a wind more energetic than the wind from our own middle-aged Sun. As the fast stellar wind runs into slow moving gas a shock front is formed, analogous to the bow wave of a boat moving through water or a plane traveling at supersonic speed.

LINK: [link to apod.nasa.gov]

The Star Explosion That Wasn't: Astronomers Solve 150-Year-Old Mystery

After a stellar explosion was reported in 1866, British astronomer John Herschel announced he had seen a bright flare from the same location 24 years earlier.

Herschel's claim was contested almost immediately, with some saying he had seen only a fairly common star in 1842.

Now the question of whether Herschel actually saw a recurrent supernova or a common star has finally been answered, clearing up a point about stars that "go off" periodically.

To solve the 150-year-old mystery, Bradley Schaefer of Louisiana State University dug through the records of the Royal Society in Britain, to which Herschel donated his papers. Schaefer was unable to find the astronomer's original chart, but he found the second best thing: a copy made by Herschel and sent to another astronomer a few short weeks after the 1866 explosion.

LINK: [link to news.yahoo.com]

LOUD SOLAR RADIO BURST

Yesterday, Feb. 2nd, the solar activity forecast called for "quiet." In fact, says amateur radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft, "it was really loud. There were several strong solar radio emissions including one super-strong Type III burst at 1954 UT. I captured it at 28 MHz and 21.1 MHz as it totally drowned out a short wave voice transmission." The source of the burst was sunspot AR1667, which unleashed a C2.9-class solar flare just before the roar emerged from the loudspeaker of Ashcraft's radio telescope. Type III solar radio bursts are produced by electrons accelerated to high energies (1 to 100 keV) by solar flares. As the electrons stream outward from the sun, they excite plasma oscillations and radio waves in the sun's atmosphere. When these radio waves head in the direction of Earth, they make themselves heard in the loudspeakers of shortwave radios around the dayside of the planet.

LINK: [link to www.spaceweather.com]

Sun News 02/03/2013

Forecast Discussion
:Issued: 2013 Feb 03 1230 UTC
Prepared by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center

Solar Activity

.24 hr Summary...
Solar activity was low. Region 1667 (N22E51) produced several C-class
flares including a C8/Sn flare at 03/0610 UTC. Separation was observed
in the trailing spots of Region 1667. New flux emerged to the west of
Region 1665 (N10E03) and was numbered Region 1668 (N11W09). No
Earth-directed CMEs were observed during the period.

.Forecast...
Solar activity is likely to be low with a chance for M-class flares for
the forecast period (03-05 Feb). The most likely region to produce
M-class activity is Region 1667.

Energetic Particle

.24 hr Summary...
The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was at
normal to moderate levels. The greater than 10 MeV proton flux at
geosynchronous orbit was at background levels.

.Forecast...
The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected
to be at normal to moderate levels with a chance for high levels on 05
February due to a combination of coronal hole high speed stream and CME
effects. The greater than 10 MeV proton flux at geosynchronous orbit is
expected to continue at background levels.

Solar Wind

.24 hr Summary...
Solar wind speed, measured at the ACE spacecraft, ranged mostly between
430 km/s and 470 km/s while total field ranged between 1 nT and 6 nT due
to continued effects from a geoeffective coronal hole high speed stream.
The Bz component of the interplanetary magnetic field varied between
+6/-4 nT. Phi angle remained mostly negative (towards).

.Forecast...
Solar wind speeds are expected to remain enhanced for the forecast
period (03-05 Feb). A glancing blow from the 31 January CME is expected
to become geoeffective by mid to late on day 1 (03 Feb) causing further
enhancement of the solar wind. The current equatorial coronal hole is
expected to be followed by a negative polarity northern hemisphere
coronal hole.

Geospace

.24 hr Summary...
The geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled due to continued activity
from a geoeffective coronal hole high speed stream.

.Forecast...
The geomagnetic field is expected to increase to unsettled to active
levels with a slight chance for periods of minor storming by late on day
1 (03 Feb) due to a glancing blow from the 31 January CME. Mostly
unsettled conditions are expected on day 2 (04 Feb) as effects from both
the coronal hole high speed stream and CME begin to diminish. Quiet to
unsettled conditions are expected on day 3 (05 Feb).

LINK: [link to www.solarham.net]

Streamer: [link to iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov]
[link to iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov]
[link to www.gdgps.net]

Active Region Map: [link to sidc.oma.be]
STAR Active region map: [link to solen.info]
EVE 3-Day: [link to lasp.colorado.edu]
Magnetometer: [link to www.swpc.noaa.gov]
Ionospheric Electrons: [link to www.ips.gov.au]
Ionospheric foF2: [link to www.ips.gov.au]
Surface Heat Index (USA): [link to weather.unisys.com]
NOAA Temps: [link to ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu]

Estimated Planetary K-Index : [link to www.solarham.net]


3MIN News February 3, 2013: CME Impact Imminent, Quake Uptick Recap


Last Edited by <<TIMEWATCHER>> on 02/04/2013 08:22 AM

Apollo 14 ‘Seeds’ Earth | This Week In Space History

Before Apollo 14 left Earth on Jan. 31, 1971, NASA subjected the crew to a two-week “unusual preflight semiquarantine,” the Middlesboro Daily News reported on Jan. 11, 1971. Because the Apollo 9 crew had suffered colds, and Apollo 13’s Thomas Mattingly had been exposed to measles, NASA wanted “to minimize the possible exposure … to disease or illness.” The astronauts – Commander Alan Shepard, lunar module Antares Pilot Ed Mitchell, and command module Kitty Hawk Pilot Stuart Roosa – were “permitted to associate with their wives, but not their children.”

The Lunar Module Pilot

Ed Mitchell, who was graduated from high school in Artesia, NM, grew up “riding, roping and branding,” according to the Jan. 31, 1971 Today: Florida’s Space Age Newspaper. Then, one day, he saw crop dusters over New Mexico’s farmland, and he instantly had a new passion. “Before he was 14 years old” he was flying, “illegally, but happily.”

A NASA co-worker described Mitchell as “an egghead.” He hadn’t even entered active duty in the Navy and he was earning degrees from Carnegie Institute of Technology and the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, and a doctorate from MIT. After becoming the sixth man to walk on the Moon, his only space flight, Mitchell had an epiphany.

“Sitting in the cramped cabin of the space capsule, he saw planet Earth floating freely in the vastness of space,” the webpage noetic.org said. “He was engulfed by a profound sense of universal connectedness.”

He said: “ ‘The presence of divinity became almost palpable, and I knew that life in the universe was not just an accident based on random processes.’ ”

Mitchell later founded the Institute for Noetic Sciences in Palo Alto, Calif.

The Command Module Pilot

Before Stuart Roosa joined the Air Force in 1953, according to the website nasa.gov, he worked for “the U.S. Forest Service fighting fires as a smoke jumper.” In 1965, after attaining the rank of colonel, Roosa became a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base. The next year NASA chose him as one of 19 new astronauts. His New York Times obituary quoted from the book “A Man on the Moon,” which described Roosa as “a straitlaced, conservative family man with a soldier’s devotion to his country.”

“On a bleak January night in 1967,” Today documented, “he was the capsule communicator between mission control, and the Apollo 1 spacecraft at Cape Kennedy when (the capsule) burst into flame and snuffed out three lives.”

Subsequently, Roosa was “a member of the astronaut support crew for the Apollo 9 flight,” and was “backup command pilot for the Apollo 16 and 17 missions,” his NASA biography stated.

The lunar landing

“Apollo 14 entered lunar orbit at 1:55 a.m. EST on February 4,” said the 1978 NASA publication “The Apollo Spacecraft: a Chronology.” Less than an hour later the ejected Saturn “IVB stage and instrument unit struck the lunar surface. … The Apollo 12 seismometer, left on the moon in November 1969, registered the impact and continued to record vibrations for two hours.”

To save fuel, after it had been over-consumed during the six-try docking maneuver post liftoff, “Moon Shot” said “Roosa dropped them into an elliptical (lunar) orbit with its low point ten miles above the surface.” The crew was in their 12th orbit when, the next day, Shepard and Mitchell undocked and set about landing at the hilly Fra Mauro formation. That had been Apollo 13’s destination.

Roosa, now alone, had tasks to accomplish; he “enjoyed the solitude of being in lunar orbit, alone and out of radio contact and in total darkness,” his New York Times obituary said.

Four-and-a-half hours later, Shepard became the fifth man on the Moon, the first of his and Mitchell’s two EVAs (extravehicular activities). They collected 92 pounds of lunar samples using, for the first time, a MET, or mobile equipment transporter. The device carried photographic equipment, tools, and a lunar portable magnetometer,” said “The Apollo Spacecraft: A Chronology.” “They made a geology traverse toward the rim of Cone Crater, collecting samples on the way.”

In their 33 hours on the lunar surface, Shepard and Mitchell worked outside of Antares for nine hours and 17 minutes.

“Just before reentering the LM,” said “The Apollo Spacecraft: A Chronology,” “Shepard dropped a golf ball onto the lunar surface and on the third swing drove the ball 366 meters.”

“He lived every golfer’s dream,” President Bill Clinton said in Shepard’s obituary on nytimes.com, “’taking a six iron and hitting the ball, in his words, ‘for miles and miles.’ ”

When Kitty Hawk and Antares met back up in lunar orbit, Roosa “faced the possibility the command module docking probe would not latch onto the lunar module,” as had been the problem at the beginning of the mission. His first attempt, however, did succeed, and “Roosa happily acknowledged (with) a sigh of relief,” said the 1977 publication NASA Facts: Apollo 14 Flight to Fra Mauro.

REST AT LINK: [link to moonandback.com]

Last Edited by <<TIMEWATCHER>> on 02/04/2013 08:30 AM

02/04/2013

Picture of the Day

Planetary Nebula NGC 2440

NGC 2440 is a planetary nebula of about 1½ light-years across, located some 4,000 light-years away in the constellation of Puppis. It is moving away from us at approximately 62.7 kilometers per second.

Despite their name, planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets. The name of planetary nebulae arose because of the visual similarity between some round planetary nebulae and the planets Uranus and Neptune when viewed through early telescopes.

When a star with a mass up to eight times that of the Sun runs out of fuel at the end of its life, it blows off its outer shells and begins to lose mass. This allows the hot, inner core of the star (collapsing from a red giant to a white dwarf) to radiate strongly, causing this outward-moving cocoon of gas to glow brightly as a planetary nebula.

Over the next several thousand years, the nebula will gradually disperse into space, and then the star will cool and fade away for billions of years as a white dwarf. Our own Sun is expected to undergo a similar fate, but fortunately this will not occur until some 5 billion years from now.

LINK: [link to annesastronomynews.com]

Namibian Nights

Namibia has some of the darkest nights visible from any continent. It is therefore home to some of the more spectacular skyscapes, a few of which have been captured in the above time-lapse video. Visible at the movie start are unusual quiver trees perched before a deep starfield highlighted by the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. This bright band of stars and gas appears to pivot around the celestial south pole as our Earth rotates.

Video at Link: [link to apod.nasa.gov]

Zenit Engine Worked Normally

The first stage engine of the Zenit-2S rocket that failed shortly after Friday's launch operated in the normal regime during and after the liftoff, the press service of the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.

"An express analysis of the telemetry data has led to a preliminary conclusion that the first stage engine and the flight control system operated in the normal regime," Roscosmos said in a statement.

The Russian space agency also said that documents provided by Energomash, the company that had designed and produced the first stage and the flight control system, showed that no errors were made during the production.

The Sea Launch consortium, led by Energia, launched the Zenit rocket from its floating platform Odyssey at an equatorial launch site in international waters in the Pacific Ocean at 10.56 a.m. Moscow time (6.55 GMT).

The rocket fell into the sea not far from the Odyssey around 50 seconds into the flight, following an emergency shutdown of its first stage motor. The launch platform was not damaged in the failed launch.

LINK: [link to www.space-travel.com]

A Hero For Humankind: Yuri Gagarin's Spaceflight

In April 1961, a man watched the musical comedy film "Be careful, Grandma!" (by Nadezhda Kosheverova, with Faina Ranevskaya, Ariadna Markeliya and Lyudmila Shengelaya; Lenfilm, 1960), played chess and badminton, and boarded a rocket to travel through space. This was one of the most important events of the twentieth century, not only from a technology standpoint, but also from a political one.

The rocket and capsule were originally designed for military purposes, but ended up being used as a propaganda weapon. The pilot elected, Yuri Gagarin, was to become "Hero of the Soviet Union", but today is remembered as a hero for all humankind.

At the end of World War II the United States had the monopoly of force globally. Thanks to the atomic bomb no country would dare to attack them. Until 1949, when, with the aid of stolen blueprints, the Soviet Union built theirs.

But the U.S. still retained the strategic advantage: its bombers were able to make rain these weapons in the heart of the USSR within hours. But the dictator Stalin had another "cool" plan: to use an invention of the Nazis, the ballistic missile. Developed with the help of prisoner German engineers, the R-7 missile (NATO code: SS-6 "Sapwood") would be able to catapult a 3,5 ton, 1 megaton bomb from side to side of the planet in just half an hour.

LINK: [link to www.space-travel.com]

Search for Near-Earth Asteroids Needs a Speed Boost
At the current rate that near-Earth asteroids are being detected, it will take astronomers 15 years to identify every one of significant size and even more than 10 times longer to characterize their materials, a new study suggests.

Astronomers should dramatically ramp up the sky surveys, not only to better prepare for threats to Earth but also to exploit asteroids' contents, scientists say.

These asteroids could be mined one day for valuable metals such as platinum and cobalt, yet at the current rate it will take 190 years to characterize their materials, Charlie Beeson, a doctoral candidate in astronomy at Harvard University, told an audience last month at the 221st annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, Calif.

LINK: [link to www.space.com]

Scientists Offer Wary Support for NASA's New Mars Rover
Scientists cheered NASA's decision to send a new rover to Mars in 2020, but stressed that the mission should pave the way to return Martian rocks to Earth — a major goal of the planetary science community.

In a set of statements released Jan. 28 and Jan. 30, two large and well-respected groups of scientists — the Planetary Society and the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS), respectively — shared their views on the plan to send another robotic explorer to the Red Planet in seven years.

The new Mars rover mission was announced Dec. 4 by John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science, at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. The new rover will share some design features with NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in August to begin at least a two-year mission.

LINK: [link to www.space.com]

Taiwan deploys advanced early warning radar

Taiwan has put into service a US-made billion-dollar early warning radar system capable of giving more than six minutes' warning of a Chinese missile attack, a senior officer said Sunday.

The radar, on top of a mountain in the northern county of Hsinchu, started providing surveillance information after a ceremony presided over by the chief of the general staff, air force General Yen Ming, on Friday.

"The radar is able to provide us with more than six minutes' warning in preparation for any surprise attacks," air force Lieutenant General Wu Wan-chiao told AFP.

The Liberty Times newspaper said the phased array warning system, which cost Tw$40.9 billion ($1.38 billion), is capable of detecting flying objects up to 5,000 kilometres (3,100 miles) away.

LINK: [link to www.sinodaily.com]

Sun News 02/04/2013

Product: Forecast Discussion
Issued: 2013 Feb 04 1230 UTC
Prepared by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center

Solar Activity
.24 hr Summary...
Solar activity was low due to a long duration C1 flare at 03/1801 UTC
from Region 1665 (N11W11). Slight decay and separation was observed in
the trailing spots of Region 1667 (N23E35). A filament eruption was
observed in the northwest quadrant in SDO/AIA 304 imagery beginning at
03/1606 UTC. A subsequent CME was observed off the northwest limb in
SOHO/LASCO C2 imagery beginning at 03/1848 UTC. The majority of the
ejecta appeared to be directed off the northwest limb and is not
expected to be geoeffective.

.Forecast...
Solar activity is likely to be low with a slight chance for an M-class
flare for the forecast period (04-06 Feb).

Energetic Particle

.24 hr Summary...
The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was at
normal to moderate levels. The greater than 10 MeV proton flux at
geosynchronous orbit was at background levels.

.Forecast...
The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected
to be at normal to moderate levels with a chance for high levels on days
2-3 (05-06 Feb) due to effects from the recent coronal hole high speed
stream. The greater than 10 MeV proton flux at geosynchronous orbit is
expected to continue at background levels.

Solar Wind

.24 hr Summary...
Solar wind speed, measured at the ACE spacecraft, declined from
approximately 477 km/s to end the period near 370 km/s. Total field
ranged from 1 nT to 7 nT while the Bz component of the interplanetary
magnetic field did not vary much beyond +7/-4 nT. Phi angle was mostly
negative (towards) during the period.

.Forecast...
Solar wind speeds could be slightly enhanced by days 2-3 (05-06 Feb) as
a negative polarity coronal hole in the northern hemisphere moves into a
geoeffective position.

Geospace

.24 hr Summary...
The geomagnetic field was quiet.

.Forecast...
The geomagnetic field is expected to continue at quiet levels with a
chance for unsettled periods for the forecast period (04-06 Feb).

LINK: [link to www.solarham.net]

Streamer: [link to iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov]
[link to iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov]
[link to www.gdgps.net]

Active Region Map: [link to sidc.oma.be]
STAR Active region map: [link to solen.info]
EVE 3-Day: [link to helios.izmiran.rssi.ru]
Magnetometer: [link to www.swpc.noaa.gov]
Ionospheric Electrons: [link to www.ips.gov.au]
Ionospheric foF2: [link to www.ips.gov.au]
Surface Heat Index (USA): [link to weather.unisys.com]
NOAA Temps: [link to ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu]
Sea Surface Temps <02/03/2013>: [link to www.ssec.wisc.edu]

Estimated Planetary K-Index : [link to www.solarham.net]

3MIN News February 4, 2013: Arctic Methane Rising



Big Shock to Big Bang | Space News

Interesting.

Can you recommend a good article or video on this electrical universe theory.

02/05/2013

Picture of the Day

Globular Cluster Messier 68

Messier 68 (also known as NGC 4590) is a globular cluster of some 106 light-years across and a mass of 223,000 solar masses, located about 33,600 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Hydra (The Female Water Snake), while it is approaching us at 112 – 116 kilometers per second.

More than 150 of these objects surround our Milky Way galaxy. Remarkably, Messier 68 is located almost opposite the center of our galaxy in the night sky. Most globular clusters are concentrated in the area around this center.

Mutual gravitational attraction among the cluster’s hundreds of thousands of stars keeps stellar members in check, allowing Messier 68 to hang together for many billions of years.

This spherical, star-filled region of space contains mainly very old stars. The age of the cluster is estimated at around 11.2 billion years, meaning that it began forming just 2.5 billion years after the Big Bang.

Astronomers can measure the ages of globular clusters by looking at the light of their constituent stars. The chemical elements leave signatures in this light, and the starlight reveals that stars of globular clusters typically contain fewer heavy elements, such as carbon, oxygen and iron, than stars like the Sun. Since successive generations of stars gradually create these elements through nuclear fusion, stars having fewer of them are relics of earlier epochs in the Universe. Indeed, the stars in globular clusters rank among the oldest on record, dating back more than 10 billion years.

LINK: [link to annesastronomynews.com]

Evidence There Once Was Water on the Surface of Mars!

In a paper published in the Meteoritical Society’s journal MAPS, the research team outline the results of tests on a 1.7-gram fragment of a Martian meteorite known as Nakhla, which was provided by the Natural History Museum.

Nakhla, named after the town in Egypt where it landed in 1911 after being blasted from the surface of Mars by a massive impact around 10 million years ago, has been studied for decades by scientists around the world.

Previous research on Nakhla has provided evidence of the existence of water on Mars through the presence in the meteorite of ‘secondary minerals’ – types of carbonates, hydrous silicates and sulfates most likely formed when Martian minerals reacted with liquid water.

Professor Martin Lee of the University’s School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, lead author of the paper, said: “What has been unclear in the past is exactly where the chemical elements which made up the secondary minerals within Nakhla came from.

“Using a scanning electron microscope, we examined many tiny bowl-shaped depressions, known as etch pits, in grains of the minerals olivine and augite found in the meteorite.

“What we’ve found for the first time is evidence that the etch pits were created when water dissolved the olivine and augite, and that the elements released from those minerals led to the formation of the secondary minerals.

“It’s an exciting discovery and better informs of our understanding of how water affected rock on Mars.”

By examining the amount of dissolution which occurred in the etch pits formed within the minerals, the team have also been able to estimate how long the water was present within the sample.

Professor Lee added: “From the amount of dissolution we observed, it’s likely that this particular piece of Mars was affected by water for only a few months and probably less than a year in total.

“That’s certainly not long enough to sustain a life-supporting biosphere; however, the findings of our study are from a tiny piece of a very small chunk of the surface of Mars, so it’s difficult to draw any large-scale conclusions about the presence of water on the planet or its implications for life.

LINK: [link to annesastronomynews.com]

Massive Stellar Winds are Made of Tiny Pieces

Massive stars are relatively rare, but play a very important role in recycling materials in the Universe. They burn their nuclear fuel much more rapidly than stars like the Sun, living only for millions of years before exploding as a supernova and returning most of their matter to space.

But even during their brief lives, they lose a significant fraction of their mass through fierce winds of gas driven off their surfaces by the intense light emitted from the star.

The winds from massive stars are at least a hundred million times stronger than the solar wind emitted by our own Sun and can significantly shape their surrounding environment.

They might trigger the collapse of surrounding clouds of gas and dust to form new stars or, conversely, blast the clouds away before they have the chance to get started.

Despite their important role, however, the detailed structure of the winds from massive stars remains poorly understood. Are they steady and uniform, or broken up and gusty?

Astronomers have now gained a detailed glimpse into this wind structure by taking observations with XMM-Newton spread over a decade to study variability in the X-ray emission from zeta Puppis. One of the nearest massive stars to Earth, it is bright enough to be seen with the naked eye in the constellation of Puppis, in the southern hemisphere.

The X-rays arise from collisions between slow- and fast-moving clumps in the wind, which heats them to a few million degrees. As individual colliding clumps in the wind are heated and cooled, the strength and energy of the emitted X-rays vary.

If only a small number of large fragments are present, variations in the combined emission could be large. Conversely, as the number of fragments grows, a change in the X-ray emission from any given fragment becomes less important, and the overall variability decreases.

In zeta Puppis, the X-ray emission was found to be remarkably stable over short timescales of just a few hours, pointing to a very large number of fragments. There must still be clumps in the wind to make X-rays in the first place, but there must be many of them to yield such low variability.

However, unexpected variation in the emission was seen on the order of several days, implying the presence of a few very large structures in the wind, possibly spiral-arm-like features superimposed on the highly fragmented wind co-rotating with the star.


“Studies at other wavelengths had already hinted that the winds from massive stars are not simply a uniform breeze, and the new XMM-Newton data confirm this, but also reveal hundreds of thousands of individual hot and cool pieces,” says Yaël Nazé, Université de Liège, Belgium, who led the study’s analysis.

“This is the first time constraints have been placed on the number of fragments in a stellar wind of an adult massive star, a number which far exceeds theoretical predictions.”

To fully understand these observations, improved models of stellar winds will be needed, taking into account both the large-scale emission structures and the highly fragmented wind, in order to understand how they affect mass-loss in stellar giants.

“Zeta Puppis also goes by the name Naos, which in antiquity was the name given to the innermost sanctuary of a temple, accessible to only a few people; thanks to XMM-Newton, scientists have been able to unlock the secrets of this mysterious stellar object,” adds Dr Nazé.

LINK: [link to annesastronomynews.com]

Small Asteroid to Whiz Past Earth Safely

The small near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass very close to Earth on February 15, so close that it will pass inside the ring of geosynchronous weather and communications satellites.

NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office can accurately predict the asteroid's path with the observations obtained, and it is therefore known that there is no chance that the asteroid might be on a collision course with Earth. Nevertheless, the flyby will provide a unique opportunity for researchers to study a near-Earth object up close.

Asteroid 2012 DA14 will be closest to Earth on Feb. 15, at about 11:24 p.m. PST (2 p.m. EST and 1924 UT), when it will be at a distance of about 27,700 kilometers (17,200 miles) above Earth's surface.

Although this is close enough for the asteroid to pass inside the ring of geosynchronous satellites, located about 35,800 kilometers (22,200 miles) above the equator, it will still be well above the vast majority of satellites, including the International Space Station.

At its closest, the asteroid will be only about 1/13th of the distance to the moon. The asteroid will fly by our planet quite rapidly, at a speed of about 17,400 mph (7.8 kilometers per second) in a south-to-north direction with respect to Earth.

Even though 2012 DA14 is coming remarkably close, it will still only appear as a point of light in the biggest of optical telescopes, because of its small size. Based on its brightness, astronomers estimate that it is only about 45 meters (150 feet) across. It will brighten only to magnitude 7.5, too faint to be seen with the naked eye, but easily visible with a good set of binoculars or a small telescope.

LINK: [link to www.spacedaily.com]

Asteroid Re-Named 'Wikipedia'

Wikipedia is loaded with articles on space. And now Wikipedia is in space, too — specifically, as an asteroid newly named "Wikipedia." The Committee for Small Body Nomenclature has renamed a main belt asteroid, previously labeled number 274301, with an official moniker: Henceforth, it's known as Wikipedia.

Astronomers at the Audrushivka Astronomical Observatory in Ukraine first spotted the asteroid in August 2008. Observatories in Caussols-ODAS in France and Mt. Lemmon Survey and Steward Observatory in Arizona also observed the asteroid. The Committee handed down the official name on Jan. 27, based on a suggestion from a member of the Wikimedia Foundation in Ukraine.

Researchers also posted some scientific facts about Wikipedia (the asteroid), including its measurement of one to two kilometers (about a mile) in diameter and its orbit, which takes it around the sun every 3.68 Earth years. And it won't collide with Earth, so no need to call Bruce Willis.

LINK: [link to www.space.com]

Sun News 02/05/2013

Product: Forecast Discussion
:Issued: 2013 Feb 05 1230 UTC
Prepared by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center

Solar Activity

.24 hr Summary...
Solar activity was low. There were three spotted regions on the disk
including newly-numbered Region 1669 (N08E57, Bxo/beta). Region 1669
emerged early in the period and produced occasional C-class flares
including an impulsive C6/Sf at 05/0819 UTC. It appeared to be in a
gradual growth phase. Region 1665 (N12W24, Hsx/alpha) showed little
change, while Region 1667 (N23E22, Dso/beta) showed gradual spot and
penumbral decay in its intermediate and trailing portions. There were no
Earth-directed coronal mass ejections observed during the period.

.Forecast...
Solar activity is likely to be low through the period (05 - 07 Feb) with
C-class flares from Region 1669. There will also be a slight chance for
an M-class flare.

Energetic Particle

.24 hr Summary...
The greater than 10 MeV proton flux at geosynchronous orbit was at
background levels. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at
geosynchronous orbit was at normal to moderate levels.

.Forecast...
The greater than 10 MeV proton flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected
to remain at background levels though the period (05 - 07 Feb). The
greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to
be at normal levels during most of the period.

Solar Wind

.24 hr Summary...
Minor changes occurred in the solar wind during the period. Wind speeds
ranged from 326 to 409 km/s. IMF Bt was variable in the 1 to 6 nT range.
IMF Bz was variable in the +/- 5 nT range. Phi data indicated a negative
(Toward) solar sector during most of the period.

.Forecast...
No significant changes are expected in the solar wind during the period
(05 - 07 Feb).

Geospace
.24 hr Summary...
The geomagnetic field was at quiet levels.

.Forecast...
The geomagnetic field is expected to remain at quiet levels during the
period (05 - 07 Feb).

LINK: [link to www.solarham.net]

Streamer: [link to iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov]
[link to iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov]
[link to www.gdgps.net]

Active Region Map: [link to sidc.oma.be]
STAR Active region map: [link to solen.info]
EVE 3-Day: [link to lasp.colorado.edu]
Magnetometer: [link to www.swpc.noaa.gov]
Ionospheric Electrons: [link to www.ips.gov.au]
Ionospheric foF2: [link to www.ips.gov.au]
Surface Heat Index (USA)02/04/2013: [link to weather.unisys.com]
Sea Surface Temps: [link to www.ssec.wisc.edu]

Estimated Planetary K-Index : [link to www.solarham.net]

3MIN News February 5, 2013: Critical Frequency Update

[link to www.thunderbolts.info]

Thanks OP!

Loving this thread Timewatcher! One-stop-shopping for all the current sun & space news. Please keep posting, it is very appreciated.

02/06/2013

Picture of the Day

Saturn’s moon Hyperion

Hyperion is, at 410 x 260 x 220 kilometers (255 x 163 x 137 miles) in diameter, the largest of Saturn’s irregularly-shaped moons and the largest irregularly-shaped moon in the Solar System. A possible explanation for the irregular shape is that Hyperion is a fragment of a larger body that was broken by a large impact in the distant past.

The moon has a notably reddish tint when viewed in natural color. The red color was toned down in this false-color view, and the other hues were enhanced, in order to make more subtle color variations across Hyperion’s surface more apparent.

Hyperion’s surface shows an enormous ridge and is covered with deep, sharp-edged craters that give it the appearance of a giant sponge. Dark material fills the bottom of each crater. The reddish substance contains long chains of carbon and hydrogen. The largest crater on Hyperion is approximately 121.57 km in diameter and 10.2 km deep.

This cold moon, with a temperature of 93 K (&#8722;180 C), consists for about 40 percent of empty space . This porosity allows craters to remain nearly unchanged over the eons. Hyperion’s low density indicates that it is composed largely of water ice with only a small amount of rock.

Hyperion orbits Saturn in 21.28 days in a fairly eccentric orbit and it’s rotation is chaotic, that is, its axis of rotation wobbles so much that its orientation in space is unpredictable. Hyperion is the only moon in the Solar System known to rotate chaotically. It is also the only regular natural satellite in the Solar System not to be tidally locked.

LINK: [link to annesastronomynews.com]

“Ribbon” Of Energy at the Edge of our Solar System Explained

In a paper published Feb. 4, 2013, in the Astrophysical Journal, researchers, including lead author Nathan Schwadron of the University of New Hampshire, propose a “retention theory” that for the first time explains all the key observations of this astrophysical enigma.

“If the theory is correct,” Schwadron notes, “the ribbon can be used to tell us how we’re moving through the magnetic fields of the interstellar medium and how those magnetic fields then influence our space environment.”

In particular, these strong magnetic fields appear to play a critical role in shaping our heliosphere—the huge bubble that surrounds our Solar System and shields us from much of harmful galactic cosmic radiation that fills our galaxy. This may have important ramifications for the history and future of radiation in space, and its impact here on Earth, as the heliosphere changes in response to changing conditions in the interstellar medium or the “space between the stars.”

According to the retention theory, the ribbon exists in a special location where neutral hydrogen atoms from the solar wind move across the local galactic magnetic field. Neutral atoms are not affected by magnetic fields, but when their electrons get stripped away they become charged ions and begin to gyrate rapidly around magnetic field lines. That rapid rotation creates waves or vibrations in the magnetic field, and the charged ions then become trapped by the waves. This is the process that creates the ribbon.

Nathan Schwadron, an associate professor at UNH’s Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space and department of physics, says: “Think of the ribbon as a harbor and the solar wind particles it contains as boats. The boats can be trapped in the harbor if the ocean waves outside it are powerful enough. This is the nature of the new ribbon model. The ribbon is a region where particles, originally from the solar wind, become trapped or ‘retained’ due to intense waves and vibrations in the magnetic field.”

READ MORE AT: [link to annesastronomynews.com]

Earth-like Planets Are Right Next Door


“We thought we would have to search vast distances to find an Earth-like planet. Now we realize another Earth is probably in our own backyard, waiting to be spotted,” said Harvard astronomer and lead author Courtney Dressing (CfA).

Dressing presented her findings today in a press conference at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.

Red dwarf stars are smaller, cooler, and fainter than our Sun. An average red dwarf is only one-third as large and one-thousandth as bright as the Sun. From Earth, no red dwarf is visible to the naked eye.

Despite their dimness, these stars are good places to look for Earth-like planets. Red dwarfs make up three out of every four stars in our galaxy for a total of at least 75 billion. The signal of a transiting planet is larger since the star itself is smaller, so an Earth-sized world blocks more of the star’s disk. And since a planet has to orbit a cool star closer in order to be in the habitable zone, it’s more likely to transit from our point of view.

Dressing culled the Kepler catalog of 158,000 target stars to identify all the red dwarfs. She then reanalyzed those stars to calculate more accurate sizes and temperatures. She found that almost all of those stars were smaller and cooler than previously thought.

MORE AT: [link to annesastronomynews.com]

A Massive Stellar Burst, Before the Supernova

Digging through the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) data archive housed at the Department of Energy's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), astronomers have found the first causal evidence that these massive stars shed huge amounts of material in a "penultimate outburst" before final detonation as supernovae.

A focused search for Type IIn SN precursor bursts, conducted by Eran Ofek of Israel's Weizmann Institute and the PTF team, led to this finding. Their results were published in the February 7, 2013 issue of Nature. PTF is an international collaboration that brings together researchers, universities, observatories and Berkeley Lab to hunt for supernovae and other astronomical objects.

The Causal Link

Massive stars -- somewhere between eight and 100 times the mass of our Sun -- spend much of their lives fusing hydrogen (the lightest element) into increasingly heavier elements, like helium, oxygen, carbon and so on. In the end, there is almost nothing left but an iron core. Eventually, that core collapses, releasing a tremendous amount of energy as neutrinos, magnetic fields and shock waves and destroying the star in the process. From Earth, this explosive event is observed as a supernova. If astronomers detect hydrogen, the event is classified as a Type II supernova. And if the hydrogen-emission line is narrow, the event is classified as a Type IIn (for "narrow").

In the case of Type IIn events, scientists suspected that the narrow emission line occurs as light from the event passes through a thin sphere of hydrogen that was already surrounding the star before it went supernova. Some believed that the dying star might have shed this shell of material before it self-destructed, but until recently there was no evidence to link such an outburst to an actual supernova.

LINK: [link to www.sciencedaily.com]

Mapping Mars

Nearly 90% of Mars' surface has been mapped by the high-resolution stereo camera on ESA's Mars Express, which celebrates ten years since launch this June.

The mosaic comprises 2702 individual swaths of the martian surface, up to and including the spacecraft's 10 821st orbit of the planet, which it completed on 30 June 2012.

In total, 87.8% of the surface has been mapped at any resolution, with 61.5% mapped at a resolution of 20 m per pixel or better. The map is equatorially aligned, meaning that regions at the poles appear distorted.

The map provides a record of all locations observed by the camera simultaneously in red, green, blue and nadir channels.

Images that were particularly affected by dust or atmospheric effects have not been included in the mosaic. These effects are more prevalent in the region shown in the top right of the map, as reflected by the greater number of 'missing' pieces there.

The subtle variation in colour tones are due partly to changes in dust content in the atmosphere, but mostly due to the change in solar elevation as the spacecraft moves around the planet, experiencing different illumination conditions.

Upon closer inspection, many well-known geological features are revealed. Towards the top left stands Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in the Solar System at over 21 km high. A chain of three volcanoes making up the Tharsis Montes lies just below and to the right.

Moving further right again uncovers the Solar System's largest canyon, Valles Marineris. This giant cavern plunges 10 km deep and runs over 4000 km.

LINK: [link to www.marsdaily.com]

Sun News 02/06/2013

Product: Forecast Discussion
:Issued: 2013 Feb 06 1230 UTC
Prepared by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center

Solar Activity

.24 hr Summary...
Solar activity was low. Region 1667 (N22E08, Dso/beta) produced a C8/1f
flare at 06/0021 UTC associated with a filament eruption, a Type II
radio sweep (estimated shock speed 548 km/s), a Type IV radio sweep and
a coronal mass ejection (CME). Sparse coronagraph imagery indicated the
CME may have an Earthward component with a trajectory somewhat north of
the ecliptic plane. Further analysis is required to determine whether
the CME is likely to be geoeffective. Despite its flare activity, Region
1667 showed no significant changes and maintained a simple beta magnetic
configuration. Region 1669 (N08E44, Bxo/beta) showed gradual spot decay
during the period and produced a C1/Sf flare at 06/0558 UTC.

.Forecast...
Solar activity is likely to be low during the period (06 - 08 Feb) with
a slight chance for an M-class flare.

Energetic Particle

.24 hr Summary...
The greater than 10 MeV proton flux at geosynchronous orbit was at
background levels. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at
geosynchronous orbit was at normal to moderate levels with a slight
downward trend.

.Forecast...
The greater than 10 MeV proton flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected
to remain at background levels through the period (06 - 08 Feb). The
greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to
be at normal levels during most of the period.

Solar Wind

.24 hr Summary...
Wind speeds remained low and gradually decreased from 372 to 297 km/s
during the period. A solar sector boundary crossing (toward (-) to away
(+)) occurred around 05/1630 UTC. IMF Bt varied from 2 to 6 nT. IMF Bz
ranged from +/- 4 nT and was northward during most of the period.

Forecast...
No significant solar wind changes are expected during the period (06 -
08 Feb).

Geospace
.24 hr Summary...
The geomagnetic field was quiet.

.Forecast...
The geomagnetic field is expected to remain at quiet levels during the
period (06 - 08 Feb).

LINK: [link to www.solarham.net]

Streamer: [link to iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov]
[link to iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov]
[link to www.gdgps.net]

Active Region Map: [link to sidc.oma.be]
STAR Active region map: [link to solen.info]
EVE 3-Day: [link to lasp.colorado.edu]
Magnetometer: [link to www.swpc.noaa.gov]
Ionospheric Electrons: [link to www.ips.gov.au]
Ionospheric foF2: [link to www.ips.gov.au]
Surface Heat Index (USA): [link to weather.unisys.com]
Sea Surface Temps (2/5/13): [link to www.ssec.wisc.edu]

Estimated Planetary K-Index: [link to www.solarham.net]

3MIN News February 6, 2013: 8.0 Santa Cruz, Electroquake Recap, Solar Eruption

Understanding The Edge Of Our Solar System

While our solar system contains many fascinating objects – planets, moons and the Sun, to name just a few – one of the most interesting and perplexing of these objects lies at its very edge.

Our Sun sweeps charged particles through the solar system, encasing us in a cocoon that shields us from the interstellar environment. It is at the boundary of the solar system, where the solar wind slows and the influence of our star’s magnetic field wanes, where the flow of particles comes to a standstill. Or so we thought.

In 2008 NASA launched the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) that was tasked with imaging that region of our cosmic neighborhood. What they found wasn’t a standing shock of particles but rather ribbons of neutral atoms – elements that contain equal numbers of protons and electrons – streaming into our solar system.

This unexpected result immediately gave rise to a host of theories that sought to explain how these ribbons formed. Inevitably, however, each of these models failed to completely account for this fringe phenomenon.

However, a new theory published in the February 4 issue of the Astrophysics Journal, describes a so-called Retention Model that may help explain the unusual IBEX data.

Researchers David McComas and Nathan Schwadron realized that the energy distributions of the ribbons pouring into the solar system reflected that of the solar wind pushing out. They concluded that the ions within the solar wind may actually be capturing electrons, giving rise to energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) as they crossed the interstellar boundary.

However, they also theorized that some of these ENAs would interact with the interstellar medium on the other side. These collisions could then re-ionize the atoms, thus becoming what the authors have dubbed ‘secondary ENAs’.

“The secondary ENAs coming into the solar system after having been temporarily trapped in a region just outside the solar system do the same thing. As they pile up and get trapped or retained, they produce higher fluxes of ENAs from this region and form the bright ribbon seen by IBEX,” explained McComas, who is also the principal investigator on IBEX.

Dr. Schwadron adds: “Think of the ribbon as a harbor and the solar wind particles it contains as boats. The boats can be trapped in the harbor if the ocean waves outside it are powerful enough. This is the nature of the new ribbon model. The ribbon is a region where particles, originally from the solar wind, become trapped or ‘retained’ due to intense waves and vibrations in the magnetic field.”

REST AT LINK: [link to www.redorbit.com]

I like your work.

Thanks, Working on a Earthquake/Volcano thread today.

Black Hole Galaxy Sculptor



The Quantum Guide - Search for the Higgs Particle



The Quantum Guide - Pulsars



Venus Death of a Planet



Seeing Beyond: The James Webb Space Telescope

02/07/2013

Picture of the Day

Comet Lemmon near the South Celestial Pole

Currently sweeping through southern skies, Comet Lemmon (C/2012 F6) was named for its discovery last year as part of the Mount Lemmon (Arizona) Survey. Brighter than expected but still just below naked-eye visibility, Comet Lemmon sports a stunning lime green coma and faint divided tail in this telescopic image from February 4. The greenish tint comes from the coma's diatomic C2 gas fluorescing in sunlight. Captured from an observatory near Sydney, Australia, the color composite is constructed from a series of individual exposures registered on the comet. Across the 1 degree wide field of view, the star trails are a consequence of the comet's relatively rapid motion against the background of stars near the South Celestial Pole.

LINK: [link to apod.nasa.gov]

Russian Rocket Launches 6 New Globalstar Satellites
Six Globalstar mobile communications satellites were successfully placed into low-Earth orbit Feb. 6 by a Russian Soyuz-Fregat rocket, bringing Globalstar’s second-generation constellation to 24 spacecraft and permitting the company to approach full operational status after six years of degraded service, Globalstar and launch services provider Arianespace said.

Covington, La.-based Globalstar said all six satellites were healthy in orbit.

Operating from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Soyuz vehicle, fitted with a Fregat restartable upper stage, inserted the six 650-kilogram satellites into their intended 920-kilometer orbit.

LINK: [link to www.space.com]

Weekend Test on Mars Was Preparation to Drill a Rock
The bit of the rock-sampling drill on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity left its mark on a Martian rock this weekend during brief testing of the tool's percussive action.

The successful activity, called a "drill-on-rock checkout" by the rover team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, is part of a series of tests to prepare for the first drilling in history to collect a sample of rock material on Mars.

LINK: [link to www.marsdaily.com]

Supernova Observation Helps Scientists Make Better Forecasts
New observations have led to a better understanding of supernovae, which could one day lead to even better forecasts for the cosmic events.

Type II supernovae form when a massive star collapses, sending off a giant explosion from the dying star. Having a better way to predict these events would allow astronomers to study them in their earliest stages.

Astronomers wrote in the journal Nature this week that they have observed an energetic outburst from a supernova called SN 2010mc, witnessing a remarkable mass-loss event about a month before the explosion.

“What is surprising is the short time between the precursor eruption and the eventual supernova explosion — one month is an extremely tiny fraction of the ten-million-year lifespan of a star,” said Carnegie Institution’s Mansi Kasliwal.

Models showed that there was just a 0.1 percent chance that the outburst was due to random chance, which gives astronomers evidence that it and the explosion are related. These outbursts are two orders of magnitude more likely to occur in the immediate run-up to the star’s explosion, than at other times in a star’s life.

Several models of the supernova-creation process predict pre-explosion outbursts, but it has been difficult for scientists to see this process directly.

When the team compared their observations to three proposed models for the mechanism by which this mass is ejected, they found one model to be the best match. This model shows that the high velocities lend credence to the idea that the mass is driven out to the envelope that forms the star’s atmosphere by the propagation and dissipation of excited gravity waves.

LINK: [link to www.redorbit.com]

Sun News 02/07/2013

Product: Forecast Discussion
Issued: 2013 Feb 07 0030 UTC
Prepared by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center

Solar Activity

.24 hr Summary...
Solar activity was low. Region 1667 (N22E01) produced the largest event
of the period, a C8/1f flare at 06/0021 UTC with associated Type II and
Type IV radio sweeps. A coronal mass ejection (CME) from this event,
first seen in LASCO/C3 imagery at 06/0042 UTC appears to have an
Earth-directed component. A disappearing solar filament near Region
1667 produced a second CME that first appears in LASCO/C3 imagery at
06/0418 UTC and also has an Earth-directed component. CME analysis is
ongoing to determine the potential impacts of this activity. Region 1665
(N12W44) was stable, Region 1667 showed slight growth in the trailer
spots, and Region 1669 (N08E38) showed signs of decay and is now
classified as an Axx/Alpha spot group.

.Forecast...
Solar activity is likely to be low during the period with a slight
chance for an M-class flare.

Energetic Particles

.24 hr Summary...
The greater than 10 MeV proton flux at geosynchronous orbit was at
background levels. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at
geosynchronous orbit was at normal to moderate levels with a slight
downward trend.

.Forecast...
The greater than 10 MeV proton flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected
to remain at background levels through the period (07-09 Feb). The
greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to
be at normal levels during most of the period.

Solar Wind

.24 hr Summary...
Solar wind speed, as measured at the ACE spacecraft, was steady at
approximately 330 km/s through the period. The total interplanetary
magnetic field (IMF) reached a peak of 6 nT while the Bz ranged between
4 and -5 nT. The phi angle was positive (away) through the period.

.Forecast...
No significant solar wind speed changes are expected on day one (07
Feb). On days two and three (08-09 Feb), wind speed should increase due
to potential effects from the 06 Feb CMEs.

Geospace

.24 hr Summary...
The geomagnetic field was quiet.

.Forecast...
The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet on day one (07 Feb). On
day two (08 Feb), quiet conditions are expected until the arrival of the
first CME from 06 Feb. Conditions are then expected to be unsettled to
active with a slight chance for G1 (minor) storm conditions as CME
effects persist. On day three (09 Feb), unsettled conditions are
expected for the first part of the period as the second CME from 06 Feb
reaches Earth, then gradually decrease back to quiet to unsettled
conditions as the CME effects wane.

LINK: [link to www.solarham.net]

Streamer: [link to iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov]
[link to iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov]
[link to www.gdgps.net]

Active Region Map: [link to sidc.oma.be]
STAR Active region map: [link to solen.info]
EVE 3-Day: [link to lasp.colorado.edu]
Magnetometer: [link to www.swpc.noaa.gov]
Ionospheric Electrons: [link to www.ips.gov.au]
Ionospheric foF2: [link to www.ips.gov.au]
Surface Heat Index (USA): [link to weather.unisys.com]
Sea Surface Temps (02/06/13): [link to www.ssec.wisc.edu]

Estimated Planetary K-Index: [link to www.solarham.net]

Plasma Vortex / C8.7 Solar Flare (2/6/2013)



C8.7 Solar Flare / CME Expected to Miss



3MIN February 7, 2013: Many Updates



Last Edited by <<TIMEWATCHER>> on 02/07/2013 07:26 AM