Videos with tag Astronomy
Results 26-50 of 95
 
00:20
00:20
00:20

NASA SDO - Lunar Transit, February 21, 2012

Today we were treated to a very special sight; the Moon came in between the SDO satellite and the Sun. For 1 hour and 41 minutes team SDO observed the Lunar Transit. This event only happens a few times a year but gives the SDO Team an opportunity to better understand the AIA instrument on SDO and give it a fine tune. This video shows today's Lunar Eclipse in a variety of wavelengths the AIA instrument observes. Each wavelength shows us a different temperature and layer of the Sun, allowing us to study the Sun and its activities. Credit: NASA SDO

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 21 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
00:34
00:34
00:34

NASA SDO - M8.7-class Solar Flare, Jan 23, 2012

The Chinese New Year certainly started with a bang this morning. At approx. 04:00 UT a strong and long duration M8.7-class solar flare exploded from Active Region 1402. NASA SDO captured this event and thanks to ESA/NASA SOHO and NASA STEREO Behind spacecrafts, we have also learned of a very quick moving Coronal Mass Ejection. The CME is traveling at approx. 2,200 km per second and the Goddard Space Weather Lab predicts the arrival of this CME on earth to be January 24, 2012 at approx. 14:18 UT (+/- 7 hours). It also shows that Mars will get hit too, several hours after Earth. These kinds of events can cause problems for spacecrafts in geosynchronous, polar and other orbits passing could be affected by the cloud's arrival. In addition, strong geomagnetic storms are possible, so high-latitude sky watchers should be alert for Aurorae. Credit: NASA SDO

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 35 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
00:25
00:25
00:25

NASA SDO - Growing Sunspot

The video from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager onboard SDO shows the Active Region 1393 from January 6 through January 8 and demonstrates how sunspots can quickly change shape and size. Sunspots are planet-sized magnets created by the Sun's inner magnetic dynamo. Like all magnets in the Universe, sunspots have north (N) and south (S) magnetic poles Sunspots, temporary disturbances in the Sun's photosphere, are the most visible advertisement of the solar magnetic field. They appear dark because temperatures are considerably lower than in surrounding areas. Sunspots occur where the magnetic field lines emerge from the inside of the Sun to form expanding loops above its surface. Sunspots usually show up as small forms that are irregularly shaped, and grow within days or weeks to their full size. While they can last weeks or months, they do eventually disappear, often by breaking into smaller and smaller sunspots. Credit: NASA SDO

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 24 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
00:29
00:29
00:29

NASA SDO - X1.1 Solar Flare, March 5, 2012

After several days of a quiet Sun, the solar activity is now high again. Big sunspot AR1429, which emerged on March 2nd, is crackling with strong flares. This morning brought the strongest so far--an X1-class eruption on March 5th at 0413 UT. This flare propelled a bright Coronal Mass Ejection into Space, which will probably miss Earth, but hit Mercury and Venus. Even if this CME misses, high-latitude sky watchers should still be alert for auroras in the nights ahead. An M2-class eruption from the same sunspot on March 4th produced another, wider CME that might yet intersect Earth. The cloud is expected to deliver a glancing blow to our planet's magnetic field on March 6th at 04:30 UT (+/- 7 hr). Take a look at the forecast from our friends at the NASA Goddard Space Weather Lab: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/downloads/20120305_085600_anim.tim-den.gif Credit: NASA SDO

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 28 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
00:13
00:13
00:13

NASA SDO - First Visual of Comet Lovejoy

The Comet Lovejoy seen through the Solar Dynamics Observatory AIA telescope in the 171 angstrom wavelength. Credit: NASA SDO

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 49 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
00:16
00:16
00:16

NASA SDO - January 2, 2012 Eruption

An active region just passed the Western limb of the Sun produced a very nice eruption today. Lots of solar material was ejected into Space but it was not Earth directed. Credit: NASA SDO

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 40 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
01:05
01:05
01:05

NASA SDO - Traveling Sunspots (Feb 7 - 20, 2011)

A beautiful video showing a full side to side passing of an active region and the movement of sunspots as seen by the HMI instrument. The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager extends the capabilities of the SOHO/MDI instrument with continual full-disk coverage at higher spatial resolution and new vector magnetogram capabilities. Credit: NASA SDO

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 34 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
00:26
00:26
00:26

NASA SDO - Big Sunspot, Big Effects

This is the sunspot region AR 1429 that generated several major solar storms recently. The video covers nine days (March 4 - 12, 2012). Notice how the spot is almost always changing as its magnetic fields realign themselves. The images are white light images called intensity grams. Credit: NASA SDO

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 38 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
00:41
00:41
00:41

NASA SDO - Twist & Eclipse

Over the past 24 hours we have seen some beautiful solar events. None of them have a direct impact on Earth, but they are astonishing to watch. It just shows how an active Star our Sun really is. Far from boring. On December 8, 2011 a twisting prominence eruption occurred on the lower eastern limb. The view through the AIA 304 angstrom filter shows us this beautiful eruption. In the early hours of December 9, 2011 SDO observed a little bit of a different eclipse. An erupting cloud of plasma was eclipsed by a dark magnetic filament. The eruption is still on the far side of the Sun, behind the eastern limb and is slowly moving forward and over the limb sometime next week. In front you can observe the filament of relatively cool dark material floating across the Sun's surface in the foreground. That filament partially blocks the view of the hot plasma eruption behind it. Credit: NASA SDO

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 29 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
00:25
00:25
00:25

NASA SDO - Today's Un-Boring Sun; December 7, 2011

December 7, 2011; Today's Sun in various wavelengths showing various temperatures and layers of the Sun. Not only that, but we also added the Sun's magnetic field lines to the view. These images were taken at approx. the same time We start off looking at the 6,000 degrees C. Photosphere. See the various sunspots on the "surface" of the Sun? Now let's transition into the region between the Chromosphere and the Corona, at about 1 million degrees C. From there we go into a composite of three different wavelengths showing temperatures up to 2 million degrees C. And at the end we add the complex field of Magnetic Field lines to the various active regions. And who says the Sun is boring? Credit: NASA SDO Thanks to Steele Hill

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 37 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
00:28
00:28
00:28

NASA SDO - Filament Snap, November 14, 2011

And within just a few hours the very massive filament (see post from earlier today) is approx. 1/3 shorter. This movie shows the developments from 13:00 to 16:00 UT on November 14, 2011. A solar prominence (also known as a filament when viewed against the solar disk) is a large, bright feature extending outward from the Sun's surface. Prominences are anchored to the Sun's surface in the photosphere, and extend outwards into the Sun's hot outer atmosphere, called the corona. A prominence forms over timescales of about a day, and stable prominences may persist in the corona for several months, looping hundreds of thousands of miles into space. Scientists are still researching how and why prominences are formed. The red-glowing looped material is plasma, a hot gas comprised of electrically charged hydrogen and helium. The prominence plasma flows along a tangled and twisted structure of magnetic fields generated by the sun's internal dynamo. An erupting prominence occurs when such a structure becomes unstable and bursts outward, releasing the plasma. Credit: NASA SDO

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 37 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
00:21
00:21
00:21

NASA SDO - Three in Profile

Three energized active regions that were lined up latitudinally (along a North-South line) rotated into profile view at the Sun's edge and put on a good solar show (Oct. 21-23, 2011). They were observed in extreme ultraviolet light. The magnetic forces of the active regions were feverishly connecting and reconnecting the entire time. Towards the end of the clip, the middle region spurted off a burst of plasma and then the upper one erupted with a flare, followed by cascades of bright loops reorganizing themselves above it. SDO's high resolution images and fast cadence of images let us see a level of detail never before possible. Credit: NASA SDO

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 33 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
01:12
01:12
01:12

NASA SDO - Spectacular Prominence Eruption, June 7, 2011

The Sun unleashed an M-2 (medium-sized) solar flare with a substantial coronal mass ejection (CME) on June 7 that is visually spectacular. The large cloud of particles mushroomed up and fell back down looking as if it covered an area of almost half the solar surface. SDO observed the flare's peak at 1:41 AM EST. SDO recorded these images in extreme ultraviolet light and they show a very large explosion of cool gas. It is somewhat unique because at many places in the eruption there seems to be even cooler material -- at temperatures less than 80,000K. When viewed in SOHO's coronagraphs, the event shows bright plasma and high-energy particles roaring from the Sun. This Earth-directed CME is moving at 1400 km/s according to NASA models. Due to its angle, however, effects on Earth should be fairly small. Nevertheless, it may generate space weather effects here on Earth in a few days. Credit: NASA SDO

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 44 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
04:03
04:03
04:03

NASA Science - The Surprising Power of a Solar Storm

A recent flurry of eruptions on the sun did more than spark pretty auroras around the poles. NASA-funded researchers say the solar storms of March 8th through 10th dumped enough energy in Earth's upper atmosphere to power every residence in New York City for two years. "This was the biggest dose of heat we've received from a solar storm since 2005," says Martin Mlynczak of NASA Langley Research Center. "It was a big event, and shows how solar activity can directly affect our planet." Mlynczak is the associate principal investigator for the SABER instrument onboard NASA's TIMED satellite. SABER monitors infrared emissions from Earth's upper atmosphere, in particular from carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitric oxide (NO), two substances that play a key role in the energy balance of air hundreds of km above our planet's surface. "Carbon dioxide and nitric oxide are natural thermostats," explains James Russell of Hampton University, SABER's principal investigator. "When the upper atmosphere (or 'thermosphere') heats up, these molecules try as hard as they can to shed that heat back into space." That's what happened on March 8th when a coronal mass ejection (CME) propelled in our direction by an X5-class solar flare hit Earth's magnetic field. (On the "Richter Scale of Solar Flares," X-class flares are the most powerful kind.) Energetic particles rained down on the upper atmosphere, depositing their energy where they hit. The action produced spectacular auroras around the poles and significant1 upper atmospheric heating all around the globe. "The thermosphere lit up like a Christmas tree," says Russell. "It began to glow intensely at infrared wavelengths as the thermostat effect kicked in." For the three day period, March 8th through 10th, the thermosphere absorbed 26 billion kWh of energy. Infrared radiation from CO2 and NO, the two most efficient coolants in the thermosphere, re-radiated 95% of that total back into space. In human terms, this is a lot of energy. According to the New York City mayor's office, an average NY household consumes just under 4700 kWh annually. This means the geomagnetic storm dumped enough energy into the atmosphere to power every home in the Big Apple for two years. "Unfortunately, there's no practical way to harness this kind of energy," says Mlynczak. "It's so diffuse and out of reach high above Earth's surface. Plus, the majority of it has been sent back into space by the action of CO2 and NO." During the heating impulse, the thermosphere puffed up like a marshmallow held over a campfire, temporarily increasing the drag on low-orbiting satellites. This is both good and bad. On the one hand, extra drag helps clear space junk out of Earth orbit. On the other hand, it decreases the lifetime of useful satellites by bringing them closer to the day of re-entry. The storm is over now, but Russell and Mlynczak expect more to come. "We're just emerging from a deep solar minimum," says Russell. "The solar cycle is gaining strength with a maximum expected in 2013." More sunspots flinging more CMEs toward Earth adds up to more opportunities for SABER to study the heating effect of solar storms. "This is a new frontier in the sun-Earth connection," says Mlynczak, and the data we're collecting are unprecedented." Credit: NASA Science

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 43 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
00:51
00:51
00:51

NASA SDO - Prominence & Flare, March 23, 2012

Within a very short time a beautiful prominence erupted on the upper western limb and a M1-class solar flare happened on the lower eastern limb. Enjoy this beautiful view through various wavelengths of the AIA instrument on board NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA SDO

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 42 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
00:33
00:33
00:33

NASA SDO - Lovejoy's Journey around the Sun

Comet Lovejoy traveled behind the Sun and reemerged as seen by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA SDO

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 28 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
00:42
00:42
00:42

NASA SDO - M8.7-Class Solar Flare from January 23, 2012

The Chinese New Year certainly started with a bang this morning. At approx. 04:00 UT a strong and long duration M8.7-class solar flare exploded from Active Region 1402. NASA SDO captured this event and thanks to ESA/NASA SOHO and NASA STEREO Behind spacecrafts, we have also learned of a very quick moving Coronal Mass Ejection. The CME is traveling at approx. 2,200 km per second and the Goddard Space Weather Lab predicts the arrival of this CME on earth to be January 24, 2012 at approx. 14:18 UT (+/- 7 hours). It also shows that Mars will get hit too, several hours after Earth. These kinds of events can cause problems for spacecrafts in geosynchronous, polar and other orbits passing could be affected by the cloud's arrival. In addition, strong geomagnetic storms are possible, so high-latitude sky watchers should be alert for Aurorae. Credit: NASA SDO

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 26 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
00:25
00:25
00:25

NASA SDO - M9-class Solar Flare, July 30, 2011

In the early hours of July 30, 2011 a fairly strong, but brief, M9-class solar flare occurred on Active Region 1261. Because it was brief it appears not to have hurled a large coronal mass ejection (CME) outwards. Additional analysis are underway. Credit: NASA SDO

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 48 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
00:18
00:18
00:18

NASA SDO - Plasma Indirection

As if it could not make up its mind . . . darker, cooler plasma slid and shifted back and forth above the Sun's surface seen here for 30 hours (Feb. 7-8, 2012) in extreme ultraviolet light. An active region rotating into view provides a bright backdrop to the gyrating streams of plasma. The particles are being pulled this way and that by competing magnetic forces. They are tracking along strands of magnetic field lines. This kind of detailed solar observation with high-resolution frames and a four-minute cadence was not possible until SDO, which launched two years ago on Feb. 11, 2010. So it's our 2nd Anniversary! Credit: NASA SDO

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 33 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
00:48
00:48
00:48

NASA SDO - 3D Sun (HD Version - 3D Glasses Needed)

NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) - designed to understand the causes of solar variability and its impacts on Earth. SDO is helping us understanding the Sun's influence on Earth and Near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously. SDO's goal is to understand, driving towards a predictive capability, the solar variations that influence life on Earth and humanity's technological systems by determining. Put on your 3D glasses and enjoy our active Sun in white light fading into EUV and back and froth a couple of times. Credit: NASA SDO

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 21 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
00:27
00:27
00:27

NASA SDO - Lovely Loops

The Lovely Loops A close-up view of the Sun's edge shows vast loop structures made of superheated plasma, just one of which is the size of several Earths. These loops can have a wide range of temperatures, many reaching several million degrees Kelvin. The upper one of a pair of new, solar active regions that just rotated into view offered a beautiful profile view of those cascading loops spiraling above it (Jan. 15-16, 2012) following a solar flare eruption. With its ability to capture the Sun in amazing detail, SDO observed it all in extreme ultraviolet light. This particular video clip used an image every minutes to present the motion. Credit: NASA SDO

Channels: Solar astronomy 

Added: 49 days ago by deek

Views: 25 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
02:52
02:52
02:52

Big New ExoPlanet Haul

From EsoCast in 1080p, comes the announcement of a rash of new planet discoveries. Astronomers using ESO's leading exoplanet hunter HARPS have today announced more than fifty newly discovered planets around other stars. Among these are many rocky planets not much heavier than the Earth. One of them in particular orbits within the habitable zone around its star. Among the new planets just announced by scientists, sixteen are super-Earths - rocky planets up to ten times as massive as Earth. This is the largest number of such planets ever announced at one time. A planet in orbit causes its star to regularly move backwards and forwards as seen from Earth. This creates a tiny shift of the star's spectrum that can be measured with an extremely sensitive spectrograph such as HARPS. In their quest to find a rocky planet that could harbor life, astronomers are now pushing HARPS even further. They have selected ten well-studied nearby stars similar to our Sun. Earlier observations showed that these were ideal stars to examine for even less massive planets. After two years of work, the team has found five light super-Earths around three of the stars. These planets are very good candidates for future observations looking for evidence of life. One of the newly found planets, named HD 85512 b, orbits inside the habitable zone. This is the narrow area around a star where water can exist in liquid form. Astronomers estimate that liquid water could possibly be present on this planet if it is a rocky world that has more than 50% cloud cover. By looking carefully at the results from the first 8 years of HARPS observations, the team has found that around 40% of stars similar to the Sun harbor at least one planet lighter than Saturn. These new results lead astronomers to believe that they could soon find more super-Earths in the habitable zones of their stars with HARPS. These planets will be great targets for powerful future telescopes to try to study their atmospheres looking for evidence of life. Thanks to HARPS, the search for another Earth elsewhere in the galaxy is picking up pace!

Channels: Planetary science 

Added: 84 days ago by deek

Views: 90 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
01:33:37
01:33:37
01:33:37

Kepler, Exoplanets and SETI - Geoff Marcy (SETI Talks)

SETI Talks archive: http://seti.org/talks Science fiction portrays our Milky Way Galaxy as filled with habitable planets populated by advanced civilizations engaged in interstellar trade and conflict. Back in our real universe, Earth-like planets and alien life have proved elusive. Has science fiction led us astray? NASA has launched a space-borne telescope, Kepler, dedicated to discovering the first Earth-like worlds around other stars. The first results are startling and profound. How common are worlds that are suitable for life? What properties make a planet livable? Can we estimate the occurrence of life in the universe, especially intelligent life? New telescopic and biological observations are providing the first answers to these questions. And new techniques are emerging to provide those answers.

Channels: Planetary science 

Added: 84 days ago by deek

Views: 5 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
05:09
05:09
05:09

ESO 20 Richest eXoPlanetary System Ever [HD] Discovered by HARPS (not HAARP!)

~credits video: http://youtube.com/ESOobservatory Astronomers using ESO instruments have discovered a remarkable extrasolar planetary system that has some striking similarities to our own Solar System. At least five planets are orbiting the Sun-like star HD 10180, and the regular pattern of their orbits is similar to that observed for our neighbouring planets. One of the new extrasolar worlds could be only 1.4 times the mass of the Earth, making it the least massive exoplanet ever found. This video podcast explains how these faraway planets were detected and exactly what we know about them. Astronomers using ESO's world-leading HARPS instrument have discovered a planetary system containing at least five planets, orbiting the Sun-like star HD 10180. The researchers also believe the system has two other planets, one of which would have the lowest mass ever found, making the system similar to our own Solar System in terms of the number of planets. Furthermore, the scientists find that the location of the planets follows a regular pattern, as also seen in our own Solar System The team of astronomers used the HARPS spectrograph, attached to ESO's 3.6-metre telescope at La Silla, Chile. HARPS is an instrument with unrivalled stability and great precision, and the world's most successful exoplanet hunter. The astronomers, led by Christophe Lovis from the Geneva Observatory, studied the Sun-like star HD 10180 over a period of six years! This star is located 127 light-years away in the southern constellation Hydrus ("the Male Water Snake"). Thanks to the 190 individual HARPS measurements, the astronomers detected the wobbles of the star caused by five or more planets. The five strongest signals correspond to planets with Neptune-like masses — between 13 and 25 Earth masses — which orbit the star in between 6 to 600 days. The astronomers have also strong reason to believe that two other planets are present. One would be a Saturn-like planet orbiting in 2200 days. The other, having a mass of only about 1.4 times that of the Earth would be the least massive exoplanet ever discovered. This suspected planet is very close to its host star and so it is likely to be very hot. One 'year' on this planet lasts only 1.18 Earth-days! The newly discovered Solar System is unique in several respects. First of all, with at least five Neptune-like planets lying within a distance equivalent to the orbit of Mars, this system is more populated than our own Solar System in its inner region, and has many more massive planets there. Furthermore, the system probably has no Jupiter-like gas giant. In addition, all the planets seem to have almost circular orbits. Dynamical studies of the new system reveal complex interactions between planets and give us insights into its long-term evolution. Using the new discovery as well as data for other planetary systems, the astronomers discovered that the locations of the planets seem to follow a regular pattern — similar to the "Titius-Bode" law that exists in our Solar System. This could be a general signature of how planetary systems form. Another important result is that all very massive planetary systems are found around massive and metal-rich stars, while the four lowest-mass systems are found around lower-mass and metal-poor stars. These properties confirm current theoretical models. There is no doubt that this remarkable discovery highlights the fact that we are now entering a new era in exoplanet science: the study of complex planetary systems and not just of individual planets!! And with HARPS, European astronomers will be a driving force behind this transition. --- ESOcast is produced by ESO, the European Southern Observatory. ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the pre-eminent intergovernmental science and technology organisation in astronomy designing, constructing and operating the world's most advanced ground-based telescopes. • http://eso.org

Channels: Planetary science 

Added: 84 days ago by deek

Views: 90 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated

 
06:26
06:26
06:26

Space Fan News #56: New Type of Exoplanet; Andromeda Outbursts; Neutrino Errors

http://gplus.to/TonyDarnell http://facebook.com/SpaceFan New Class of Exoplanet Discovered http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2012/pr201204.html http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2012/13/full/ http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1204/ https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~zberta/mearth/Welcome.html Very bright Outburst from Andromeda: http://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press/219-news-2012/2075-spectacularly-bright-object-in-andromeda-caused-by-normal-black-hole http://www.mpe.mpg.de/News/PR20120223/text.html Faster Than Light Neutrinos? Not so much http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/02/official-word-on-superluminal-ne.html?ref=hp

Channels: Planetary science 

Added: 84 days ago by deek

Views: 67 | Comments: 0

Not yet rated