The Astronomers

Gigantic Solar Tornado Is 5 Times the Size of Earth--September 2011

Discovered using NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory satellite, this colossal twisting mass is made up of superheated gas at a temperature of between 90,000 and 3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit. Over the course of three hours, this behemoth reached up from the sun's surface to a height of 125,000 miles, or roughly half the distance between the Earth and the moon. The hot gases were whipped up to nearly 186,000 miles per hour. In comparison, the wind speed of terrestrial tornadoes generally reaches a paltry 100 miles per hour. Scientists have previously seen smaller solar tornadoes with other sun-observing satellites but this one — spotted in September 2011 — is thought to be the first one ever filmed (left). Since then, researchers have seen at least one more solar tornado, an Earth-sized twister seen in the video below. These tornadoes often precede events known as coronal mass ejections — huge eruptions of charged particles that blast out of the sun's surface with tremendous energy. Such flare-ups are thought to be related to interactions among the sun's magnetic field lines, whose corkscrewing movements also shape the solar tornado. The top images and movie were presented at the National Astronomy Meeting 2012 in Manchester, England on Mar. 29. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/gigantic-solar-tornado/ comment-rate-subscribe also watch: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL20C572EB49403155&feature=view_all

Sunorb  sun  2012  solar  flares  Nibiru  Anunnaki  SDO  NASA  nasatelescope  ursuadams  planet-x  comet  dutchsinse  solarcycle24  earthquake  flare  sunspot  March  Earth  solarham.com  CME  activity  Space  coronal  mass  ejection  STEREO  SunsFlare  star  prominence 

Channels: Solar astronomy 

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Earth size Tornado's rip up the Sun! (February 17, 2012)

For a 30 hour time frame on (Feb 7-8, 2012) the Solar Dynamics Observatory captured plasma caught in a magnetic dance across the Sun's surface. In this video, cooler plasma material appears as darker spots on a bright background. The SDO spacecraft recorded the video in the extreme ultraviolet range of the light spectrum, giving the movie an eerie yellow hue. NASA released the new SDO video to mark the second anniversary of the spacecraft's mission, which launched on Feb. 11, 2010. The $850 million spacecraft is on a five-year mission to record high-definition videos of the sun to help astronomers better understand how changes in the sun's solar weather cycle can affect life on Earth. The sun is currently in an active period of its 11-year weather cycle. The current cycle is known as Solar Cycle 24 and will peak in 2013.

Sun  Storm  Earth  Lightning  Tornado  Thunder  Weather  Rain  Disaster  Flood  Wind  Thunderstorm  cme  solar  flare  Coronal  Mass  Ejection 

Channels: Solar astronomy 

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2MIN News Mar2: Electrostatic Tornados, Geomagnetic/Planetary Update

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-sad-reality-of-israel-newspapers-false-objectivism-1.415991 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=77270 http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/29feb_tornadosurprise/ http://spaceweather.com/ http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater http://www.ips.gov.au/HF_Systems/6/5 http://solarimg.org/artis/ http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/cme-based/ http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php

2012  tornado  earthquake  news  nasa  space  sun  cme  solar  flare  nwo  volcano  comet  haarp  ww3 

Channels: Planetary science 

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NASA SDO - Aurora; What Causes Them?

Aurora are colorful lights in the night time sky primarily appearing in Earth's polar regions. But what causes them? The culprit behind aurora is our own Sun and the solar plasma that is ejected during a magnetic event like a flare or a coronal mass ejection. This plasma travels outward along with the solar wind and when it encounters Earth's magnetic field, it travels down the field lines that connect at the poles. Atoms in the plasma interacts with atoms in Earth's upper atmosphere.

NASA  SDO  Solar  Dynamics  Observatory  hmi  aia  eve  sun  Aurora  plasma  earth  magnetic  field  atoms  interact  atmosphere  ejection  CME  storm  flare  sky  astronomy  space 

Channels: Solar astronomy 

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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

NASA  SDO  Solar  Dynamics  Observatory  Sun  flare  space  weather  M-class  CME  coronal  mass  ejection  chinese  new  year  astronomy 

Channels: Solar astronomy 

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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

NASA  SDO  Solar  Dynamics  Observatory  Sun  flare  x-class  X1  x1.1  space  weather  CME  coronal  mass  ejection  explosion  magnetic  field  AR1429  active  region  astronomy 

Channels: Solar astronomy 

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NASA | SDO Year One

April 21, 2011 marks the one-year anniversary of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) First Light press conference, where NASA revealed the first images taken by the spacecraft. In the last year, the sun has gone from its quietest period in years to the activity marking the beginning of solar cycle 24. SDO has captured every moment with a level of detail never-before possible. The mission has returned unprecedented images of solar flares, eruptions of prominences, and the early stages of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). In this video are some of the most beautiful, interesting, and mesmerizing events seen by SDO during its first year. In the order they appear in the video the events are: 1. Prominence Eruption from AIA in 304 Angstroms on March 30, 2010 2. Cusp Flow from AIA in 171 Angstroms on February 14, 2011 3. Prominence Eruption from AIA in 304 Angstroms on February 25, 2011 4. Cusp Flow from AIA in 304 Angstroms on February 14, 2011 5. Merging Sunspots from HMI in Continuum on October 24-28, 2010 6. Prominence Eruption and active region from AIA in 304 Angstroms on April 30, 2010 7. Solar activity and plasma loops from AIA in 171 Angstroms on March 4-8, 2011 8. Flowing plasma from AIA in 304 Angstroms on April 19, 2010 9. Active regions from HMI in Magnetogram on March 10, 2011 10. Filament eruption from AIA in 304 Angstroms on December 6, 2010 11. CME start from AIA in 211 Angstroms on March 8, 2011 12. X2 flare from AIA in 304 Angstroms on February 15, 2011 Be sure to vote on your favorite SDO clip here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/multimedia/VC-1st-light.html Voting goes from April 21 until May 5. This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?10748 Like our videos? Subscribe to NASA's Goddard Shorts HD podcast: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/iTunes/f0004_index.html Or find NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASA.GSFC Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard

Scott  Wiessinger  sdo  year  one  sun  solar  cme  flare  first  light  nasa  goddard  space  science 

Channels: Solar astronomy 

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NASA SDO - X5.4-class Solar Flare, March 7, 2012

Right at midnight UT time the active region 1429 unleashed a powerful X5.4-class solar flare. X-class flares are the strongest of the flares. They are major events that can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms. It appears that right after the large X5.4 flare another slightly lower, X1 flare (5 times smaller) occurred. You can clearly see a wave going across the Sun. We are still gathering data and the Space Weather Forecast Lab will be having updates available soon. Credit: NASA SDO

NASA  SDO  Solar  Dynamics  Observatory  Sun  flare  X-class  X5  X5.5  space  cme  coronal  mass  ejections 

Channels: Solar astronomy 

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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

NASA  SDO  Solar  Dynamics  Observatory  HMI  AIA  EVE  sun  prominence  eruption  flare  class  m-class  plasma  space  universe  astronomy  weather  CME  coronal  mass  ejection  June  June7  060711  06072011 

Channels: Solar astronomy 

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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

Science  NASA  Storm  Space  Power  CME  coronal  mass  ejections  sun  New  york  solar  physics  astronomy 

Channels: Solar astronomy 

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NASA - Aurorae from Space

Lately, the International Space Station has been flying through geomagnetic storms, giving astronauts an close-up view of the aurora borealis just outside their windows. These videos were taken by the crew of Expedition 30 on board the International Space Station. First, get an introduction into the beauty of aurorae. 1st Segment: The sequence of shots was taken March 3, 2012 from 17:59:48 to 18:16:25 GMT, on a pass from eastern Kenya, near the Indian Ocean, to the South Indian Ocean, east of the Kerguelen Islands. This video begins as the ISS travels southeast from eastern Africa over the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. The first land we see is that of the Mauritius and Reunion Islands east of Madagascar. The pass continues over the Indian Ocean, where there are heavy clouds blocking the view of the water. Finally, the Aurora Australis begins to appear, as well as a faded view of the Milky Way. 2nd Segment: The sequence of shots was taken March 4, 2012 from 17:19:17 to 17:27:10 GMT, on a pass over the South Indian Ocean. This video again focuses on the Aurora Australis as the ISS passes over the South Indian Ocean, from northeast of the Kerugelen Islands to south of Australia. The streaks of the aurora are very visible and active in this video, as the ISS passes right over the green lights. 3rd Segment: The sequence of shots was taken March 10, 2012 from 14:49:58 to 15:05:37 GMT, on a pass from the South Indian Ocean to southeast New Zealand. This video mainly focuses on the Aurora Australis over the Southern Hemisphere. As the ISS traveled southeast and then northeast, the crew captured the bands of the Aurora Australis as the Milky Way made an appearance in the star field. Credit: NASA ISS/JSC/Science@NASA

NASA  JSC  ISS  International  Space  Station  Aurora  Northern  Southern  Lights  magnetic  field  solar  storms  coronal  mass  ejections  CME  weather  storm  geomagnetic 

Channels: Solar astronomy 

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NASA/ESA SOHO & NASA SDO Comet Meets Sun, October 1, 2011

A comet discovered on Friday September 30, 2011 by an amateur astronomer disintegrated on Saturday October 1, 2011 when it plunged into the Sun. The Corongraph of NASA/ESA's SOHO captured the last few hours of the comet. Very shortly after the comet dove into the Sun a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) exploded. As of current solar scientists do not believe that a comet can trigger a Coronal Mass Ejection - however, the question of if a comet could cause a magnetic instability on the Sun remains and is being studied. On July 6, 2011 the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observed a sungrazing comet and it appeared to interact with the plasma and magnetic field as it fell apart. The first two segments in this video are from October 1, 2011 and were observed by NASA/ESA's SOHO spacecraft. The last two segments were captured by NASA's SDO on July 5, 2011. Credit: NASA/ESA SOHO and NASA SDO

NASA  ESA  SOHO  SDO  Solar  Dynamics  Observatory  Sun  comet  sungrazing  sundiving  magnetic  field  CME  Coronal  mass  ejection  October 

Channels: Solar astronomy 

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NASA SDO - M2.6 Solar Flare on January 19, 2012

Today's M2.6-class Solar Flare produced a nice Coronal Mass Ejection, which appears to be Earth directed. Current forecasts have it to arrive on January 21, 2012 at approx. 22:30 UT (let's give or take 7 hours... it's over 90 million mile journey after all). Our friends at the NASA Goddard Space Weather Lab are predicting possible strong geomagnetic storms. What will it mean for us? Possibly some Aurorea and perhaps some communications interruption. No major issues are expected. A view of the Active Regions 1401 and 1402 over the past couple of days shows the development of those beautiful sunspots. Then two views of the solar flare through the SDO instrument before concluding with views from STEREO Ahead and Behind. Credit: NASA SDO & NASA STEREO

NASA  SDO  Solar  Dynamics  Observatory  STEREO  Sun  flare  CME  Coronal  Mass  ejection 

Channels: Solar astronomy 

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NASA | Massive Solar Flare gets HD Close Up

Take a closer look at the flare that erupted on March 6, 2012. This movie of the March 6, 2012 X5.4 flare was captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in the 171 and 131 Angstrom wavelength. One of the most dramatic features is the way the entire surface of the sun seems to ripple with the force of the eruption. This movement comes from something called EIT waves -- because they were first discovered with the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) on the Solar Heliospheric Observatory. Since SDO captures images every 12 seconds, it has been able to map the full evolution of these waves and confirm that they can travel across the full breadth of the sun. The waves move at over a million miles per hour, zipping from one side of the sun to the other in about an hour. The movie shows two distinct waves. The first seems to spread in all directions; the second is narrower, moving toward the southeast. Such waves are associated with, and perhaps trigger, fast coronal mass ejections, so it is likely that each one is connected to one of the two CMEs that erupted on March 6. Caption: NASA/SDO Like our videos? Subscribe to NASA's Goddard Shorts HD podcast: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/iTunes/f0004_index.html Or find NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASA.GSFC Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard

NASA  Space  Scott  Wiessinger  solar  flare  storm  sun  CME  Goddard 

Channels: Solar astronomy 

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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

NASA  SDO  Solar  Dynamics  Observatory  Sun  flare  aurora  space  astronomy  Coronal  Mass  Ejection  CME  HMI  AIA  EVE 

Channels: Solar astronomy 

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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

NASA  SDO  Solar  Dynamics  Observatory  HMI  AIA  EVE  Sun  flare  CME  coronal  mass  ejection  July  30  2011  07302011  073011  30072011  plasma  space  astronomy 

Channels: Solar astronomy 

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