Saturday, November 9, 2013

Solar Activity Ramps Up as Giant Sunspot Group Turns to Face Earth

Solar Activity Ramps Up as Giant Sunspot Group Turns to Face Earth:
Monster sunspot group 1890 now faces Earth. Taken on Nov. 8, 2013. Credit and copyright: Ron Cottrell.
Solar Activity Ramps Up as Giant Sunspot Group Turns to Face Earth
Monster sunspot group 1890 now faces Earth. Taken on Nov. 8, 2013. Credit and copyright: Ron Cottrell.
The Sun is finally acting like it’s in solar maximum. Our Sun has emitted dozens of solar flares in since Oct. 23, 2013, with at least six big X-class flares. Just today it blasted out a X1.1 flare at 04:32 UT (11:32 p.m. EST on Nov. 7, 2013). While old Sol had been fairly quiet for the time where it was supposed to be active in its normal 11-year cycle, only recently has activity ramped up with increased flares and sunspots. During 2013, there has been intermittent strong activity (like this and this in May, the activity since mid-October is really the first extended period of activity.
Speaking of sunspots, a huge group called designated as AR 1890 has turned to face Earth. Thanks to astrophotographer Ron Cottrell for capturing the group today, above. Spaceweather.com reports that this sunspot has a trend of producing very brief flares. The X1-flare today was no exception as it lasted barely a minute. NOAA is forecasting a 60% chance of M-class solar flares and a 20% chance of X-flares on Nov. 8th from this sunspot group.
You can see an image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory below, as it recorded a flash of extreme UV radiation from the blast site:(...)
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GOCE Spacecraft Will Likely Make Uncontrolled Re-entry This Weekend

GOCE Spacecraft Will Likely Make Uncontrolled Re-entry This Weekend:
Artist rendition of the GOCE Satellite in orbit. Credit: ESA
GOCE Spacecraft Will Likely Make Uncontrolled Re-entry This Weekend
Artist rendition of the GOCE Satellite in orbit. Credit: ESA
The Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite has been orbiting Earth in super-low orbits since 2009, mapping out variations in Earth’s gravity in extreme detail. But its fuel ran out in mid-October and the satellite began its slow descent towards Earth, being brought lower and lower by the effects of the atmosphere. Engineers predict it will re-enter completely and fall back to Earth sometime this weekend.
But no one can say for sure when or where the 1-ton satellite will fall.
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Thursday, November 7, 2013

Comet ISON Heats Up, Grows New Tail

Comet ISON Heats Up, Grows New Tail:
Two new tail streamers are visible between Comet ISON's green coma and bright star near center. in this photo taken on Nov. 6. They're possibly the beginning of an ion tail. Click to enlarge. Credit: Damian Peach
Comet ISON Heats Up, Grows New Tail
Two faint tail streamers are visible between Comet ISON’s green coma and bright star near center. in this photo taken on Nov. 6. They’re possibly the beginning of an ion tail. Click to enlarge. Credit: Damian Peach
I’m starting to get the chills about Comet ISON. I can’t help it. With practically every telescope turned the comet’s way fewer than three short weeks before perihelion, every week brings new images and developments. The latest pictures show a brand new tail feature emerging from the comet’s bulbous coma. For months, amateur and professional astronomers alike have watched ISON’s slowly growing dust tail that now stretches nearly half a degree or a full moon’s diameter. In the past two days, photos taken by amateur astronomers reveal what appears to be a nascent ion or gas tail. Damian Peach’s Nov. 6 image clearly shows two spindly streamers.
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‘Freakish’ Asteroid Has Six Tails, Sheds Stuff Into Space

‘Freakish’ Asteroid Has Six Tails, Sheds Stuff Into Space:
Pictures of asteroid P/2013 P5 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (UCLA)
‘Freakish’ Asteroid Has Six Tails, Sheds Stuff Into Space
Pictures of asteroid P/2013 P5 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (UCLA)
A lawn sprinkler in space. That’s one of the descriptions NASA has for the curious P/2013 P5, which is spewing not one, not two, but six comet-like tails at the same time.
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‘Stairways to Mars’ Concept Proposes Truck Stops Near The Red Planet

‘Stairways to Mars’ Concept Proposes Truck Stops Near The Red Planet:
Robotic construction of the proposed "Stairway to Mars", a concept for fuelling spacecraft on their way to other destinations. Credit: Anna Nesterova art
‘Stairways to Mars’ Concept Proposes Truck Stops Near The Red Planet
Robotic construction of the proposed “Stairway to Mars”, a concept for fuelling spacecraft on their way to other destinations. Credit: Anna Nesterova art
Any road trip requires rest stops to refuel and rest. That’s especially true of planetary exploration, as it would take months between destinations. In that spirit, here is a new concept for “Mars truck stops” from the Space Development Steering Committee, which they call “Stairways to Mars.”
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The Stars of Orion Seen Blazing From Orbit

The Stars of Orion Seen Blazing From Orbit:
The constellation Orion photographed from orbit by Karen Nyberg (NASA)
The Stars of Orion Seen Blazing From Orbit
The constellation Orion photographed from orbit by Karen Nyberg in August 2013 (NASA)
The mighty hunter soars above the atmosphere in this photo, taken by NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg currently living and working in space aboard the ISS. One of the most recognizable constellations in night skies all across the Earth, Orion also puts on an impressive display for those well above the Earth!
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Bright Venus Takes Center Stage in November

Bright Venus Takes Center Stage in November:
(Credit: Brian McGaffney/Nutwood Observatory).
Bright Venus Takes Center Stage in November
Venus plus its reflection and the Milky Way off of the Gulf of Mexico. (Credit: Brian McGaffney/Nutwood Observatory).
“What’s that bright object to the southwest at dusk?” We’ve already fielded more than a few such questions as Earth’s sister world shines in the dusk sky.  Venus just passed its maximum elongation 47 degrees east of the Sun on November 1st, and currently shines at a brilliant magnitude -4.46. This is almost 16 times brighter than the brightest star in the sky, -1.46th magnitude Sirius.
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Lovely Green Olivine On Vesta Paints A Different Formation History

Lovely Green Olivine On Vesta Paints A Different Formation History:
The mineral olivine on Vesta, as seen from hyperspectral data received during the Dawn mission. Credit: Image generated by Alessandro Frigeri and Eleonora Ammannito using VIR data and Framing Camera images.
Lovely Green Olivine On Vesta Paints A Different Formation History
The mineral olivine on Vesta, as seen from hyperspectral data received during the Dawn mission. Credit: Image generated by Alessandro Frigeri and Eleonora Ammannito using VIR data and Framing Camera images.
That ghoul-like sheen on the asteroid Vesta, as seen in the image above, is not some leftover of Hallowe’en. It’s evidence of the mineral olivine. Scientists have seen it before in “differentiated” bodies — those that have a crust and an inner core — but in this case, it’s turning up in an unexpected location.
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Early Supermassive Black Holes First Formed as Twins

Early Supermassive Black Holes First Formed as Twins:
Two nascent black holes formed by the collapse of an early supergiant star. From a visualization by by Christian Reisswig (Caltech).
Early Supermassive Black Holes First Formed as Twins
Two nascent black holes formed by the collapse of a single supergiant star. From a simulation by by Christian Reisswig (Caltech).
It’s one of the puzzles of cosmology and stellar evolution: how did supermassive black holes get so… well, supermassive… in the early Universe, when seemingly not enough time had yet passed for them to accumulate their mass through steady accretion processes alone? It takes a while to eat up a billion solar masses’ worth of matter, even with a healthy appetite and lots within gravitational reach. But yet there they are: monster black holes are common within some of the most distant galaxies, flaunting their precocious growth even as the Universe was just celebrating its one billionth birthday.
Now, recent findings by researchers at Caltech suggest that these ancient SMBs were formed by the death of certain types of primordial giant stars, exotic stellar dinosaurs that grew large and died young. During their violent collapse not just one but two black holes are formed, each gathering its own mass before eventually combining together into a single supermassive monster.
Watch a simulation and find out more about how this happens below:
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Spectacular Halo Around the Sun Seen in Africa

Spectacular Halo Around the Sun Seen in Africa:
A solar halo seen over Klerksdorp, South Africa on Nov. 6, 2013. Credit: Daniël Engelbrecht
Spectacular Halo Around the Sun Seen in Africa
A solar halo seen over Klerksdorp, South Africa on Nov. 6, 2013. Credit:
Daniël Engelbrecht
Fresh off seeing a solar eclipse on Sunday, people across the southern parts of Africa witnessed another solar spectacle today, a sun halo. “It was so beautiful, everyone was taking pictures and sharing them on Facebook,” said Daniël Engelbrecht from Klerksdorp, South Africa, sending in his picture to Universe Today via email.
These halos are quite the sight to see, but unlike an eclipse, they can’t be predicted. Conditions in the atmosphere have to be just right, with moisture or ice crystals creating a “rainbow” effect around the Sun. Sometimes the halos surround the Sun completely, other times, they appear as arcs around the Sun creating what is known as sundogs. Basically, sunlight is reflecting off moisture in the atmosphere.
Ice crystals in Earth’s atmosphere can also cause rings around the Moon, and moondogs(as well as sundogs) and even Venus pillars. News reports indicate sun halos were seen just a few days ago in Africa as well, on Nov. 1, 2013.
A few other people sent in images from their phones, too of today’s sun halo:
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Crew Launches to Space Station with Olympic Torch

Crew Launches to Space Station with Olympic Torch:
The Soyuz TMA-11M rocket is launched with Expedition 38/39. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.
Crew Launches to Space Station with Olympic Torch
The Soyuz TMA-11M rocket is launched with Expedition 38/39. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.
Three new crew members are on their way to the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata and Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos launched on a Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 11:14 p.m. EST (04:14:00 UTC, 10:14 a.m. Thursday, Kazakh time). They’ll use the accelerated “fast-track” trajectory and arrive at the station in just a few hours, at 10:31 UTC (5:31 a.m. EST Thursday.)
In an usual situation, when the new crew arrives, there will be nine crew members and three Soyuz vehicles at the ISS. The timing of crew exchange works to enable a complicated “relay race” of a special Olympic torch from the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia. (...)
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India’s Mars Orbiter Mission Rising to Red Planet – Glorious Launch Gallery

India’s Mars Orbiter Mission Rising to Red Planet – Glorious Launch Gallery:
Clouds on the ground ! The sky seems inverted for a moment ! Blastoff of India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) on Nov. 5, 2013 from the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. Credit: ISRO
India’s Mars Orbiter Mission Rising to Red Planet – Glorious Launch Gallery
Clouds on the ground !
The sky seems inverted for a moment ! Blastoff of India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) on Nov. 5, 2013 from the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. Credit: ISRO
With India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) safely and flawlessly injected into her initial elliptical Earth parking orbit following Tuesday’s (Nov. 5) spectacular launch, the flight has quickly transitioned to the next stage – the crucial series of thruster firings to raise MOM’s orbit around Earth dubbed “Midnight Maneuvers” and achieve escape velocity.
Barely a day after blastoff, ISRO engineers successfully completed the first of six orbit raising “Midnight Maneuver” burns at 01:17 hrs IST today (Nov. 6) with MOM’s liquid fueled thruster – see graphic below.(...)
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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Astronomy Cast 320: Layers of the Sun

Astronomy Cast 320: Layers of the Sun:

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22% of Sun-like Stars have Earth-sized Planets in the Habitable Zone

22% of Sun-like Stars have Earth-sized Planets in the Habitable Zone:
The "Goldilocks" zone around a star is where a planet is neither too hot nor too cold to support liquid water. Illustration by Petigura/UC Berkeley, Howard/UH-Manoa, Marcy/UC Berkeley.
22% of Sun-like Stars have Earth-sized Planets in the Habitable Zone
The “Goldilocks” zone around a star is where a planet is neither too hot nor too cold to support liquid water. Illustration by Petigura/UC Berkeley, Howard/UH-Manoa, Marcy/UC Berkeley.
How common are planets like Earth? That’s been a question astronomers and dreamers have pondered for decades, and now, thanks to the Kepler spacecraft, they have an answer. One in five Sun-like stars in our galaxy have Earth-sized planets that could host life, according to a recent study of Kepler data.
“What this means is, when you look up at the thousands of stars in the night sky, the nearest sun-like star with an Earth-size planet in its habitable zone is probably only 12 light years away and can be seen with the naked eye. That is amazing,” said UC Berkeley graduate student Erik Petigura, who led the analysis of the Kepler and Keck Observatory data.
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A Hybrid Solar Eclipse Seen From Earth… and Space

A Hybrid Solar Eclipse Seen From Earth… and Space:
The Elektro-L satellite's view of how the Nov. 3, 2013 solar eclipse effected Earth. Blackness from the eclipse covers Africa. Credit: Elektro-L/Vitaliy EgorovVitaliy Egorov.
Chandra Infographic Shows Where The Color Comes From In Space Pictures
The Electro-L satellite’s view of the November 3rd, 2013 solar eclipse, as the shadow of the Moon crosses central Africa. Credit: Elektro-L/Vitaliy Egorov.
The final eclipse for 2013 was a grand event, witnessed across the Atlantic and the heart of Africa this past Sunday. Like so many other photographers along the North American east coast, we were at the ready to greet the partially eclipsed Sun at dawn. And as the shadow of the Moon touched down, teams on land, air and sea were ready to meet with the fleeting umbra as it raced eastward towards sunset over the Horn of Africa region.
But a fleet of spacecraft were also on hand to witness the rare spectacle as well. Turned earthward and sunward, these spacecraft documented not only the passage of the Moon’s shadow over the Earth, but recorded multiple partial solar eclipses from orbit as well.
The first view comes from the Roscosmos Electro-L satellite based in a geostationary orbit over the Indian Ocean:
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Chandra Infographic Shows Where The Color Comes From In Space Pictures

Chandra Infographic Shows Where The Color Comes From In Space Pictures:
A part of the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy is dazzling in this new view from NASA's Great Observatories. The Small Magellanic Cloud, or SMC, is a small galaxy about 200,000 light-years way that orbits our own Milky Way spiral galaxy. Credit: NASA.
Chandra Infographic Shows Where The Color Comes From In Space Pictures
A part of the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy is dazzling in this new view from NASA’s Great Observatories. The Small Magellanic Cloud, or SMC, is a small galaxy about 200,000 light-years way that orbits our own Milky Way spiral galaxy. Credit: NASA.
For your daily space zing, check out an infographic recently highlighted on the Chandra X-ray Observatory’s Google+ page. Called “How to Color the Universe” (see it below), it explains why the colors we see from space telescope pictures are added in after the data is gathered.
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Five Saturn Moons Stun In Cassini Spacecraft Archival Image

Five Saturn Moons Stun In Cassini Spacecraft Archival Image:
Saturn's moons (from left to right) Janus, Pandora, Enceladus, Mimas and Rhea. Rhea is on top of Saturn from the perspective of the Cassini spacecraft, which snapped the family portrait. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Five Saturn Moons Stun In Cassini Spacecraft Archival Image
Saturn’s moons (from left to right) Janus, Pandora, Enceladus, Mimas and Rhea. Rhea is on top of Saturn. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
This picture is from a couple of years ago, but still worth the extra look. The Cassini spacecraft — busily circling Saturn and gathering data on the ringed planet and its moons — managed to grab five of Saturn’s 62 known moons in one shot. The European Space Agency highlighted the picture on its home page this week.
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Here’s What A Spacecraft Looks Like Burning Up (Plus Correction of Past Article)

Here’s What A Spacecraft Looks Like Burning Up (Plus Correction of Past Article):
The Automated Transfer Vehicle Albert Einstein burning up on Nov. 2, 2013 at 12:04 GMT over an uninhabitated part of the Pacific Ocean. This picture was snapped from the International Space Station. Credit: ESA/NASA
Here’s What A Spacecraft Looks Like Burning Up (Plus Correction of Past Article)
The Automated Transfer Vehicle Albert Einstein burning up on Nov. 2, 2013 at 12:04 GMT over an uninhabitated part of the Pacific Ocean. This picture was snapped from the International Space Station. Credit: ESA/NASA
Flame and fireworks. That’s what the Automated Transfer Vehicle Albert Einstein appeared to astronauts to be like as it made a planned dive into Earth’s atmosphere Nov. 2. The European Space Agency ship spent five months in space, boosting the International Space Station’s altitude several times and bringing a record haul of stuff for the astronauts on board the station to use.
According to the European Space Agency, this is the first view of an ATV re-entry that astronauts have seen since Jules Verne, the first, was burned up in 2008. Controllers moved the spacecraft into view of the Expedition 37 crew to analyze the physics of breakup.
Also, yesterday you may have seen an article concerning a picture a photographer snapped of the ATV burning up on Earth. We were in error with that information. Senior Editor Nancy Atkinson writes:
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Monday, November 4, 2013

Life After Kepler: Upcoming Exoplanet Missions

Life After Kepler: Upcoming Exoplanet Missions:
Artist's depiction of TESS. Image Credit: TESS team.
Life After Kepler: Upcoming Exoplanet Missions
Artist’s depiction of the transiting exoplanet survey satellite. Image Credit: MIT/TESS team.
Last week I held an interview with Dr. Sara Seager – a lead astronomer who has contributed vastly to the field of exoplanet characterization. The condensed interview may be found here. Toward the end of our interview we had a lengthy conversation regarding the future of exoplanet research. I quickly realized that this subject should be an article in itself.
The following is a list of approved missions that will continue the search for habitable worlds, with input from Dr. Seager about their potential for finding planets that might harbor life.
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Sunday, November 3, 2013

Hybrid Solar Eclipse Images from Around the World, November 3, 2013

Hybrid Solar Eclipse Images from Around the World, November 3, 2013:
The November 3, 2013 partial solar eclipse is seemingly dripping into the ocean, as seen from Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. Credit and copyright: Jeff Jackson
Hybrid Solar Eclipse Images from Around the World, November 3, 2013
The November 3, 2013 partial solar eclipse is seemingly dripping into the ocean, as seen from Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina. Credit and copyright: Jeff Jackson
Many lucky people around the world were treated to a an unusual “hybrid” solar eclipse today — so called because the extent to which the Sun was blocked out varied around the world. Those along North America’s east coast and the northern half of South America saw a brilliant Sun partially eclipsed by the Moon just at dawn, as in our lead image from South Carolina, USA. But regions like equatorial Africa had a total eclipsed Sun for about a minute, while those in southern Europe, the Middle East, were able to see an “annular” or partial, eclipse. This type of variable eclipse is rare — the last time one occurred was Nov. 20, 1854 and the next one won’t happen until Oct. 17, 2172! This was also the last eclipse of the year, and photographers were out to capture the views.
See more below, and we’ll continue to add images as they come in.
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Watch Live: Sunday’s “Hybrid Solar Eclipse”

Watch Live: Sunday’s “Hybrid Solar Eclipse”:
Totality! As seen during the November 13th, 2012 total solar eclipse. (Image credit: Narayan Mukkavilli, used with permission).
Watch Live: Sunday’s “Hybrid Solar Eclipse”
Totality! As seen during the November 13th, 2012 total solar eclipse. (Image credit: Narayan Mukkavilli, used with permission).
The chase is on. On Sunday, November 3rd, the shadow of the Moon will cross the Earth for one last time in 2013. We recently wrote about the prospects for viewing this “hybrid” annular-total solar eclipse as it crosses the Atlantic and central Africa. Viewers from northern South America across the U.S. Eastern Seaboard up into the Canadian Maritimes will also be treated to a brilliant rising partial eclipse over the Atlantic at sunrise. Tickets are already in hand for many, as umbraphiles wing their way (cue Indiana Jones music) to dusty and exotic far off locales to stand briefly in the shadow of our Moon…
But what if it’s cloudy?
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Recent Sun Activity Spawns Stunning Aurorae

Recent Sun Activity Spawns Stunning Aurorae:
The auroral view while driving up Atigun Pass, North Slope Borough County, Alaska, US on November 1, 2013. Credit and copyright: Jason Ahrns.
Recent Sun Activity Spawns Stunning Aurorae
The auroral view while driving up Atigun Pass, North Slope Borough County, Alaska, US on November 1, 2013. Credit and copyright: Jason Ahrns.
Over the past several days the Sun has unleashed more than half a dozen major flares including four X-class events. The resulting aurora in some parts of the world have been beautiful. Here’s a collection of recent images taken by Jason Arhns in Alaska. It seems the aurora is just blanketing not only the sky, but the landscape as well!
See more below, as well as a video showing 23 of the 26 M- and X-class flares on the sun between Oct. 23 and Oct. 28, 2013, as captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. It also shows the coronal mass ejections — great clouds of solar material bursting off the sun into space — during that time as captured by the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.
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Morning Comets Continue to Dazzle in New Images, Timelapses

Morning Comets Continue to Dazzle in New Images, Timelapses:
Comet Lovejoy on November 2, 2013, as seen from Singapore. Credit and copyright: Justin Ng.
Morning Comets Continue to Dazzle in New Images, Timelapses
Comet Lovejoy on November 2, 2013, as seen from Singapore. Credit and copyright: Justin Ng.
While many are anticipating seeing Comet ISON, there’s more in the sky these days than just one comet. There are actually four comets now in the skies in the mornings — in addition to ISON, there’s comets 2013 R1 Lovejoy, 2P/Encke and 2012 X1 LINEAR! Unfortunately, none of these are visible to the naked eye — yet anyway.
Here are some great recent images and video of these comet taken by amateur astrophotographers. Above is Comet Lovejoy, just taken by Justin Ng from Singapore . “Comet Lovejoy will share the same part of the sky as Comet ISON this month and it presents a cool astrophotography opportunity for skywatchers and astronomers,” Justin told Universe Today via email. “This image is a result of stacking 9 images together and each image was captured using a 3 inch telescope at 5 minutes exposure time for about an hour before dawn.”
See more below:
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