ASTRONOMY
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INCOMING CME:
This morning at 0120 UT, an eruption of magnetic fields around
sunspot 1035 produced a long-duration C4-class
solar flare and hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) in the
general direction of Earth. High-latitude sky watchers should
prepare for auroras
when the CME arrives on or about Dec. 18th. STEREO
movies: solar
flare, CME.
BIG NEW SUNSPOT:
New sunspot 1035 is growing
rapidly and it is now seven times wider than Earth. This
makes it an easy target for backyard solar telescopes. Yesterday,
Rogerio Marcon of Campinas, Brazil, photographed a maelstrom
of hot plasma and magnetic filaments connecting the sunspot's
dark cores:
"Solar activity is picking up," he says.
The magnetic polarity of the spot identifies it as a member
of Solar Cycle 24--the cycle we've been waiting for to end
the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century. One spot isn't
enough to end the lull, but sunspot 1035 could herald bigger
things to come. Stay
tuned for updates.
sunspot photos: from
Etienne Lecoq of Normandy, France; from
Jean-Paul Rroux at the Pic du Midi Observatory; from
Vahan Yeterian of Lompoc, California; from
G.Harmon et al of South Portland, Maine; from
John C McConnell of Maghaberry Northern Ireland; from
Tom King of Watauga, Texas; from
John Nassr of Baguio, Philippines; from
David Gradwell of Birr Ireland
MONSTER FIREBALL:
On Monday morning, Dec. 14th, at 3:59 am
Pacific Standard Time, a piece of extinct comet 3200 Phaethon
hit Earth's atmosphere over the Mojave desert in California.
This was the result:
copyright: Wally Pacholka
/ AstroPics.com / TWAN
"It was a monster fireball," says
photographer Wally Pacholka.
"I caught it exploding over the Hercules Finger rock
formation near Victorville, California, using a Canon 35 mm
camera. This was one of 1522 photographs I took "
The fireball occurred during the Geminid meteor
shower, which peaked on Dec. 13th and 14th when Earth passed
through a stream of debris from 3200 Phaethon. In some places,
people saw 200+ Geminids per hour. In the Mojave desert, one
was enough! Browse the gallery for more:
UPDATED:
2009
Geminid Meteor Gallery
[sky
map] [meteor radar]
[Geminid counts]
December
Northern Lights Gallery
[previous Decembers: 2008,
2007, 2006,
2005, 2001,
2000]
Explore
the Sunspot Cycle |
