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RADIATION
STORM HITS MARS ROVER: En route
to the red Planet, Mars rover Curiosity has experienced
the strongest solar radiation storm since 2005.
The rover is okay. Researchers say this is a normal
part of Curiosity's job as 'stunt double' for human
astronauts. [full
story] [video]
CANYON
OF FIRE: A magnetic filament snaking
over the sun's northeastern limb rose up and erupted
during the early hours of Feb. 24th. The eruption
split the sun's atmosphere creating a "canyon
of fire," shown here in a movie captured by
the Solar Dynamics Observatory:
The glowing walls of the canyon are
formed in a process closely related to that of arcade
loops, which appear after many solar flares.
Stretching more than 400,000 km from end to end,
the structure traces the original channel where
the filament was suspended by magnetic forces above
the stellar surface.
As erupting magnetic filaments often
do, this one launched a coronal mass ejection (CME)
into space. The Solar and Heliospheric Observary
recorded the expanding cloud: movie.
The CME does not appear to be heading for Earth
or any other planet.
WEEKEND
SKY SHOW: When the sun goes down
tonight, step outside and look west. Jupiter, Venus
and the crescent Moon are converging for a beautiful
three-way encounter in the sunset sky. Just hours
ago, Rafael Schmall photographed the trio over Somogy,
Hungary:
From upper left to lower right, the
lights are Jupiter, Venus, and the Moon--all three
bright enough to beam through wispy clouds.
On Saturday, Feb. 25th, the line will
collapse to form a skinny triangle: sky
map. It happens again on Sunday, Feb. 26th,
with shifted vertices: sky
map. Try to look before the sunset sky fades
completely black. Venus, Jupiter and the Moon surrounded
by twilight blue is an especially beautiful sight.
This is such a nice event, NASA has issued a news
release and video
about it.
more images: from
Azhy Hasan of Erbil city, Kurdistan, Iraq; from
Marek Nikodem near Szubin, Poland; from
Bernard Durand of Serre-Ponçon, France; from
Russell Cockman of Black Rock, Melbourne, Australia;
from
Stefano De Rosa of Turin, Italy; from
Mike O'Hara of Charlotte, North Carolina; from
Ravindra Aradhya of Bangalore, India; from
Kosma Coronaios of Louis Trichardt, South Africa;
from
Maximilian Teodorescu of Dumitrana, Romania;
from
Wienie van der Oord in the Negev desert; from
Ali Al-Hajari of Isa Town, Bahrain; from
P-M Hedén of Vallentuna, Sweden;
February
2012 Aurora Gallery
[previous Februaries: 2011,
2010,
2009,
2008,
2007, 2006,
2004, 2003,
2002]
