A 'STEALTH CME' APPROACHES: When the sun blasts a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space, the event is usually announced by the bright flash of a solar flare or the collapse of a towering magnetic filament. But not always. Sometimes CMEs slowly materialize on their own without an instigating explosion. These are called "stealth CMEs," and one of them is heading for Earth now. A relatively gentle blow from the slow-moving storm cloud could unsettle Earth's polar magnetic field on May 10th. Free: Aurora Alerts
THE SUN IS BLANK: Today the sun is blank--no sunspots. The disk of our star is completely featureless, as shown in this white light image taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on May 10th:
This is the 31st day in 2017 that the sun has been without spots. Cumulatively, it adds up to an entire month of spotlessness--and it's only May. For comparison, the sun was blank on 32 days in the whole of 2016. The accelerating pace of spotless suns is a sign that Solar Minimum is approaching.
Solar Minimum is yin to the yang of Solar Maximum, a natural part of the sun's ~11 year sunspot cycle. Contrary to popular belief, Solar Minimum is not boring ...only different. It brings a time of enhanced cosmic rays, pink auroras, a collapsing ionosphere and accumulating space junk. With action like that, who needs sunspots? Stay tuned for more blank suns.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
SOLAR FIRESTORM: Yesterday, an enormous filament of magnetism rose above the sun's eastern limb. Glowing with the light of hot plasma trapped inside, the filament attracted the attention of amateur astronomers around the world. The show didn't last long, though. Sylvain Weiller of Jerusalem, Israel, watched it tear itself apart:
"This is a 5 hour time lapse," says Weiller. "At first the structure looked stable and quiet. After a few hours of imaging, I had a radically different feeling about it. It was a solar firestorm!"
Twisted magnetic fields inside the filament were filled with so much tension, they violently un-twisted. Fragments of the whirlwind blew away in the solar wind, leaving the eastern edge of the sun relatively smooth and quiet. The storm is over.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
MOTHER'S DAY AT THE EDGE OF SPACE: These pendants have touched space--and returned to Earth in time for Mother's Day. On April 15, 2017, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew a payload-full of heart-shaped Venus pendants to the stratosphere onboard a high-altitude helium balloon. Here's one, 111,550 feet above the Sierras of central California:
These blue jewels make great Mother's Day gifts--and you have have one for $129.95. Each glittering pendant comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again.
More far-out Mother's Day gifts may be found in the Earth to Sky Store. All proceeds support atmospheric radiation monitoring and hands-on STEM education.