JUNO PLUNGES TOWARD THE GREAT RED SPOT: Later today, July 10th at 6:55 pm PDT, NASA's Juno spacecraft will fly directly over the biggest storm in the solar system: Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Wide enough to swallow Earth twice, the swirling anticylone is at least 150 years old and Juno will come closer to it than any spacecraft in history. Scientists aren't sure what Juno's high resolution cameras and cloud-piercing sensors will see when they swoop just 9,000 km above the cloudtops. Stay tuned for something new!
RECTANGULAR MOON: When the full Moon rose over Casco Bay in Maine on July 9th, longtime skywatcher John Stetson expected to see the usual lunar disk. Instead, he photographed a strange lunar rectangle. "The rising Moon looked like an iceberg ... faint and shaped like a giant block of ice," he says.
What happened? Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explains:
"John says '..the Moon looked like an iceberg.' That's appropriate because this mirage is a result of cold water. The cold sea offshore of Maine cooled the air above it. Above that was warmer air – a temperature inversion and the stuff of mock-mirages. The Moon's rays passing through it bend and twist into several moon images, some upright some inverted. They combine together into the rectangular 'iceberg.'"
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SOLAR ECLIPSE SPACE PENDANTS: Would you like to support our Solar Eclipse Balloon Network? Here's one way: Buy a space pendant. This solar eclipse-themed necklace flew to the stratosphere on July 2, 2017, attached to the payload of an Earth to Sky Calculus space weather balloon:
The payload contained more just like it. If you buy one now for $79.95, we will fly it back to the stratosphere during the Great American Solar Eclipse on August 21, 2017, where it will be enveloped by the Moon's cool shadow above our launch site in Oregon. No additional charge! Just make a note in the COMMENTS BOX of the shopping cart: "Please fly my pendant into the eclipse!" Each 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 items from the edge of space may be found in the Earth to Sky Store. All proceeds support atmospheric radiation monitoring and hands-on STEM education.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education
SOLAR FLARE AND RADIO BLACKOUT: Sunspot AR2665 has grown into a behemoth almost as wide as the planet Jupiter: movie. Stretching more than 125,000 km from end to end and containing dozens of dark cores, the active region is an now easy target for backyard solar telescopes. Amateur astronomer Peter Desypris sends this July 9th photo from Syros island, Greece:
"This is the biggest sunspot of 2017 so far," says Desypris. "I photographed it using an 8'inch LX200 telescope and a safe solar filter."
On July 9th at 0318 UT the big sunspot erupted, producing an M1.3-class solar flare. Telescopes onboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the explosion's extreme ultraviolet flash:
A pulse of UV and X-radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere. This, in turn, altered the normal propagation of shortwave radio transmissions on the dayside of our planet. A map from NOAA shows the geographical regions affected: mostly Australia and east Asia. People who might have noticed blackouts, fades, and other transmission irregularities include aviators, mariners, and ham radio operators.
Considering its extreme size, AR2665 has been relatively calm so far. Stronger flares and CMEs could be in the offing, however, as the sunspot continues to grow and turns toward Earth. Stay tuned for updates. Free: Solar Flare Alerts
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