JUST TWO INNOCENT-LOOKING SUNSPOTS: The long-awaited farside active region has arrived, and it's not what we expected. AR2954 and AR2955 are just two innocent-looking sunspots, neither one apparently capable of strong flares. The pair must have decayed from a more menacing configuration last week. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
THIS IS WHAT MISSED EARTH: The European Space Agency (ESA) has just released a new image of last week's farside eruption. Taken by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft, it shows a plume of debris shooting more than 1.5 million kilometers into space:
The picture comes from Solar Orbiter's Full Sun Imager (FSI). FSI is a wide-field camera designed to look at the full solar disk even when the spacecraft is very close to the sun. At the moment, Solar Orbiter is *not* very close to the sun, so there is a lot of empty space in the field of view. The prominence fit inside, just barely.
According to ESA, this is the largest-ever event of its kind to be captured in a single field of view together with the solar disk. [full story]
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SOLAR ECLIPSE ANIMATIONS: Where will you be on April 8, 2024? We suggest somewhere on the yellow line:
That's where the sun will be totally eclipsed--a fantastic show visible from many population centers in North America.
If you like this animation, there are 223 others you might like to check out as well. "Michael Zeiler and I have created a series of eclipse animations - one for every solar eclipse during the 21st Century," says Fred Espenak, formerly of NASA and world-famous for his eclipse predictions. "That’s 224 eclipses in all."
The complete set of animations is a treasure trove, fun to watch and informative for experts and laypeople alike. Zeiler and Espenak created them to share with the eclipse community and the media through Creative Commons. The animations may be downloaded, saved, and freely used as long as they are not modified. Suggested attribution: "Global Eclipse Animation courtesy of Michael Zeiler (GreatAmericanEclipse.com) and Fred Espenak (EclipseWise.com)".
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A DRAGONFLY IN THE STRATOSPHERE: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider the Sterling Silver Space Dragonfly. On Jan 12th, this winged pendant flew 113,451 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, hitching a ride onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray balloon:
You can have it for $172.95. The dragonfly's heart is a Celtic love knot, and its wings are decorated with blue marquise crystals--all plated with 14k white gold. It's an exquisite ensemble for birthdays, anniversaries or any other romantic occasion.
The students are selling dragonfly pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the pendant in flight and telling the story of its trip to the stratosphere and back again.
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