DART MISSION UPDATE: Last month, NASA's DART spacecraft deliberately collided with asteroid moon Dimorphos. How much damage did DART do? And was the asteroid's trajectory altered? NASA will answer these questions during a mission update on Tuesday, Oct. 11th (2 p.m. EDT). The briefing will be broadcast live on NASA TV.
FAILURE TO FLARE: Sunspot AR3112 is big, it is magnetically complex, and it is directly facing Earth. It possesses all the ingredients for a big solar storm. Just one problem: It refuses to flare.
Sunspot AR3112 photographed on Oct. 7th by Apollo Lasky of Naperville, Illinois
The giant sunspot has been strangely quiet since it rotated over the sun's eastern limb last week. Is this the calm before the storm? Another possibility exists: NOAA analysts suggest that AR3112 could be 2 or 3 separate sunspots traveling together, masquerading as a single behemoth. If so, the apparent magnetic complexity of AR3112--i.e., the quality that makes it dangerous--may be a sham.
We might soon find out. There is no better way to make a sunspot flare than headlining a news item "Failure to Flare." Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
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STERLING SILVER HUMMINGBIRD PENDANT: This hummingbird has touched space. On Sept. 22, 2022, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched the sterling silver pendant to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon, more than 117,710 feet high:
You can have it for $149.95. The students are selling hummingbird pendants to pay the helium bill for their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the bird and red lily in flight, and telling the story of their trip to the stratosphere and back again.
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