GLANCING-BLOW CME POSSIBLE TODAY: NOAA forecasters say that a CME might pass near Earth (or maybe deliver a glancing blow) today, May 26th. It was hurled into space four days ago by an M1.9-class flare from sunspot complex AR3311-12. At most, minor G1-class geomagnetic storms could result from the close encounter. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
IN THE DARK HEART OF A SUNSPOT: Sunspots may not be as dark as we thought. In a May 19th press release, the National Science Foundation released new high-resolution images from the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope. They show bright dots speckling the core of sunspot AR3053:
These are known as "umbral dots"--incandescent balls of plasma rising and falling in the otherwise dark heart of the sunspot. Researchers believe they are turbulent convection cells, which dredge up heat from ~1000 km below. The same kind of motions can be seen in a pan of water boiling on a hot stove.
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope is a four-meter solar telescope on the island of Maui, Hawai’i. It is currently the largest solar telescope in the world with a unique ability to photograph the sun in unprecedented detail. Studying the fine structure of sunspot cores may help predict when they will flare--a key goal of space weather forecasting. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
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A SUPERNOVA IN LONDON: A week after it exploded in a spiral arm of the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101), new supernova SN 2023ixf has finally peaked in brightness at magnitude +11. Turns out, that's bright enough to see from downtown London. "The supernova was easily visible in my telescope despite the bright lights of the city," reports Terence Murtagh.
"I had great views of the supernova through my EVscope Equinox 2," he says.
SN 2023ixf is a Type II supernova caused by the core collapse of a massive star. A shock wave escaped the dying star on May 19th (Earth time), creating a 15th magnitude fireball first noticed by Koichi Itagaki of Yamagata, Japan.
The expanding fireball has since brightened 40-fold to magnitude +11. That's too dim to see with the unaided eye, but, as Murtagh's photo shows, it is an easy target for backyard telescopes even in urban areas. Take a look!
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FOR FATHER'S DAY--THE MR. SPOCK COFFEE CUP: Father's Day is coming. You can now give dad the gift of coffee in a Mr. Spock Cup. It has pointy ears, holds 20 oz. of brew, and comes from the edge of space. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew this cup to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $99.95. The students are selling Spock cups to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with greeting card showing the heavy-duty ceramic cup in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again.
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