QUIET WEEKEND: As the first weekend of the New Year begins, there are no CMEs heading for Earth. Our planet's magnetic field should remain quiet with few auroras outside the Arctic Circle. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
THE SUNSPOT REPORT FROM MARS: Three hundred million kilometers from Earth, NASA's Mars Perseverance rover is busy exploring Jezero crater. Once a day it looks up to check the sun. On Jan. 4th, Perseverance found five sunspot groups (circled):
These are farside sunspots because Earth and Mars are on opposite sides of the sun. Perseverance sees the side of the sun we cannot.
Compared to solar images we usually post, Perseverance's photo of the sun looks unimpressive. There's a reason for that. To monitor the sun, Perseverence uses its MASTCAM (stereo mast camera), which puts only 90 pixels across the solar disk. The resulting images are naturally grainy.
However grainy the images may be, they are still valuable. It takes a large sunspot to show up in low-resolution MASTCAM images. When Perseverance sees a sunspot, it is usually a big one. Some of these farside sunspots will turn toward Earth in the next week to 10 days. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
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VALENTINE'S CRYSTAL BEAR AND ROSE: Valentine's Day is coming. Looking for a far-out gift? This Crystal Bear and Rose flew to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon on Dec. 17th:
You can have it for $129.95. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus are selling space bears to support their high-altitude ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the ursine astronaut in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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