SUNSET SKY SHOW: When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look west. Venus and Jupiter are converging in the twilight sky -- noticably closer together every night as they head for a spectacular conjunction on June 8-9. The show starts now! Sky maps: May 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31.
WHAT MADE THIS SUNSPOT SO MAD? Sunspot 4446 is emerging over the sun's southeastern limb today and it looks angry. Thierry Legault photographed the seething active region from Paris, France:
Legault took this picture on May 24th using an H-alpha filter tuned to the glow of red-hot hydrogen. It reveals a tormented starscape of dense fibrils and filamentary flows -- all shaped by the magnetic field of the underlying sunspots.
Last week, this sunspot group was on the farside of the sun. It was bigger then, and more active. Between May 15th and 17th, Europe's Solar Orbiter caught it emitting a series of X-class solar flares--all directed *away* from Earth.
Although the sunspot has decayed since then, it is still big, and, if appearances are any guide, still capable of significant activity. Don't be surprised if there is a strong solar flare this week. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
more images: from Francois Rouviere of Cannes, France; from Philippe Tosi of Nîmes, France; from Alessandro Ravagnin of Romano d'Ezzelino (Italy); from Giovanni Passalacqua of Ragusa, Sicily; from Thomas Jorgenson of Neenah, WI
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NEED BABY YODA, YOU DO: Grogu has been to the stratosphere. The future Jedi left Earth May 21st onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray balloon. Here he is, floating Force-free 107,611 feet above Earth's surface:
You can have him for $99.95. The students are selling Star Wars bobbleheads to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. The Mandalorian is also available. They make great birthday and graduation gifts. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the bobblehead in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space and back again.
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