ALMOST SPOTLESS SUN: Every sunspot on the Earthside of the sun is rapidly disintegrating. If this continues, the sun could become spotless this weekend. One spotless day won't be the end of Solar Cycle 25, but it is a sign of weakening. Solar flare Alerts: SMS Text
SPACEX MOON IMPACT OBSERVED: It really happened. On Aug. 5th (0635 UTC), a dead Falcon 9 upper stage slammed into the Moon near Einstein crater at 5,400 mph. The impact was recorded from lunar orbit and from Earth.
First, lunar orbit:
Images edited by Bum-Suk Yeom of Iksan, South Korea.
South Korea's Danuri spacecraft (the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter) flew ~350 km over the impact site, post crash, and secured this high-resolution image of a fresh black scar on the lunar surface. Before images show no such mark.
Back on Earth, astronomers struggled to record the crash because it occurred on the brightly-lit edge of the Moon. The explosion was overwhelmed by glare.
Astronomers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía in Spain focused instead on the plume of debris--and they caught it. This video shows the ejecta rising into space.
The plume is diffuse, but massive: Theoretical pre-impact models predicted as much as 800,000 pounds of debris (400 tons of pulverized moondust) would emerge from the new crater.
"The black area corresponds to the lunar disk," notes team member José María Madiedo. They blocked the glare from the Moon's daylit disk using an occulting device--a kind of "lunar coronagraph" trick we described before the crash. It worked.
Congratulations to the observers who caught this rare event!
more images: from Agnieszka and Friedrich Deters of Spring Lake Park, MN; from Mason Klenklen of Kansas City, MO; from Marcus Prazniak of Tonopah, NV
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"LIVE LONG AND PROSPER" VULCAN EARRINGS: Warning: Giving this gift could trigger an episode of Pon Farr. The Live Long and Prosper Earrings have been to the edge of space onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray balloon. Here they are floating 111,563 feet high:
You can have a pair for $119.95. Supported by gold-plated stainless steel frames, each enamel palm displays the iconic "Vulcan salute."Only four pair have traveled to the edge of space--so quantities are limited. Each set comes with a greeting card showing the earrings in flight, and telling the story of their trip to the stratosphere.
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