SOLAR WATCH * Huge X8.2 Flare Sept. 10, 2017! (Updated Daily)

LARGE SOLAR PROMINANCE: Do you need a haircut? So does the sun. "Look who else needs a trim!" says astrophotographer Alan Friedman, who sends this picture from Buffalo, New York: [link to spaceweathergallery.com (secure)]

"This is one of three areas of prominence activity on the sun," he reports.

Prominences are clouds of hydrogen held above the sun's surface by solar magnetic fields. The big prominence Friedman photographed is 20 times taller than Earth and definitely unstable. Photographs taken by other amateur astronomers just hours apart show the structure's shape shifting perilously. An eruption could be in the offing.

[link to spaceweather.com (secure)]

@JimBridenstine
April 13, 2029: the 1,100 foot wide Apophis asteroid will come so close to Earth it will pass below some satellites. @NASA
and @SpaceForceDoD
will work together to enhance how we detect near-Earth objects and develop strategies for mitigating threats.

animation:
[link to www.jpl.nasa.gov (secure)]

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ANOTHER OUTBURST FOR COMET SWAN? Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) just finished one naked-eye outburst. Another might be underway. Magnitude estimates from observers in the southern hemisphere suggest that Comet SWAN's brightness is rebounding: light curve. This development comes as the comet approaches Earth for a 0.56 AU flyby on May 12th. Stay tuned.

[link to spaceweather.com (secure)]

Something to watch for sure

SOLAR SECTOR BOUNDARY CROSSING: Earth is about to cross a fold in the heliospheric current sheet--a vast wavy structure in interplanetary space separating regions of opposite magnetic polarity. The crossing, called a "solar sector boundary crossing," is expected on May 11th and could trigger geomagnetic activity around Earth's poles.

[link to spaceweather.com (secure)]

COMET SWAN VS THE SOLAR WIND: A struggle is underway in interplanetary space. The contestants are Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) vs. the solar wind. The comet has an extremely long tail--wider then 20 full Moons--and this gives it lots of exposure to the solar wind.

The result is evident in this extraordinary image from Gerald Rhemann of Farm Tivoli, Namibia: [link to spaceweathergallery.com (secure)]

"I took the picture on May 4th using my 12-inch telescope," says Rhemann. "The tail was so long I had to stitch together 6 panels--and even then I could not capture the whole thing."

Comet SWAN's tail is beautiful -- and a mess, interrupted by many gaps, knots, and billowing clouds. The solar wind is to blame. Irregularities in the solar wind impress themselves onto Comet SWAN, creating the structures in Rhemann's image. The comet is, essentially, a wind sock.

There are even signs of a possible magnetic storm. Magnetic storms in comet tails have been observed before--most famously in 2007 when NASA's STEREO spacecraft watched a CME crash into Comet Encke. Encke's tail was ripped into forms like this dramatic kink in the tail of Comet SWAN: [link to spaceweather.com (secure)]

How could this happen? Magnetic fields around the comet bumped into oppositely directed magnetic fields in the solar wind. Suddenly, these fields linked together--they "reconnected"--releasing a burst of energy that disrupted the comet's tail.

Clearly, Comet SWAN is worth watching.

[link to spaceweather.com (secure)]

hey there I remember you from long ago =D

Oh yes, those were the days hehe. I had much more time on my hands...I still lurk in the background and very very occasionally post! I have some fond memories of the crew back then!

@halocme

A bright region has been seen in STEREO EUVI images since a couple of days ago. Based on its high latitude (N32) location,
it should be a new (solar cycle 25) region.
There is no prediction whether it will survive until it rotates on to the visible side (~4 days later).

solar map
[link to twitter.com (secure)]

We are going to the moon to stay.

@NASA

Each day brings us closer to landing the first woman and next man on the Moon! One year ago today, we revealed the name of our lunar exploration program, called #Artemis after the twin sister of Apollo and goddess of the
Full moon symbol
. [link to nasa.gov (secure)]

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THE GREAT GEOMAGNETIC STORM OF MAY 1921: 99 years ago this week, people around the world woke up to some unusual headlines.

"Telegraph Service Prostrated, Comet Not to Blame" — declared the Los Angeles Times on May 15, 1921. "Electrical Disturbance is 'Worst Ever Known'” — reported the Chicago Daily Tribune. "Sunspot credited with Rail Tie-up" — deadpanned the New York Times.

[link to spaceweather.com (secure)]

They didn’t know it at the time, but the newspapers were covering the biggest solar storm of the 20th Century. Nothing quite like it has happened since.

It began on May 12, 1921 when giant sunspot AR1842, crossing the sun during the declining phase of Solar Cycle 15, began to flare. One explosion after another hurled coronal mass ejections (CMEs) directly toward Earth. For the next 3 days, CMEs rocked Earth’s magnetic field. Scientists around the world were surprised when their magnetometers suddenly went offscale, pens in strip chart recorders pegged uselessly to the top of the paper.

Then the fires began. Around 02:00 GMT on May 15th, a telegraph exchange in Sweden burst into flames. About an hour later, the same thing happened across the Atlantic in the village of Brewster, New York. Flames engulfed the switch-board at the Brewster station of the Central New England Railroad and quickly spread to destroy the whole building. That fire, along with another one about the same time in a railroad control tower near New York City's Grand Central Station, is why the event is sometimes referred to as the "New York Railroad Superstorm."

What caused the fires? Electrical currents induced by geomagnetic activity surged through telephone and telegraph lines, heating them to the point of combustion. Strong currents disrupted telegraph systems in Australia, Brazil, Denmark, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the UK and USA. The Ottawa Journal reported that many long-distance telephone lines in New Brunswick were burned out by the storm. On some telegraph lines in the USA voltages spiked as high as 1000 V.

[link to spaceweather.com (secure)]

During the storm's peak on May 15th, southern cities like Los Angeles and Atlanta felt like Fairbanks, with Northern Lights dancing overhead while telegraph lines crackled with geomagnetic currents. Auroras were seen in the USA as far south as Texas while, in the Pacific, red auroras were sighted from Samoa and Tonga and ships at sea crossing the equator.

What would happen if such a storm occurred today?

Researchers have long grappled with that question–most recently in a pair of in-depth papers published in the journal Space Weather: "The Great Storm of May 1921: An Exemplar of a Dangerous Space Weather Event" by Mike Hapgood (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK) and "Intensity and Impact of the New York Railroad Superstorm of May 1921" by Jeffrey Love (US Geological Survey) and colleagues.

The summary, above, is largely a result of Hapgood’s work. He painstakingly searched historical records including scientific journals, newspaper clippings, and other reports to create a moment-by-moment timeline of the storm. Such timelines are invaluable to emergency planners, who can use them to prepare for future storms.

[link to spaceweather.com (secure)]

Jeffrey Love and colleagues also looked into the past and–jackpot!–they found some old magnetic chart recordings that did not go offscale when the May 1921 CMEs hit. Using the data, they calculated "Dst" (disturbance storm time index), a measure of geomagnetic activity favored by many space weather researchers.

"The storm attained an estimated maximum −Dst on 15 May of 907 ± 132 nT, an intensity comparable to that of the Carrington Event of 1859," they wrote in their paper.

This dry-sounding result upends conventional wisdom. Students of space weather have long been taught that the Carrington Event (-Dst = 900 nT) was the strongest solar storm in recorded history. Now we know that the May 1921 storm was about equally intense.

If the May 1921 storm hit today, "I’d expect it to lead to most, if not all, of the impacts outlined in the 2013 Royal Academy of Engineering report led by Paul Cannon," says Hapgood. "This could include regional power outages, profound changes to satellite orbits, and loss of radio-based technologies such as GPS. The disruption of GPS could significantly impact logistics and emergency services."

It’s something to think about on the 99th anniversary of a 100-year storm….

[link to spaceweather.com (secure)]

Here Are The Navy Pilot Reports From Encounters With Mysterious Aircraft Off The East Coast
The reports are the first official documentation of various recent incidents with unidentified aircraft in restricted airspace along the east coast.
The giant killer!

[link to www.thedrive.com (secure)]

If all goes to plan, in September 2022 a NASA spacecraft, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission or DART, will slam into a space rock with the equivalent energy of three tons of TNT. The goal is to nudge the orbit of its target object ever-so-slightly, a practice run to see if we could divert an asteroid from a catastrophic impact with our planet in the future.

The impact on that asteroid could produce the first meteor shower ever to result from human activities in space, according to a paper published earlier this year in The Planetary Science Journal. Observing the shower could let scientists on Earth study the composition of near-Earth asteroids. But this cloud of debris would also mark a small irony for a space mission that has a goal of helping to protect our planet.
[link to dnyuz.com (secure)]

A sun-watching spacecraft just might fly through tail of Comet ATLAS in rare encounter

Last month, Comet ATLAS shattered skywatchers' hopes of a brilliant display when it began crumbling — but scientists have spotted a new opportunity to study its rubble.

That opportunity comes from the trajectory of Solar Orbiter, a partnership between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). While the spacecraft was designed to focus on the sun, it turns out that the instruments it carries could also gather valuable information about Comet ATLAS' tail in an unprecedented observational opportunity.

"If Solar Orbiter instruments detect material from Comet ATLAS, it will be the first predicted serendipitous comet tail crossing by an active spacecraft carrying appropriate instrumentation for the detection of cometary material," the scientists wrote in a new paper exploring the opportunity.

[link to www.space.com (secure)]

Two Far Side Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) - A New Sunspot is Turning Into View

FARSIDE ACTIVITY: The far side of the Sun is alive with activity. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) have observed two farside coronal mass ejections (CMEs) billowing into space. If Earth were on the other side of the Sun, we would be expecting bright auroras from the impact of these clouds.


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May 15, 2020 @ 01:30 UTC

Approaching Sunspot?

Good evening. A potential active region is currently hiding behind the east limb. Based on the high latitude location, it likely belongs to Solar Cycle 25. We will begin to see the region this weekend as it begins to turn into view.

Image below by STEREO Ahead.

[link to www.solarham.net (secure)]

The Crew Dragon has arrived to Launch Complex 39A!

This spacecraft will carry @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug to the @Space_Station when it launches atop a @SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on May 27, at 4:33 p.m. ET: click here to read more -> [link to twitter.com (secure)]

Comet SWAN Headed for Close Sun Encounter - The Celestial Visitor could Soon Fizzle Out of View

MORNING COMET SWAN: Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) is not easy to see. Days away from its close approach to the sun, SWAN makes only the briefest appearance in the pre-dawn sky, just above the northeastern horizon where it is nearly swallowed by the glow of sunrise. The low-hanging comet is easily blocked by trees, buildings and clouds.

Current estimates of SWAN's magnitude range from +7 to +6--that is, just below the threshold for naked-eye visibility. In fact, Comet SWAN is turning into a bit of a disappointment. Following a naked-eye outburst in late April, the comet was widely expected to put on a good show this month. Instead, it is fizzling.

On May 27th, Comet SWAN will swing past the sun near the orbit of Mercury. There, intense solar heat might either re-energize the comet or, more likely, doom it. Astronomers are encouraged to monitor developments. For the rest of the month, the comet may be found in the constellation Perseus.


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men down under lol?
Mysterious flying object lighting up sky in central Victoria believed to be space junk [link to www.abc.net.au (secure)]

did you guys see their space suits?


NASA and SpaceX are go for historic launch
[link to www.msn.com (secure)]

The suits have been one of the most visible design elements of future space missions. CEO Elon Musk first revealed the space suit back in August 2017, noting at the time that it was already tested to double vacuum pressure. Musk later hinted that the suit was inspired by video games Halo and Mass Effect

The American flag on the arm of the suit...the stars are in the wrong place.

Comet SWAN will Be Visible in the Evening Sky this Week

Comet Swan began to surge in brightness last month, and some observers were able to see it with the naked eye. At the beginning of May, the outburst of activity subsided. This week the comet has faded to 6.4 magnitude, which is still decent but not as bright as we had anticipated. Tomorrow (May 27), it will be at perihelion (its closest approach to the Sun).

This week, Comet Swan will make its appearance in the evening sky, but it will be a challenge to see it. In the Northern Hemisphere it might be best seen at the end of May when it is near the star Capella in the Auriga constellation.

You can start looking around 9 p.m. (local time) but be aware that it will still be twilight. At that time, the comet will only be 11 degrees above the northwest horizon. Be aware that the comet may appear only as a fuzzy little spot of light. If you have trouble spotting it now, over the next several days its altitude will increase a little each day.

The comet will be closest to the Sun on May 27. A good opportunity to see the comet before it starts sinking back down toward the horizon is when it is near the bright star Capella on June 1 and 2, 2020.

Stay Tuned!


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FARSIDE SUNSPOT: A probable sunspot has appeared in the sun's northern hemisphere--we just can't see it yet. NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft is monitoring the active region on the farside of the sun, right here. [link to spaceweather.com (secure)]

Based on its high latitude, it is a likely member of new Solar Cycle 25. The sun's rotation will turn the spot toward Earth ~3 days from now.

[link to spaceweather.com (secure)]

Comet ATLAS Crosses Solar Orbiter & A Virgin SWAN | Space Weather News 05.26.2020

This week our star begins to look like it did back during more active times. We have multiple new cycle bright regions both Earthside and farside that are firing mini-solar flares and solar storms. In fact, one region on the farside just launched a large solar storm so we will keep an eye on it as it rotates into Earthview over this next week.

We also have a small coronal hole rotating into the Earth-strike zone and it could bring some small pockets of fast solar wind causing weak aurora shows, especially at high latitudes.

Solar flux stays in the marginal range this week on Earth's dayside while GPS/GNSS reception continues to look good all over the globe.

See details of this new activity and learn about the serendipitous encounter between the disintegrating Comet ATLAS and Solar Orbiter and where both ATLAS and SWAN will be in the sky this week.


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Enlil shows we might get a little sideswipe from that Western Hemisphere cme.

Last Edited by Isis One on 05/27/2020 02:56 AM

'Vigorous' magnetic field oddity spotted over South Atlantic
[link to www.livescience.com (secure)]