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Mars Base

Moon's Mysterious 'Ocean of Storms' Explained | Moon Impact Hypothesis | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/on-dark-spot-ocean-storms.html

scibyte70 moon

shared by Mars Base on 30 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • The largest dark spot on the moon, known as the Ocean of Storms, may be a scar from a giant cosmic impact that created a magma sea more than a thousand miles wide and several hundred miles deep
  • could help explain why the moon's near and far sides are so very different from one another,
  • Scientists analyzed Oceanus Procellarum, or the Ocean of Storms, a dark spot on the near side of the moon more than 1,800 miles (3,000 kilometers) wide.
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • near side of the moon,
  • , is quite different from the far side,
  • the moon's dark side (this side does in fact get sunlight — it simply never faces Earth
  • , widespread plains of volcanic rock called "maria" (Latin for seas) cover nearly a third of the near side, but only a few maria are seen on the far one.
  • hers have posed a number of explanations for the vast disparity between the moon's near and far sides. Some have suggested that a tiny second moon may once have orbited Earth before catastrophically slamming into the other moon, spreading its remains mostly on the moon's far side
  • Others have proposed that Earth's pull on the moon caused distortions that were later frozen in place on the moon's near side.
  • Mars' northern and southern halves are also stark contrasts from one another, and researchers had suggested that a monstrous impact may have been the cause
  • scientists in Japan say that a giant collision may also explain the moon's two-faced nature, one that gave rise to the Ocean of Storms
  • researchers analyzed the composition of the moon's surface using data from the Japanese lunar orbiter Kaguya/Selene
  • data revealed that a low-calcium variety of the mineral pyroxene is concentrated around Oceanus Procellarum and large impact craters such as the South Pole-Aitkenand Imbriumbasins.
  • type of pyroxene is linked with the melting and excavation of material from the lunar mantle, and suggests the Ocean of Storms is a leftover from a cataclysmic impact.
  • This collision would have generated "a 3,000-kilometer (1,800-mile) wide magma sea several hundred kilometers in depth
  • that collisions large enough to create Oceanus Procellarum and the moon's other giant impact basins would have completely stripped the original crust on the near side of the moon
  • crust that later formed there from the molten rock left after these impacts would differ dramatically from that on the far side
  • Some researchers had speculated that the Procellarum basin was the relic of a gigantic impact
  • this idea was hotly debated because there were no definite topographic signs it was an impact basin
  • neighboring Earth likely experienced similar-sized impacts around the same period
Mars Base

Big Solar Storm Packed Small Punch | Solar Flare 2012 | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/solar-storm-earth-effects.html

scibyte37 sun

shared by Mars Base on 09 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • triggered weaker-than-expected disruptions
  • Early forecasts showed that the oncoming CME could boost solar radiation in space and trigger geomagnetic storms on Earth, potentially disrupting satellites, power grids and other electronic infrastructure.
  • effects of the solar tempest have been milder than scientists originally predicted
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • due to the orientation of the CME and Earth's magnetic fields
  • "If it's oriented more southward, which is opposite to Earth, then we expect a stronger storm, but it appears that this one was very much north oriented
  • orientation of the magnetic field in the CME is a big determining factor for how strong or weak the event is going to be
  • coronal mass ejection has a cloud of particles, but also embedded in that is a magnetic field structure
  • while it hasn't packed much of a punch so far, this ongoing solar storm is the largest one scientists have seen in more than five years
Mars Base

Monster Sunspot Triggers Intense Solar Flares | Sun Storms | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ot-unleashes-solar-flares.html

scibyte46 sun solar flare

shared by Mars Base on 12 May 12 - No Cached
  • unspot AR 1476 was detected by space telescopes on May 5
  • 60,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) across
  • scientists predicted the sunspot would erupt with powerful solar flares
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • So far, the sunspot has not triggered huge explosions from the sun, which scientists call coronal mass ejections.
  • Sunspot region AR 1476 was responsible for nearly all of the sun's storm activity
  • So far, the sunspot has fired off several flares, including a strong solar storm early Thursday (May 10).
  • These flares were all short-lived and there were no associated coronal mass ejections, so we do not expect any geomagnetic storms at Earth
  • It will take sunspot AR 1476 about two weeks to complete its trip across the face of the sun, as seen from Earth
Mars Base

Listen to solar storm activity in new sonification video - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...-storm-sonification-video.html

scibyte38 solar flare

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • What does a solar storm sound like
  • Take a listen
  • sonification of the recent solar storm activity turns data from two spacecraft into sound
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • measurements from the NASA SOHO spacecraft and the University of Michigan's Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS) on NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft at Mercury
  • creator is Robert Alexander, a design science doctoral student at the University of Michigan and NASA fellow.
  • a composer with a NASA fellowship to study how representing information as sound could aid in data mining.
  • raw information to an audio waveform
  • To sonify the data
  • in its original sampling rate of 44,100 hertz, it played back in less than a quarter of a second
  • benefits of sonifying data. You can zip through days' worth of information in an instant
  • Sonification is the process of translating information into sound
  • used in Geiger counter radiation detectors, which emit clicks in the presence of high-energy particles
  • not typically used to pick out patterns in information, but scientists on the U-M Solar and Heliospheric Research Group are exploring its potential in that realm. They're looking to Alexander to make it possible.
  • used to looking at wiggly-line plots and graphs, but humans are very good at hearing things. We wonder if there's a way to find things in the data that are difficult to see."
  • his approach led to a new discovery
  • a particular ratio of carbon atoms that scientists had not previously keyed in to can reveal more about the source of the solar wind than the ratios of elements they currently rely on. The solar wind is a squall of hot plasma, or charged particles, continuously emanating from the sun.
  • hopes to build a bridge between science and art.
  • movies were silent and people just accepted that that's the way it
  • this high res footage of what's happening on the surface of the sun, and it's silent. I'm creating a soundtrack
Mars Base

Daytime Lightning on Saturn Spotted by Cassini Spacecraft | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/lightning-cassini-picture.html

scibyte55 SaturnLightning cassini

shared by Mars Base on 18 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Cassini orbiter captured the daytime lightning on Saturn as bright blue spots inside a giant storm that raged on the planet last year
  • NASA unveiled the new Saturn lightning photos Wednesday (July 18), adding that the images came as a big surprise
  • The fact that Cassini was able to detect the lightning means that it was very intense."
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • blue filter on the spacecraft's main camera recorded the lightning flashes
  • scientists then exaggerated the blue tint in order to pin down the lightning's location and size
  • analysis of the new images revealed that the energy from the visible lightning flashes alone could have spiked up to 3 billion watts over one second
  • on par with some of the strongest lightning flashes on Earth.  
  • the lightning on Saturn was spotted across a region 100 miles (160 kilometers
  • Cassini spotted eight daytime lightning flashes on Saturn, five in one part of the storm and three in an another
  • storm wrapped completely around Saturn at its peak and is the longest-lived storm ever seen on the ringed planet. It began in December 2010 and lasted about 200 days, finally sputtering out in late June 2011
  • mystery that remains is why the daytime Saturn lightning only turned up in Cassini's blue imaging filter
  • Scientists aren't sure if that means the lightning is actually blue in color, or if it's due to a short exposure time of the camera that helps the camera filter detect the lightning
Mars Base

Storm Scents: It's True, You Can Smell Oncoming Summer Rain: Scientific American - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm

scibyte55 SmellStorm

shared by Mars Base on 19 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • When people say they can smell a storm coming, they're right
  • Weather patterns produce distinctive odors that sensitive noses sniff out.
  • Before the rain begins, one of the first odors you may notice
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • is a sweet, pungent zing in your nostrils
  • fresh aroma of ozone
  • Petrichor
  • occurs when airborne molecules from decomposing plant or animal matter become attached to mineral or clay surfaces
  • when the rains came, the redolent combination of fatty acids, alcohols and hydrocarbons is released
  • Petrichor potpourri
  • Falling water disturbs and displaces odoriferous molecules on surfaces, particularly on dry ones, and carry them into the
  • happen to be near vegetation, these molecules may come from plants and trees
  • rise up from concrete and asphalt
  • Damp earth
  • After a storm has moved through
  • aroma of geosmin, a metabolic by-product of bacteria or blue-green algae
  • Microbiologist Keith Chater at the John Innes Center in England has proposed that geosmin's fragrance may be a beacon, helping camels find their way to desert oases
Mars Base

Sun Fires Off 2 Huge Solar Flares in One-Two Punch | Space Weather | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ge-solar-flares-erupt-sun.html

scibyte37 sun

shared by Mars Base on 07 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Tuesday
  • One of the flares is the most powerful solar eruption of the year, so far.
  • Both of the huge flares ranked as X-class storms, the strongest type of solar flares the sun can have
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • followed several weaker, but still powerful, sun storms on Tuesday
  • came just days after another major solar flare on Sunday night
  • When aimed directly at Earth, X-class solar flares can endanger astronauts and satellites in orbit, interfere with satellite communications and damage power grids on Earth
  • also amplify the Earth's display of northern and southern lights, also known as auroras
  • five categories: A, B, C, M and X. The A-class flares are the weakest sun storms, while the X-class events are the most powerful solar flares
  • subsets, from 1 to 9, to pinpoint a solar flare's strength. Only X-class solar flares have subcategories that go higher than 9.
  • most powerful solar flare on record occurred in 2003 and was estimated to be an X28 on the solar flare scale
  • The sun is currently going through an active phase of its 11-year weather cycle
  • expected to reach its peak level of activity in 2013
Mars Base

Tiny Sun Activity Changes Affect Earth's Climate | Solar Sunspot Cycle | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ar-activity-earth-climate.html

scibyte78 sun

shared by Mars Base on 18 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Even small changes in solar activity can impact Earth's climate in significant and surprisingly complex ways, researchers say.
  • The sun is a constant star when compared with many others in the galaxy
  • ome stars pulsate dramatically, varying wildly in size and brightness and even exploding
  • ...24 more annotations...
  • In comparison, the sun varies in the amount of light it emits by only 0.1 percent over the course of a relatively stable 11-year-long pattern known as the solar cycle.
  • "the light reaching the top of the Earth's atmosphere provides about 2,500 times as much energy as the total of all other sources combined,"
  • even 0.1 percent of the amount of light the sun emits exceeds all other energy sources the Earth's atmosphere sees combined, such as the radioactivity naturally emitted from Earth's core,
  • Many of the ways the scientists proposed these fluctuations in solar activity could influence Earth were complicated in nature.
  • , solar energetic particles and cosmic rays could reduce ozone levels in the stratosphere
  • in turn alters the behavior of the atmosphere below it, perhaps even pushing storms on the surface off cours
  • "In the lower stratosphere, the presence of ozone causes a local warming because of the breakup of ozone molecules by ultraviolet light,
  • When the ozone is removed, "the stratosphere there becomes cooler, increasing the temperature contrast between the tropics and the polar region
  • contrast in temperatures in the stratosphere and the upper troposphere leads to instabilities in the atmospheric flow west to east.
  • feed the strength of jet streams, ultimately altering flows in the upper troposphere, the layer of atmosphere closest to Earth's surface.
  • alter the distribution of storms over the middle latitudes
  • the sun might have a role to play in this kind of process. I would have to say this would be a very difficult mechanism to prove in climate models
  • climate scientist Gerald Meehl at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and his colleagues suggest that solar variability is leaving a definite imprint on climate, especially in the Pacific Ocean.
  • When researchers look at sea surface temperature data during sunspot peak years, the tropical Pacific showed a pattern very much like that expected with La Niña,
  • cyclical cooling of the Pacific Ocean that regularly affects climate worldwide, with sunspot peak years leading to a cooling of almost 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in the equatorial eastern Pacific
  • peaks in the sunspot cycle were linked with increased precipitation in a number of areas across the globe, as well as above-normal sea-level pressure in the mid-latitude North and South Pacific.
  • Scientists have also often speculated whether the Maunder Minimum, a 70-year dearth of sunspots in the late 17th to early 18th century, was linked with the coldest part of the Little Ice Age, during which Europe and North America experienced bitterly cold winter
  • This regional cooling might be linked with a drop in the sun's extreme ultraviolet radiation.
  • t, the sun could currently be on the cusp of a miniature version of the Maunder Minimum, since the current solar cycle is the weakest in more than 50 years.
  • Although the sun is the main source of heat for Earth, the researchers note that solar variability may have more of a regional effect than a global one
  • While the sun is by far the dominant energy source powering our climate system, do not assume that it is causing much of recent climate changes. It's pretty stabl
  • Ancient signals of climate such as tree rings and ice cores might also help shed light on the link between the sun and climate
  • Since variations in Earth's magnetic field and atmospheric circulation might disrupt this evidence on Earth,
  • a better long-term record of solar radiation might lie in the rocks and sediments of the moon or Mar
Mars Base

Auroras Seen on Uranus For First Time - 0 views

news.nationalgeographic.com/...s-auroras-science-space-hubble

AprMedia scibyte43 hubble uranus

shared by Mars Base on 20 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • Two fleeting, Earth-size auroral storms were imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope as they flared up on the dayside of the gas giant in November 2011. (
  • Auroras tend to surround a planet's poles, where magnetic field lines converge and funnel incoming charged solar particles into the planet's atmosphere. There, the particles collide with air molecules, making the molecules glow
  • Scientists tried unsuccessfully to detect auroras on Uranus in 1998 and 2005
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • team learned of an impending solar storm directed toward Uranus, which sits about 2.5 billion miles (4 billion kilometers) from Earth.
  • timed their Hubble observations specifically to coincide with the solar storm, and about six weeks later, Hubble spotted the auroras flaring up in Uranus's upper atmosphere
  • the other seven planets, Uranus's magnetic axis is 60 degrees off from its spin axis
  • spin axis itself has a bizarre 98-degree tilt relative to the solar system's orbital plane
  • , the planet seems to roll around on its side as it orbits the sun.
Mars Base

Busy Sunspot Unleashes New M-Class Solar Flare | Space Weather & Solar Storms | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/spot-eruption-solar-flare.html

scibyte38 solar flare sun

shared by Mars Base on 15 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • sun unleashed a new solar flare Tuesday (March 13) from the same region that has been actively brewing for the past week.
  • M7.9-class eruption
  • hurled a wave of plasma and energetic particles, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), into space
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • not heading in Earth's direction
  • The Solar Radiation Storm promptly reached S2 (Moderate) levels, but now should slowly decline
  • sunspot region called AR 1429,
  • already unleashed three strong X-class solar flares and several weaker M-class eruptions
  • , X-class flares from region 1429 triggered the strongest solar storm in eight years.
  • Region 1429 has been rotating across the solar disk and is no longer facing Earth
  • solar physicists will continue to monitor it and other developing sunspot regions for new outbursts.
Mars Base

Solar Storms & Higgs Boson | Jupiter Broadcasting - 0 views

www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/...-storms-higgs-boson-scibyte-37

scibyte39 moon MarMedia apollo scibyte42 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 22 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Solar Storms & Higgs Boson | SciByte 37
  • March 13, 2012
  • More Dinosaur feathers get color
Mars Base

Stunning Visualization of 56 Years of Tornadoes in the US - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...6-years-of-tornadoes-in-the-us

scibyte49 tornado

shared by Mars Base on 01 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Using information from data.gov, tech blogger John Nelson has created this spectacular image of tornado paths in the US over a 56 year period
  • categorizes the storms by F-scale with the brighter neon lines representing more violent storms
  • Nelson also provided some stats on all the storms in the different categories
Mars Base

Mars Forecast: Dry Skies and Calm Winds for Mars Rover Curiosity's Landing | Popular Sc... - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...-mars-rover-curiositys-landing

scibyte57 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 06 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • About 34 hours from the Mars rover Curiosity's landing
  • NASA brought us the latest weather forecast from the surface -- dry and cold, with a slight chance of dust
  • Earlier this week, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted a dust storm south of Gale Crater, the rover's targeted landing site
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft and Curiosity rover is designed to handle dust and winds, so a light storm wouldn't have been a huge problem
  • could have caused added turbulence, interfering with the spacecraft's guided entry and landing
  • could still land safely
  • with a little less accuracy
  • latest imagery from the Mars orbiters shows the dust storm clearing
Mars Base

A Close-up Look at the Massive Solar Storm that Shook the Sun - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...solar-storm-that-shook-the-sun

scibyte37 sun

shared by Mars Base on 08 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • large X5.4 solar flare that erupted on the Sun on March 7, 2012 at 00:28 UT, (7:28 PM EST on March 6).
  • high-definition views from the Solar Dynamics Observatory also show the subsequent solar tsunami that rippled across the Sun, appearing as though the Sun ‘shook’ from the force of the flare.
  • NASA Goddard’s Space Weather Lab and NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center say surely there will be aurorae from this blast
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • After the first big blast, about an hour later, at 01:14 UT (8:14 PM EST, March 6) the same region let loose an X1.3 class flare. An X1 is 5 times smaller than an X5 flare
  • the region had already produced numerous M-class and one X-class flare,
  • region continues to rotate across the front of the sun, so these latest flares were more Earth-facing than the previous ones
  • big blast did trigger a temporary radio blackout on the sunlit side of Earth that interfered with radio navigation and short wave radio.
  • that solar tsunami
  • waves move at over a million miles per hour
  • one side of the Sun to the other in about an hour
  • movie shows two distinct waves. The first seems to spread in all directions; the second is narrower, moving toward the southeast
  • waves are associated with, and perhaps trigger, fast coronal mass ejections, so it is likely that each one is connected to one of the two CMEs that were associated with the flares
  • Close-up Look at the Massive Solar Storm
Mars Base

Hubble Sees Jupiter's Red Spot Shrink to Smallest Size Ever - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...t-shrink-to-smallest-size-ever

scibyte132 jupiter ViewerFeedback

shared by Mars Base on 16 May 14 - No Cached
  • “Recent Hubble Space Telescope observations confirm that the spot is now just under  10,250 miles (16,500 km) across, the smallest diameter we’ve ever measured,” said Amy Simon of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Cente
  • Using historic sketches and photos from the late 1800s, astronomers determined the spot’s diameter then at 25,475 miles (41,000 km) across
  • Amateur observations starting in 2012 revealed a noticeable increase in the spot’s shrinkage rate
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • The spot’s “waistline” is getting smaller by just under 620 miles (1,000 km) per year while its north-south extent has changed little
  • the spot has
  • become more circular in shape
  • what causing the drastic downsizing, there are no firm answers yet:
  • new observations
  • very small eddies are feeding into the storm
  • may be responsible for the accelerated change by altering the internal dynamics of the Great Red Spot
  • The Great Red Spot has been a trademark of the planet for at least 400 years
  • a giant hurricane-like storm whirling in the planet’s upper cloud tops with a period of 6 days
  • The storm appears to be conserving angular momentum by spinning faster the same way an ice skater spins up when she pulls in her arms
  • Wind speeds are increasing too, making one wonder whether they’ll ultimately shrink the spot further or bring about its rejuvenation.
Mars Base

Aurora Oddity: Northern Lights Flare Up Without Big Sun Eruption | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/e-northern-lights-display.html

scibyte34 aurora ymhs

shared by Mars Base on 18 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Northern Lights Display Dazzles Without Big Sun Flare
  • reasons scientists can't yet explain, the northern lights blazed up in a dazzling display this week
  • despite the apparent lack of a major solar flare typically associated with these celestial light shows
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • began on Valentine's Day (Feb. 14),
  • uptick in activity in Earth's magnetic field sparked a geomagnetic storm
  • Sometimes the sky surprises us
  • with little warning, geomagnetic activity rippled around the Arctic Circle
  • producing an outbreak of auroras
  • among the best in months
  • some early speculation that a Feb. 10 sun storm, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), may have triggered the northern lights show, but this solar outburst has not yet been confirmed.
  • occur when charged particles from the sun interact with Earth's upper atmosphere
  • creating ripples of glowing light
  • charged particles are funneled to Earth's poles by the planet's magnetic field
  • typically only visible to skywatchers in far northern or far southern latitudes
  • northern lights are called the aurora borealis
  • southern lights are dubbed the aurora australis
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