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Mars Base

Trouble for the Phobos-Grunt Mission - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...e-for-the-phobos-grunt-mission

scibyte21 Phobos-Grunt

shared by Mars Base on 10 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • encountered problems with either computer software or the propulsion system
  • could not detect long spacecraft, now found his position. It was found that the propulsion system failed. There was neither the first nor the second inclusion
  • What should have happened is that two and a half hours after launch, the first burn should have put the spacecraft into an higher orbit around Earth, and a second burn should have occurred 126 minutes later, which would have sent it the spacecraft to Mars. Neither occurred
Mars Base

Was the real discovery of the expanding universe lost in translation? - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...stronomy-hubble-whodunnit.html

scibyte21

shared by Mars Base on 10 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • The greatest astronomical discovery of the 20th century may have been credited to the wrong person. But it turns out to have been nobody's fault except for that of the actual original discoverer himself.
  • Hubble reported that the universe is uniformly expanding in all directions.
  • Hubble never got a Nobel Prize for this discovery
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • Hubble did get the most celebrated telescope of modern history named after him
  • Hubble published his landmark paper in which he determined the rate of expansion of the universe in 1929
  • based on the apparent recessional velocities (deduced from redshifts) of galaxies, as previously measured
  • discovered that Lemaître omitted the passages himself when he translated the paper into English!
  • two years earlier, a Belgian priest and cosmologist, Georges Lemaître, published very similar conclusions, and he calculated a rate of expansion similar to what Hubble would publish two years later
  • But Lemaître's discovery went unnoticed because it was published in French, in a rather obscure Belgian science journal
  • Lemaître's work was later translated and published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. When published in 1931, some of Lemaître's own calculations from 1927, of what would be later called the Hubble Constant, were omitted!
  • The fact that paragraphs were missing from the translated paper has been known (although not widely) since 1984
  • Hubble's analysis showed that the farther the galaxy was, the faster it appeared to be receding
  • did not find advisable to reprint the provisional discussion of radial velocities which is clearly of no actual interest, and also the geometrical note, which could be replaced by a small bibliography of ancient and new papers on the subject
  • was not at all obsessed with establishing priority for his original discovery. Given that Hubble's results had already been published in 1929, he saw no point in repeating his more tentative earlier findings again in 1931
Mars Base

New 'super-black' material absorbs light across multiple wavelength bands - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...sorbs-multiple-wavelength.html

light scibyte21

shared by Mars Base on 10 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • NASA engineers have produced a material that absorbs on average more than 99 percent of the ultraviolet, visible, infrared, and far-infrared light that hits it
  • The team has since reconfirmed the material's absorption capabilities in additional testing
  • Though other researchers are reporting near-perfect absorption levels mainly in the ultraviolet and visible, our material is darn near perfect across multiple wavelength bands, from the ultraviolet to the far infrared
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • "No one else has achieved this milestone yet."
  • The nanotech-based coating is a thin layer of multi-walled carbon nanotubes, tiny hollow tubes made of pure carbon about 10,000 times thinner than a strand of human hair
  • They are positioned vertically on various substrate materials much like a shag rug
  • team has grown the nanotubes on silicon, silicon nitride, titanium, and stainless steel, materials commonly used in space-based scientific instruments
  • application is stray-light suppression
  • the team found that the material absorbs 99.5 percent of the light in the ultraviolet and visible
  • 98 percent in the longer or far-infrared bands
  • We knew it was absorbent. We just didn't think it would be this absorbent from the ultraviolet to the far infrared
  • If used in detectors and other instrument components, the technology would allow scientists to gather hard-to-obtain measurements of objects so distant in the universe that astronomers no longer can see them in visible light or those in high-contrast areas, including planets in orbit around other stars
  • More than 90 percent of the light Earth-monitoring instruments gather comes from the atmosphere, overwhelming the faint signal they are trying to retrieve
Mars Base

Russians desperately try to save Mars moon probe (Update) - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...cientists-mars-moon-probe.html

mars scibyte21 Phobos-Grunt

shared by Mars Base on 10 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • A Russian space probe aiming to land on a Mars moon was stuck circling the Earth after equipment failure Wednesday, and scientists raced to fire up its engines before the whole thing came crashing down.
  • successfully launched by a Zenit-2 booster rocket just after midnight Moscow time Wednesday
  • separated from the booster about 11 minutes later and was to fire its engines twice to set out on its path to the Red Planet, but never did
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • probably due to the failure of the craft's orientation system
  • Phobos-Ground was Russia's first interplanetary mission since a botched 1996 robotic mission to Mars, which failed when the probe crashed shortly after the launch due to an engine failure
  • Depending on the actual root of the failure, this is not an impossible challenge
  • the effort to restore control over the probe is hampered by a limited earth-to-space communications network that already forced Russian flight controllers to ask the general public in South America to help find the craft
  • Amateur astronomers were the first to spot the trouble when they detected that the spacecraft was stuck in an Earth orbit
  • About seven tons of nitrogen teroxide and hydrazine, which could freeze before ultimately entering, will make it the most toxic falling satellite ever
  • billed as the heaviest interplanetary probe ever may become one of the heaviest space derelicts to ever fall back to Earth out of control
  • The spacecraft is 13.2 metric tons (14.6 tons), with fuel accounting for a large share of its weight
  • Scientists had hoped that studies of Phobos' surface could help solve the mystery of its origin and shed more light on the genesis of the solar system. Some
Mars Base

Speed-bump device converts traffic energy to electricity - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...raffic-energy-electricity.html

scibyte21 traffic electricity

shared by Mars Base on 10 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • A Maryland company
  • has devised that kind of speed-bump device
  • has devised that kind of speed-bump device
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • A Maryland company
  • that harvests kinetic energy from vehicles and converts the energy into electricity
  • for installation where vehicles are traveling faster than 15 mph and are slowing-down before stopping, including parking lots, border crossings, exit ramps, neighborhoods with traffic calming zones, rest areas, toll booths, and travel plazas
  • devices become a part of the toll booths, rest areas, parking lots, airport arrival and departure areas, city lighting systems, zones in other places where traffic should be slowing down—scenarios that can benefit from a greener approach to energy and electricity cost savings.
  • devices become a part of the toll booths, rest areas, parking lots, airport arrival and departure areas, city lighting systems, zones in other places where traffic should be slowing down—scenarios that can benefit from a greener approach to energy and electricity cost savings
  • recently got a boost in publicity by partnering with the city of Roanoke in Virginia to put its MotionPower Express system to the test
  • recently got a boost in publicity by partnering with the city of Roanoke in Virginia to put its MotionPower Express system to the test
  • that harvests kinetic energy from vehicles and converts the energy into electricity
  • for installation where vehicles are traveling faster than 15 mph and are slowing-down before stopping, including parking lots, border crossings, exit ramps, neighborhoods with traffic calming zones, rest areas, toll booths, and travel plazas.
  • during a busy time when the center was hosting a gun show and circus. A total of 580 cars passed over the rumble strip in six hours.
  • was during a busy time when the center was hosting a gun show and circus. A total of 580 cars passed over the rumble strip in six hours.
  • Reports claim this traffic over this amount of time generated enough electricity to power an average U.S. home for a day
  • Reports claim this traffic over this amount of time generated enough electricity to power an average U.S. home for a day.
  • traffic over a six hour period was claimed to produce enough electricity for a 150 square-foot electronic billboard or marquee for a day.
  • traffic over a six hour period was claimed to produce enough electricity for a 150 square-foot electronic billboard or marquee for a day
  • estimated that each MotionPower speed bump would cost $1,500 to $2,000 and earn back its cost in two to three years
  • estimated that each MotionPower speed bump would cost $1,500 to $2,000 and earn back its cost in two to three years.
Mars Base

Discovery of two types of neutron stars points to two different classes of supernovae - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...-stars-classes-supernovae.html

neutron stars scibyte21

shared by Mars Base on 10 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Neutron stars are the last stage in the evolution of many massive stars
  • the mass of a single neutron star exceeds that of the entire sun, but squeezed into a ball whose diameter is smaller than that of London
  • to reveal how they have discovered two distinct populations of neutron stars that appear to have formed via two different supernova channels
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • speculated before about the possible existence of different types of neutron stars, but there has never been any clear observational evidence that there is really more than one type
  • astronomers analysed data on a large sample of high-mass X-ray binaries
  • double star systems in which a fast-spinning neutron star orbits a massive young companion
  • neutron star in these systems also periodically siphons off material from its partner
  • neutron star becomes an X-ray pulsar
  • because by timing their pulses, astronomers can accurately measure the neutron star spin periods
  • detected two distinct groupings in a large set of spin periods measured in this way
  • one group of neutron stars typically spinning once every 10 seconds
  • the other once every 5 minutes
  • led them to conclude that the two distinct neutron star populations formed via two different supernova channels
Mars Base

Weird world of water gets a little weirder with a new anomaly - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...ird-world-weirder-anomaly.html

water scibyte21

shared by Mars Base on 10 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • water is one weird substance, exhibiting more than 80 unusual properties, by one count
  • water can exist in all three states of matter (solid, liquid,gas) at the same time
  • the forces at its surface enable insects to walk on water and water to rise up from the roots into the leaves of trees and other plants
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • scientists have proposed that water can go from being one type of liquid into another in a so-called "liquid-liquid" phase transition
  • it is impossible to test this with today's laboratory equipment because these things happen so fast.
  • used computer simulations to check it out.
  • when they lowered the temperature to about 54 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, the liquid water started to conduct heat even better in the simulation
  • studies suggest that below this temperature, liquid water undergoes sharp but continuous structural changes whereas the local structure of liquid becomes extremely ordered -- very much like ice
  • researchers say that this surprising result supports the idea that water has a liquid-liquid phase transition
Mars Base

Asteroid Flyby: How Students Helped World See Giant Space Rock 2005 YU55 | Near-Earth O... - 0 views

www.space.com/yu55-earth-flyby-students.html

students giant space rock scibyte21

shared by Mars Base on 10 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • asteroid 2005 YU55
  • The Clay Center Observatory in Brookline, Mass., tracked 2005 YU55 with its 25-inch
  • webcast the resulting images live around the world
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • three high school kids from Brookline's Dexter School were in charge of making it happen
  • There are some advisers who are helping us if we run into any problems. But overall, it is student-based and student-run
Mars Base

Mystery of Moon's Lost Magnetism Solved? | Magnetic Moon Rocks Caused by Lunar Dynamo |... - 0 views

www.space.com/gnetic-field-lunar-dynamo.html

moon magnetism scibyte21

shared by Mars Base on 10 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • One of the abiding mysteries of our moon is why it apparently once had a magnetic field
  • When Apollo astronauts brought back samples of moon rocks from their lunar landing missions
  • some of them shocked scientists by being magnetic.
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • This can happen to rocks with the right minerals inside them, if they cool in the presence of a magnetic field
  • A magnetic field is generated by what's called a dynamo, which is caused by the fluid motion of a conducting material, such as liquid iron
  • the moon isn't large enough for convection to take place
  • In one new proposal
  • The strength of this stirring is determined by the angle between the core and the mantle
  • researchers think this happens because the moon's core and its mantle rotate around slightly different axes
  • suggest that the moon's solid-rock middle layer, called its mantle, stirs up its liquid iron core
  • because the tidal gravitational tug from the Earth causes the moon's mantle to rotate differently than the core
  • This model would explain why the moon used to have a magnetic field, but no longer does
  • researchers estimate the lunar magnetic field might have lasted for about a billion years
  • isn't the only possible solution to the moon's mystery
  • another explanation for the ancient lunar magnetic field.
  • suggests that the moon's mantle might have stirred up the liquid in its core
  • Instead of tidal interactions between the Earth and the moon, the researchers posit that impacts by large space rocks slamming into the moon have changed its rotation rate
  • would induce brief periods of especially strong stirring of the core, creating spikes of a magnetic field on the moon
  • either option may be correct, it's also possible that both mechanisms played a role in causing an ancient magnetic field on the moon
Mars Base

MESSENGER Solves Solar Flare Mystery - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...ger-solves-solar-flare-mystery

scibyte21 messenger sun

shared by Mars Base on 10 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • the MESSENGER spacecraft was able to capture a average-sized solar flare
  • allowing astronomers to study high-energy solar neutrons at less than 1 astronomical unit (AU) from the sun for the first time
  • Previously, only the neutron bursts from the most powerful solar flares have been recorded on neutron spectrometers on Earth or in near-Earth orbit
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • results help solve a mystery of why some coronal mass ejections produce almost no energetic protons that reach the Earth, while others produce huge amounts
  • inferred the continuous production of protons in the 30-to-100-MeV (million electron volt) range due to the flare
  • MESSENGER’s Neutron Spectrometer was able to record neutrons from this flare over a period of six to ten hours
  • at least some moderate-sized flares continuously produce high-energy neutrons in the solar corona
  • Solar flares spew high-energy neutrons into interplanetary space. Typically, these bursts last about 50 to 60 seconds at the sun.
  • forms an extended seed population in interplanetary space that can be further accelerated by the massive shock waves produced by the flares
  • another population results from the decay of the neutrons near the sun
  • About 90 percent of all ions produced by a solar flare remain locked to the sun on closed magnetic lines
  • It appears that these seed populations of energetic protons near the sun could provide the answer
  • Sometimes they’re in the right place for the shock waves to send them toward Earth
  • seed populations are not evenly distributed
  • at other times they’re in locations where the protons are accelerated in directions that don’t take them near Earth
  • Energetic protons from solar flares can damage Earth-orbiting satellites and endanger astronauts on the International Space Station or on missions to the Moon and Mars.
  • scientists need to know a lot more about the mechanisms that produce flares and which flare events are likely to be dangerous
  • At some point they hope to be able to predict space weather — where precipitation is in the form of radiation — with the same accuracy that forecasters predict rain or snow on Earth.
  • The beauty of MESSENGER is that it’s going to be active from the minimum to the maximum solar activity during Solar Cycle 24
  • observe the rise of a solar cycle much closer to the sun than ever before
Mars Base

Hubble directly observes the disc around a black hole - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...11-hubble-disc-black-hole.html

scibyte20 black holes quasar

shared by Mars Base on 06 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Scientists have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to observe a quasar accretion disc -- a glowing disc of matter that is slowly being sucked into its galaxy's central black hole
  • Scientists have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to observe a quasar accretion disc -- a glowing disc of matter that is slowly being sucked into its galaxy's central black hole.
  • the team measured the disc's size and studied the colours (and hence the temperatures) of different parts of the disc
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, combined with the gravitational lensing effect of stars in a distant galaxy, the team measured the disc's size and studied the colours (and hence the temperatures) of different parts of the disc.
  • These observations show a level of precision equivalent to spotting individual grains of sand on the surface of the Moon.
  • show a level of precision equivalent to spotting individual grains of sand on the surface of the Moon
  • Quasars — short for quasi-stellar objects — are glowing discs of matter that orbit supermassive black holes, heating up and emitting extremely bright radiation as they do so.
  • Until now, the minute apparent size of quasars has meant that most of our knowledge of their inner structure has been based on theoretical extrapolations, rather than direct observations.
  • using the stars in an intervening galaxy as a scanning microscope to probe features in the quasar's disc that would otherwise be far too small to see
  • As these stars move across the light from the quasar, gravitational effects amplify the light from different parts of the quasar, giving detailed colour information for a line that crosses through the accretion disc.
  • the team were able to reconstruct the colour profile across the accretion disc
  • allowed the team to measure the diameter of the disc of hot matter, and plot how hot it is at different distances from the centre
  • Quasars' physical properties are not yet well understood
  • This new ability to obtain observational measurements is therefore opening a new window to help understand the nature of these objects."
Mars Base

Honoring Copernicus - Three New Elements Added To The Periodic Table - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...ts-added-to-the-periodic-table

scibyte20 elements periodic table

shared by Mars Base on 04 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • November 4, 2011, the General Assembly of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) is meeting at the Institute of Physics in London, to approve the names of three new elements
  • Element 110, darmstadtium (Ds),
  • Element 112. copernicium (Cn).
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Element111, roentgenium (Rg)
  • Are these new elements? Probably not.
  • As a general rule, these “new elements” are given names by their discoverer – which also leads to international debate
  • elements can be named after a mythological concept, a mineral, a place or a country, a property or a very known scientist… even an astronomer
  • element 112, this extremely radioactive synthetic element can only be created in a laboratory
  • Copernicium was created on February 9, 1996 by the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung
  • its original name – ununbium – didn’t get changed until almost two years ago when a German team of scientists provided enough information to prove its existence
  • the rules were that it had to end in “ium” and it couldn’t be named for a living person.
Mars Base

Mars' History Is A Fluid Situation - Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/..._history_is_a_fluid_situation_

scibyte20 mars water

shared by Mars Base on 04 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Four billion years ago, the Martian surface may have been cold and dry — not warm, watery and more Earthlike than it is today, as many scientists have suggested.
  • fluids appeared only occasionally, quickly shaping channels and other landforms that bear watery footprints
  • beneath the planet’s reddish, rocky sands lurked a warm and wet subterranean environment, a potential incubator powered by hydrothermal activity
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • the picture painted by a review paper in the November 3 issue of Nature
  • an international team of researchers crafted this tale of Mars’ parched, frigid history
  • If the authors are right, scientists hunting for evidence of past Martian life might be better off using a shovel
  • concluded that Mars’ most ancient clay minerals
  • roughly 3.7 billion and 4.1 billion years ago
  • formed within the planet’s crust when warm water interacted with rock five to 10 kilometers below the surface
  • Normally buried, ancient hydrated minerals are revealed by erosion or impact events, and craters house the majority of observed crustal clays in their walls, central peaks, or ejected material
  • Opportunity is exploring a mysterious mineral vein that might provide even more evidence for warm subsurface processes.
  • Clay minerals forming nearer the surface, exposed to the atmosphere and with water more mobile than trapped, are different
  • The question is how long that surface water stuck around for, and where the most stable long-term water supplies were
  • Water-carved landscapes, like snaking channels and river deltas, played a large role in producing the current view of a warm and watery Martian past
  • “It will be interesting to try and figure out how these channels fit in,” notes planetary scientist Ray Arvidson of Washington University
  • “I don’t think we can fully discount long-term stable surface water,”
  • While the evidence for subterranean hydrothermal activity is strong, Bishop says it’s unlikely that transient or small amounts of surface water quickly crafted some of the river features, valley networks, or layered beds seen across Mars.
  • In September, NASA announced that Opportunity had found a rock at the edge of Endeavour Crater
  • that looked as though it had been formed in a subterranean hydrothermal system
  • We are seeing a record of warm, circulating, subsurface water
  • Whether life might have evolved in the Martian subsurface is an open question. But on Earth, even multicellular organisms can live in the deep. “
Mars Base

Researchers identify brain cells responsible for keeping us awake - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...1-brain-cells-responsible.html

scibyte20 brain sleep light

shared by Mars Base on 04 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Bright light makes it easier to stay awake
  • Very bright light not only arouses us but is known to have antidepressant effects.
  • Bright light makes it easier to stay awake.
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • dark rooms can make us sleepy.
  • researchers at UCLA have identified the group of neurons that mediates whether light arouses us — or not
  • the cells necessary for a light-induced arousal response are located in the hypothalamus
  • an area at the base of the brain responsible for, among other things, control of the autonomic nervous system, body temperature, hunger, thirst, fatigue — and sleep.
  • the activity of hypocretin neurons in their WT littermates was maximized when working for positive rewards during the light phase, but the cells were not activated when performing the same tasks in the dark phase.
  • These cells release a neurotransmitter called hypocretin
  • This current finding explains prior work in humans that found that narcoleptics lack the arousing response to light, unlike other equally sleepy individuals
  • researchers examined the behavioral capabilities of mice that had their hypocretin genetically "knocked-out" (KO mice) and compared them with the activities of normal, wild-type mice (WT) that still had their hypocretin neurons
  • they found that the KO mice were only deficient at working for positive rewards during the light phase
  • During the dark phase, however, these mice learned at the same rate as their WT littermates and were completely unimpaired in working for the same rewards
  • This same UCLA research group earlier determined that the loss of hypocretin was responsible for narcolepsy and the sleepiness associated with Parkinson's disease
  • findings suggest that administering hypocretin and boosting the function of hypocretin cells will increase the light-induced arousal response
  • Conversely, blocking their function by administering hypocretin receptor blockers will reduce this response and thereby induce sleep
  • implications for treating sleep disorders as well as depression
Mars Base

Headache Tree Is A Pain In The Brain - Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...he_tree_is_a_pain_in_the_brain

scibyte20 brain headache

shared by Mars Base on 04 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • One whiff of a plant known as the headache tree can spur intense, excruciating pain — and now scientists know why
  • An ingredient in the tree sets off a chain of events that eventually amps up blood flow to the brain’s outer membrane.
  • Other headache triggers
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • interact with some of the same cellular machinery, suggesting they all work via the same pain-inducing mechanism
  • an international group of researchers extracted the plant compound umbellulone from dried bay laurel leaves
  • Umbellulone tickles the same cellular detector that responds to painfully cold stimuli and the sinus-clearing scent of wasabi and mustard oil
  • triggers the release of a particular protein implicated in migraine headaches
  • This protein prompts blood vessels to swell
Mars Base

Health check on the road - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...2011-11-health-road.html

scibyte20 health

shared by Mars Base on 04 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • A research team at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM), in collaboration with researchers at the BMW Group
  • develop a sensor system integrated into the steering wheel that can monitor the driver's state of health while driving
  • the device might be used recognize the onset fainting spells or heart attacks.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • monitors vital signs such as heart rate, skin conductance and oxygen saturation in the blood via simple sensors in the steering wheel
  • A driver's skin conductance, for instance, reveals whether he or she is under severe stress, or whether his or her blood pressure exceeds a critical value
  • "When a stress situation is detected by means of skin conductance values, phone calls can be blocked, for instance, or the volume of the radio turned down automatically.
  • With more serious problems the system could turn on the hazard warning lights, reduce the speed or even induce automated emergency braking."
  • Two commercially available sensors are key elements of the integrated vital signs measurement system
  • One of them shines infrared light into the fingers and measures the heart rate and oxygen saturation via reflected light
  • second measures the electric conductance of the skin at contact
Mars Base

Sony Patent Reveals Biometric Controllers - PS3 News at IGN - 0 views

ps3.ign.com/...1211402p1.html

scibyte20 controller biometric

shared by Mars Base on 04 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Measuring skin moisture, heart rhythm and muscle movement
  • Measuring skin moisture, heart rhythm and muscle movement
  • the following ideas are mentioned in the application
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Character changes based on biometric feedback, such as a character sweating when you're nervous.
  • Tensing up your muscles to absorb an attack or power up shields.
  • Weapons that become more accurate or less steady depending on your level of stress.
  • A boost to run faster, jump higher and punch harder while stressed.
  • Rapid decreases in health if your stress increases.
  • Different attacks based on stress levels.
  • Background music that matches your stress level, or becomes more relaxing if you're stressed.
  • Scaling difficulty based on stress level.
  • The last time biometric feedback was introduced to mainstream games was Nintendo's vitality sensor, which was announced at E3 2009 but never released.
Mars Base

Largest Sunspot in Years Observed on Sun | Solar Storms, Flares & Sunspots | Space Weat... - 0 views

www.space.com/unspot-years-observed-sun.html

scibyte20 sun storms

shared by Mars Base on 04 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • The massive sunspot, called AR1339, is about 50,000 miles (80,000 km) long, and 25,000 miles (40,000 km) wide
  • Earth itself is only 8,000 miles (12,800 km) wide
  • The sunspot behemoth isn't yet facing our planet, but was spotted today (Nov. 3) by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The sunspot is actually a group of nearby darkened spots on the sun, some of which are individually wider than planet Earth
  • a huge sunspot like AR1339 comes with a large potential for solar flares
  • the spot has already produced one class M4 solar flare on Nov. 2 that was observed by SDO. A large coronal mass ejection from this flare was observed, but it was not directed toward Earth. However, as the sunspot turns toward our planet in the coming days, we may be in for a greater chance of these ejections.
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