SpaceWatchtower

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Geminid Meteor Shower, w/ Mysterious Origin, Peaks This Weekend

Geminid fireball falling Earthward. (Source: NASA)

By Glenn A. Walsh
Reporting for SpaceWatchtower

The most intense meteor shower of the year, the Geminids, peaks this-coming weekend: officially the peak is Friday night / Saturday morning, 2013 December 14 at 1:00 a.m. EST (6:00 Coordinated Universal Time). Particularly in good years when Moon light does not hamper viewing, 100 to 120 meteors per hour can be seen. However, some people believe this meteor shower is intensifying, as 120 to 160 meteors have been seen, under optimal conditions, during this meteor shower in recent years.

Due to the intensity of the Geminid Meteor Shower, some meteors can be seen Thursday through Monday nights. Of course, the number of meteors that can be seen is less on nights other than the Friday night / Saturday morning peak.

Clear skies are always a must for meteor viewing, something not always available in late Autumn and early Winter skies. And, it is always best to get away from city lights, for the chance to see the dimmer meteors.

As always, the best viewing for a meteor shower is between local midnight and local dawn, when the Earth is rotating into the meteor shower. However, a nearly Full Moon (waxing gibbous, with 93 per cent of the Moon's surface illuminated by the Sun) will hinder meteor viewing until the Moon sets (Moon set in Pittsburgh for December 14: 4:54 a.m. EST). Dawn begins at Civil Twilight (for Pittsburgh: 7:05 a.m. EST with sunrise at 7:35 a.m. EST), which means there should be about two hours when the Moon and the Sun would not interfere with watching for Geminid meteors.

The Geminids are so named because most meteors appear to radiate from the Constellation Gemini the Twins (apparent meteor shower radiant), a constellation which becomes more prominent as the Winter season approaches in Earth's Northern Hemisphere. However, during any meteor shower, meteors can appear in any part of the sky at any time.

Telescopes and binoculars are of little use for finding meteors. Such optical devices restrict the field-of-view, thus that you could easily miss a lot of meteors, and the chance that you could observe a meteor with a telescope or binoculars is not very good. The best way to look for meteors is to lie down on the ground, in an area with an unobstructed view of most of the sky. Then, just keep scanning throughout the sky until you see a meteor.

While most meteor showers occur at a time when Earth's orbit coincides with a trail of debris from a comet, this is not the case for the Geminids. Amazingly, the most intense meteor shower of the year seems to come from a strange rocky object identified as Asteroid 3200 Phaethon, what some scientists call a "rock comet." Discovered by NASA's Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) in 1983, 3200 Phaethon has an eccentric orbit which brings it inside the orbit of Mercury every 1.4 years.

Even though this asteroid is regularly blasted with solar heat when it nears the Sun, scientists using NASA satellite data have concluded that the debris falling-off of the asteroid due to this heating could not have caused the amount of debris found in the debris trail which comprises the Geminid Meteor Shower. The amount of debris which scientists recorded as having fallen-off of this asteroid during a recent encounter with the Sun is too low.

Some researchers believe that 5-kilometer Phaethon may have been chipped-off of one of the largest asteroids in the Solar System, 2 Pallas (which is 544 kilometers in diameter). Could some past planetary collision, which caused Phaethon to break-off from Pallas, have caused the debris trail now known as the Geminid Meteor Shower? Scientists who have studied this possible scenario say no. They say that the Geminid meteoroids were created much closer to the Sun, not in the Asteroid Belt.

Hence, the explanation for the intensity of the Geminid Meteor Shower remains a mystery to scientists.

So, bundle-up this weekend and hope for clear skies to see the most intense meteor shower of the year, apparently caused by an astronomical anomaly.

More on the Geminid Meteor Shower ---

Link 1 >>> http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/06dec_geminids/
Link 2 >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geminids

Source: Glenn A. Walsh Reporting for SpaceWatchtower, a project of Friends of the Zeiss.

Want to receive SpaceWatchtower blog posts in your inbox ?
Send request to < spacewatchtower@planetarium.cc >..

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/ >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
About the SpaceWatchtower Editor/Author: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#GAW >
SpaceWatchtower Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Also see: South Hills Backyard Astronomers Blog: < http://shbastronomers.blogspot.com/ >
Barnestormin: Writing, Essays, Pgh. News, & More: < http://www.barnestormin.blogspot.com/ >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
< http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Twitter: < https://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
Facebook: < http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpaceWatchtower/238017839577841?sk=wall >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
< http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
< http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
< http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
< http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
< http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
< http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
< http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/transit >

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Salty Water Seen Flowing Down Martian Slopes ?

Seasonal Changes in Dark Marks on an Equatorial Martian Slope

These images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show how the appearance of dark markings on Martian slope changes with the seasons. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
› Full image and captionc1

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed to scientists slender dark markings -- possibly due to salty water - that advance seasonally down slopes surprisingly close to the Martian equator.

"The equatorial surface region of Mars has been regarded as dry, free of liquid or frozen water, but we may need to rethink that," said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona in Tucson, principal investigator for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera.

Tracking how these features recur each year is one example of how the longevity of NASA orbiters observing Mars is providing insight about changes on many time scales. Researchers at the American Geophysical Union meeting Tuesday in San Francisco discussed a range of current Martian activity, from fresh craters offering glimpses of subsurface ice to multi-year patterns in the occurrence of large, regional dust storms.

The seasonally changing surface flows were first reported two years ago on mid-latitude southern slopes. They are finger-like features typically less than 16 feet (5 meters) wide that appear and extend down steep, rocky slopes during spring through summer, then fade in winter and return the next spring. Recently observed slopes stretch as long as 4,000 feet (1,200 meters).

McEwen and co-authors reported the equatorial flows at the conference and in a paper published online Tuesday by Nature Geoscience. Five well-monitored sites with these markings are in Valles Marineris, the largest canyon system in the solar system. At each of these sites, the features appear on both north- and south-facing walls. On the north-facing slopes, they are active during the part of the year when those slopes get the most sunshine. The counterparts on south-facing slopes start flowing when the season shifts and more sunshine hits their side.

"The explanation that fits best is salty water is flowing down the slopes when the temperature rises," McEwen said. "We still don't have any definite identification of water at these sites, but there's nothing that rules it out, either."

More - Link >>> http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-361

Sources: NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory / California Institute of Technology

Want to receive SpaceWatchtower blog posts in your inbox ?
Send request to < spacewatchtower@planetarium.cc >..

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/ >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
About the SpaceWatchtower Editor/Author: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#GAW >
SpaceWatchtower Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Also see: South Hills Backyard Astronomers Blog: < http://shbastronomers.blogspot.com/ >
Barnestormin: Writing, Essays, Pgh. News, & More: < http://www.barnestormin.blogspot.com/ >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
< http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Twitter: < https://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
Facebook: < http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpaceWatchtower/238017839577841?sk=wall >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
< http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
< http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
< http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
< http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
< http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
< http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
< http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/transit >

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Historic Buhl Planetarium Flag Pole Refurbished, Back-in-Use

Photo
of historic & refurbished Buhl Planetarium flag pole

Once again, the American flag files proudly on the historic flag pole, outside of
the original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science building (now
used by the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh), as seen from Buhl Community
Park at Allegheny Square..
(Photo taken 2013 November 20; Image Source: Friends of the Zeiss)

By Glenn A. Walsh
Reporting for SpaceWatchtower

Today, as we commemorate Pearl Harbor Day, the American flag again flies proudly over the original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science building, which is now used by the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. The historic Buhl Planetarium flag pole, which was erected and started use with the opening of the building in October of 1939, was refurbished and returned to use last month, in time for Veterans' Day.

A second historic flag pole, built atop the Old Allegheny Post Office building (also now used by the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh) in 1897, is also back-in-use. A flag displaying the Children's Museum's "HI" logo now flies on this flag pole.

Angelo Galioto, a chef in the Children's Museum's "Big Red Room Cafe" (in Buhl Planetarium's Great Hall), spearheaded the drive to refurbish and reuse the historic Buhl Planetarium flag pole. A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Mr. Galioto originally voiced his displeasure with the condition of a huge artifact, the original anchor from the USS Pittsburgh (Baltimore-class heavy cruiser which served during World War II), which is displayed on the Allegheny Square Plaza near the flag pole.

Originally preserved by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation (which hosted a city history museum in the Old Allegheny Post Office, before the Children's Museum was established) , Mr. Galioto and his brother Frank (also a Navy Veteran) sought to have the anchor painted and the area cleaned-up. Frank Galioto, a retired union worker, enlisted the aid of Joseph Delale, the AFL-CIO Community Services Liaison with the Allegheny County Labor Council, who in-turn called-on Giles Grinko, Business Representative from the Painters Union (IUPAT D.C.57).

At a meeting, they all agreed that the job could be accomplished by taking advantage of the apprenticeship program of the IUPAT D.C.57 union. They also decided to install a new flag pole with an American flag, directly beside the anchor.

After making an official request to the Children's Museum, Children's Museum Deputy Director Chris Siefert pointed-out that the property they were referring to is legally a right-of-way of the City of Pittsburgh. Before the 1960s construction of the original Allegheny Square Plaza and the office, retail, and apartment building complex known as Allegheny Center (originally developed by ALCOA), where several streets became pedestrian plazas, the area where the anchor is located was originally West Ohio Street at the intersection with Federal Street.

After speaking with city officials, Mr. Siefert suggested that the group consider refurbishing and reusing the original Buhl Planetarium flag pole (as with the Buhl Planetarium building and lawn, the flag pole is City property), which was near the anchor. The Buhl Planetarium flag pole (height: over 30 feet) had not been used for more than 20 years, when the SpaceWatchtower blog editor / author, Glenn A. Walsh, had used the flag pole to raise and lower the American flag on major American holidays, for Pittsburgh's original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science (a.k.a. Buhl Science Center). By this time, this area of the Buhl Planetarium lawn was overgrown with trees, making display of the American flag difficult to view.

Mr. Siefert arranged for the City of Pittsburgh Department of Forestry to remove one tree and trim the remaining trees, to enable better visibility of the flag pole. The Painters Union cleaned and painted this very tall flag pole, with the help of the Duquesne Light Company, their IBEW union local 29 employees, and the company's bucket truck.

Through their Power of Light program, Duquesne Light also set-up night-lighting for the flag pole, so the American flag could be displayed 24 / 7 / 365. Although there are no legal penalties for a violation, the U.S. Flag Code instructs that the American flag should always be illuminated, when displayed at night. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that any penalties for violation of the U.S. Flag Code would conflict with the right of Freedom of Speech in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Finally, U.S. Congressman Mike Doyle (who represents the congressional district which includes the Buhl Planetarium building) donated a new 5x8 American flag for use on the refurbished Buhl Planetarium flag pole. As with the American flag Mr. Walsh received, for the Buhl Planetarium flag pole about 25 years earlier from Mike Doyle's predecessor Congressman William J. Coyne, this new American flag had once flown over the U.S. Capitol building.

The following are the names of individuals and organizations which made this project a success:

Angelo Galioto, Chef, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh and his brother Frank Galioto – both U.S. Navy Veterans

International Union Painters and Allied Trades District Council 57

Giles Grinko, IUPAT D.C. 57 Business Rep.

Pedro Ponce, Juan Nava, Dillon Martin, and Chris Matvia - Apprentices

Duquesne Light Co.

Lloyd Mullin, Bill Durso, and Mike Leimeyer – Foremen

Jeff Minehart, Rich Heintz and Brandon Leimeyer ( IBEW local 29 )

Joe Delale, Allegheny County Labor Council, AFL-CIO Community Services Liaison.

Vickie Watson, Children's Museum of Pittsburgh

Chris Siefert, Deputy Director, Children's Museum of Pittsburgh

City of Pittsburgh, City Council

City of Pittsburgh, City Department of Forestry – Lisa Coeffe

U.S. Congressman Mike Doyle

More on the historic Buhl Planetarium Flag Pole:

Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/facilities/flagpole.html

Special Thanks from the SpaceWatchtower: Chris Siefert, Deputy Director, Children's Museum of Pittsburgh.

Source: Glenn A. Walsh Reporting for SpaceWatchtower, a project of Friends of the Zeiss.

Related Blog Post ---

Buhl Community Park at Allegheny Square Opens (2012 June 25):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2012/06/buhl-community-park-at-allegheny-square.html

Want to receive SpaceWatchtower blog posts in your inbox ?
Send request to < spacewatchtower@planetarium.cc >..

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/ >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
About the SpaceWatchtower Editor/Author: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#GAW >
SpaceWatchtower Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Also see: South Hills Backyard Astronomers Blog: < http://shbastronomers.blogspot.com/ >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
< http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Twitter: < https://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
Facebook: < http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpaceWatchtower/238017839577841?sk=wall >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
< http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
< http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
< http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
< http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
< http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
< http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
< http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/transit >

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Cassini Probe Shows Colorful Storm at Saturn's North Pole

In Full View: Saturn's Streaming Hexagon

This colorful view from NASA's Cassini mission is the highest-resolution view of the unique six-sided jet stream at Saturn's north pole known as "the hexagon." This movie, made from images obtained by Cassini's imaging cameras, is the first to show the hexagon in color filters, and the first movie to show a complete view from the north pole down to about 70 degrees north latitude. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Hampton University
› Full image and caption

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has obtained the highest-resolution movie yet of a unique six-sided jet stream, known as the hexagon, around Saturn's north pole.

This is the first hexagon movie of its kind, using color filters, and the first to show a complete view of the top of Saturn down to about 70 degrees latitude. Spanning about 20,000 miles (30,000 kilometers) across, the hexagon is a wavy jet stream of 200-mile-per-hour winds (about 322 kilometers per hour) with a massive, rotating storm at the center. There is no weather feature exactly, consistently like this anywhere else in the solar system.

"The hexagon is just a current of air, and weather features out there that share similarities to this are notoriously turbulent and unstable," said Andrew Ingersoll, a Cassini imaging team member at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "A hurricane on Earth typically lasts a week, but this has been here for decades -- and who knows -- maybe centuries."

Weather patterns on Earth are interrupted when they encounter friction from landforms or ice caps. Scientists suspect the stability of the hexagon has something to do with the lack of solid landforms on Saturn, which is essentially a giant ball of gas.

Better views of the hexagon are available now because the sun began to illuminate its interior in late 2012. Cassini captured images of the hexagon over a 10-hour time span with high-resolution cameras, giving scientists a good look at the motion of cloud structures within.

More & Hexagon Movies - Link >>> http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-350

Sources: NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Insstitute of Technology.

Want to receive SpaceWatchtower blog posts in your inbox ?
Send request to < spacewatchtower@planetarium.cc >..

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/ >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
About the SpaceWatchtower Editor/Author: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#GAW >
SpaceWatchtower Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Also see: South Hills Backyard Astronomers Blog: < http://shbastronomers.blogspot.com/ >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
< http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Twitter: < https://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
Facebook: < http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpaceWatchtower/238017839577841?sk=wall >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
< http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
< http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
< http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
< http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
< http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
< http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
< http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/transit >

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Comet ISON: Remnants May Remain But Comet is Gone

NASA took a series of images to create this "timelapse" view of comet ISON's trip around the sun.
(Image Source: NASA)

Comet ISON, a "shining green candle in the solar wind," is no longer with us, NASA declared Monday morning in a tribute to what many hoped would be the "comet of the century."

Astrophysicist Karl Battams of NASA writes that "while it is conceivable that small chunks of ISON's nucleus still exist, that possibility looks increasingly unlikely and it is with more than a little sadness that we have to declare the comet lost.

"Survived by approximately several trillion siblings, Comet ISON leaves behind an unprecedented legacy for astronomers, and the eternal gratitude of an enthralled global audience. In ISON's memory, donations are encouraged to your local astronomy club, observatory or charity that supports STEM and science outreach programs for children."

More - Link >>> http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/12/03/248202813/comet-ison-is-no-more-nasa-says

NASA explanation of what happened to Comet ISON:
Link >>> http://www.isoncampaign.org/potw-dec02

What Happened to Comet ISON? {NASA Science News: 2013 Dec. 4):

Link >>> http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/04dec_isonrecap/

Sources: NASA, National Public Radio.

Related Blog Posts ---

Comet ISON -

Comet ISON vs. the Solar Storm (2013 Nov. 26):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/11/comet-ison-vs-solar-storm.html

Should We Worry About Comet ISON ? (2013 Oct. 10):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/10/should-we-worry-about-comet-ison.html

Amateur Astronomers See Comet ISON (2013 Sept. 26):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/09/amateur-astronomers-see-comet-ison.html

Comet ISON to Fly by Mars (2013 Aug. 24):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/08/comet-ison-to-fly-by-mars.html

Comet ISON: Unique Meteor Shower Mid-January (2013 April 20):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/04/comet-ison-unique-meteor-shower-mid.html

Astronomers Begin Study of Comet ISON (2013 April 1):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/04/astronomers-begin-study-of-comet-ison.html

Comet of the Century? (2013 Jan. 19):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/01/comet-of-century.html

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Astronomical Calendar: 2013 December

Nearing completion (photograph taken 2013 November 20) is the Southwestern
Pennsylvania World War II Memorial, which will be dedicated on December 6, the
day before Pearl Harbor Day. This Memorial is located near other memorials,
remembering veterans of the Korea and Vietnam conflicts, in the Roberto Clemente
North Shore Riverfront Park, a few blocks southwest of Pittsburgh's original Buhl
Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science. (Image Source: Friends of the Zeiss)
More images and information about the Southwestern Pennsylvania World War II
Memorial: Link >>> http://www.swpawwii.org/

Astronomical Calendar for 2013 December:

Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium4.tripod.com/astrocalendar/2013.html#dec

The current month's Astronomical Calendar can also be found on the cover page of the History of The Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science, Pittsburgh web site at this link:

Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#astrocal

Source: Friends of the Zeiss.

Want to receive SpaceWatchtower blog posts in your inbox ?
Send request to < spacewatchtower@planetarium.cc >..

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/ >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
About the SpaceWatchtower Editor/Author: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#GAW >
SpaceWatchtower Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Also see: South Hills Backyard Astronomers Blog: < http://shbastronomers.blogspot.com/ >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
< http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Twitter: < https://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
Facebook: < http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpaceWatchtower/238017839577841?sk=wall >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
< http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
< http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
< http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
< http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
< http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
< http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
< http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/transit >

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Comet ISON vs. the Solar Storm

The Heliospheric Imager on NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft is tracking Comet ISON as it plunges toward the sun. In this movie, which spans a two day period from Nov. 20 to Nov. 22, 2013, the sun is off-screen to the right. Coincidentally, Comet Encke is present too. Movie, Commentary

In 2007, astronomers were amazed when a solar storm hit Comet Encke. NASA STEREO spacecraft watched as a CME (coronal mass ejection) struck the comet head on and ripped off its tail.

The same thing could be in store for Comet ISON--only worse.

On Nov. 28th, Comet ISON will pass through the sun's atmosphere, flying little more than a million kilometers above the sun's surface. It will be ~30 times closer to the sun than Encke was in 2007 and more likely to encounter a ferocious solar storm.

"For one thing," says Angelos Vourlidas of the Naval Research Lab and a participant in NASA's Comet ISON Observing Campaign (CIOC), "the year 2007 was near solar minimum. Solar activity was low. Now, however, we are near the peak of the solar cycle and eruptions are more frequent."

"I would absolutely love to see Comet ISON get hit by a big CME," says Karl Battams, an astronomer at the Naval Research Lab who also works with the CIOC. "It won't hurt the comet, but it would give us a chance to study extreme interactions with the comet's tail."

More - Link >>> http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/24nov_isoncme/

Source: NASA Science News.