Thursday, February 28, 2013

New, Temporary Earth Radiation Belt Found

by Charles Q. Choi, SPACE.com Contributor

Date: 28 February 2013 Time: 02:01 PM ET

NASA discovers extra radiation ring around Earth by Van Allen Probes.

Two giant swaths of radiation, known as the Van

Allen Belts, surrounding Earth were discovered in 1958. In 2012, observations from the Van Allen Probes showed that a third belt can sometimes appear. The radiation is shown here in yellow, with green representing the spaces between the belts.
CREDIT: NASA/Van Allen Probes/Goddard Space Flight Center

View full size image

A ring of radiation previously unknown to science fleetingly surrounded Earth last year before being virtually annihilated by a powerful interplanetary shock wave, scientists say.

NASA's twin Van Allen space probes, which are studying the Earth's radiation belts, made the cosmic find. The surprising discovery — a new, albeit temporary, radiation belt around Earth — reveals how much remains unknown about outer space, even those regions closest to the planet, researchers added.

After humanity began exploring space, the first major find made there were the Van Allen radiation belts, zones of magnetically trapped, highly energetic charged particles first discovered in 1958.

"They were something we thought we mostly understood by now, the first discovery of the Space Age," said lead study author Daniel Baker, a space scientist at the University of Colorado.

More - Link >>> http://www.space.com/20004-earth-radiation-belt-discovery.html

Source: Space.com .

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Space Station Pic: Mt. Etna Erupting

Astronaut Snaps Photo of Mount Etna Erupting

Becky Oskin, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer

Date: 28 February 2013 Time: 11:15 AM ET

Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield snapped this photo of Italy's Mount Etna from aboard the International Space Station.
CREDIT: Canadian Space Agency/Chris Hadfield (Cmdr_Hadfield)

Astronaut Chris Hadfield, the planet's most popular space shutterbug, snapped a spectacular photo of Italy's Mount Etna volcano streaming ash toward the sea early this morning (Feb. 28).

The volcano erupted yesterday (Feb. 27), the latest in a series of strong paroxysms, or short, violent bursts. For the first time, explosions and ash spewed into the air from Mount Etna's Voragine crater, while webcams trained on the fiery summit showed activity at Bocca Nuova crater as well.

More - Link >>> http://www.livescience.com/27542-mount-etna-eruption-hadfield-photo.html

Source: LiveScience.com .
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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Married Couple to Circle Mars in 2018?

Image of the Planet Mars, taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on 1999 June 30.
(Sources: NASA, Wikipedia.org )

February 27th, 2013

02:50 PM ET

By John Zarrella, CNN

If newly unveiled plans pan out, a man and a woman may represent humanity on one journey that has never been attempted before: a mission to Mars.

“It’s incredibly feasible. It’s not crazy talk," Taber MacCallum, CEO of Paragon Space Development Corp., told CNN.

MacCallum and millionaire Dennis Tito announced their plans Wednesday to send a couple of earthlings on a 501-day trip in a spacecraft that would fly by the red planet. The proposal was unveiled at the National Press Club in Washington.

The mission would lift off in 2018, they said. It would not involve landing on Mars, making the proposed journey infinitely easier than putting people on the planet's surface, which NASA wants to do later this century. But the spacecraft would pass within 100 miles of the planet.

More - Link >>> http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/27/group-aims-to-send-2-humans-on-mars-mission-in-2018/?hpt=hp_t1

Source: CNN News.

Related Blog Post --

2018 Mars Manned Mission Planned by 1st Space Tourist (2013 Feb. 23):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/02/2018-mars-manned-mission-planned-by-1st.html

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Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
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Video: Scorching Rain on the Sun

Image of Earth's Sun taken 2010 August 19 NASA's Solar Dynamic's Observatory (SDO).
(Sources: NASA, Wikipedia.org )

NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory captures "coronal rain," a beautiful and mysterious phenomenon on the Sun.

A modest solar flare erupted on July 19, 2012, followed by a coronal mass ejection, sending solar wind flying out into interplanetary space. Not all the plasma managed to escape, though, and what happened next is stunning. For a full 21 hours following the flare, plasma rained back down onto the Sun, following and lighting up the invisible lines of magnetic field that dance chaotically on the Sun's surface.

Video & More - Link >>> http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/Scorching-Rain-on-the-Sun-193078651.html

Source: Sky and Telescope Magazine.

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Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Space Station Pic: 'Sunglint' Silhouette of NE U.S. Coast

'Sunglint' Silhouettes Northeast Coast in Astronaut Photo

Clara Moskowitz, OurAmazingPlanet Senior Writer

Date: 25 February 2013 Time: 05:30 PM ET

sunglint, astronaut photo, sunglint water

Looking out at the Earth’s surface from the International Space Station (ISS), astronauts frequently observe sunglint highlighting both ocean and inland water surfaces.
CREDIT: NASA/JSC

View full size image

The coast of the northeast United States is silhouetted against the shimmering water of Cape Cod Bay and Long Island Sound in a new photo captured by astronauts on the International Space Station.

The phenomenon of light from a setting sun reflecting off water to create a shining, mirrorlike surface is called sunglint, and is evident throughout the photo.

"The Atlantic Ocean — including Cape Cod Bay and Buzzards Bay, along the coastlines of Massachusetts and Rhode Island — has a burnished, mirrorlike appearance in this image," the NASA's Earth Observatory wrote. "This is due to sunlight reflected off the water surface back towards the astronaut-photographer."

More - Link >>> http://www.livescience.com/27444-sunglint-coast-astronaut-photo.html

Source: LiveScience.com .

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Russia Meteor's Origin Tracked Down

The Chelyabinsk meteor (labelled ChM) appears to have been on an elliptical orbit around the Sun before it collided with Earth.

Astronomers have traced the origin of a meteor that injured about 1,000 people after breaking up over central Russia earlier this month.

Using amateur video footage, they were able to plot the meteor's trajectory through Earth's atmosphere and then reconstruct its orbit around the Sun.

As the space rock burned up over the city of Chelyabinsk, the shockwave blew out windows and rocked buildings.

More - Link >>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21579422

Source: British Broadcasting Corporation News.

What Exploded over Russia?

Feb. 26, 2013: When the sun rose over Russia's Ural Mountains on Friday, Feb. 15th, many residents of nearby Chelyabinsk already knew that a space rock was coming. Later that day, an asteroid named 2012 DA14 would pass by Earth only 17,200 miles above Indonesia. There was no danger of a collision, NASA assured the public.

Maybe that's why, when the morning sky lit up with a second sun and a shock wave shattered windows in hundreds of buildings around Chelyabinsk, only a few people picking themselves off the ground figured it out right away. This was not a crashing plane or a rocket attack.

"It was a meteor strike--the most powerful since the Tunguska event of 1908," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office.

More - Link >>> http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/26feb_russianmeteor/

Source: NASA Science News.

Related Blog Posts --

Rocket to Smack Asteroid Planned by Johns Hopkins University (2013 Feb. 25):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/02/rocket-to-smack-asteroid-planned-by.html

Russian 'Meteorite Rush' Begins as Scientists Find Fragments (2013 Feb. 18):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/02/russian-meteorite-rush-begins-as.html

Russian Meteor: Fragments Found; NASA Revises Estimates; UN Action? (2013 Feb. 17):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/02/russian-meteor-fragments-found-nasa.html

Meteor Fall Recovery Begins in Russia (2013 Feb. 16):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/02/meteor-fall-recovery-begins-in-russia.html

Asteroid Buzzes Earth in Record-Breaking Flyby (2013 Feb. 15):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/02/asteroid-buzzes-earth-in-record.html

Meteorite Hits Central Russia, 500+ People Hurt (2013 Feb. 15):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/02/meteorite-hits-central-russia-500.html

Space Miners: Earth-Buzzing Asteroid May Be Worth $195 Billion (2013 Feb. 13):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/02/space-miners-earth-buzzing-asteroid-may.html

Feb. 15: Close Earth Flyby of Large Asteroid (2013 Feb. 4):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/02/feb-15-close-earth-flyby-of-large.html

Monday, February 25, 2013

How Sequestration Could Hit NASA Projects

Across-the-board budget cuts due to hit March 1, if Congress doesn't make a budget deal, could quickly impact NASA's technology work.

J. Nicholas Hoover | February 25, 2013 03:10 PM

NASA Mars Mission: No Little Green Men -- Yet

At NASA, tech projects will be among those hit by the across-the-board budget cuts scheduled to hit federal agencies if Congress does not move to stop sequestration by the March 1 deadline.

According to a letter sent to the Senate Committee on Appropriations earlier this month, sequestration will cause the cancellation or de-scoping of a number of tech projects, including the possible cancellation of a deep space optical networking program.

Sequestration could also cancel the Deep Space Atomic Clock, NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts Program, and some work on autonomous systems, and would include $51.1 million in cuts to NASA's science budget.

More - Link >>> http://www.informationweek.com/government/policy/how-sequestration-could-hit-nasa-project/240149376

Source: Information Week Magazine.

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Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://friendsofthezeiss.org >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
About the Author: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#GAW >
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< http://www.planetariu p.m. m.cc >
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Rocket to Smack Asteroid Planned by Johns Hopkins University

After meteor blast in Russia, Laurel lab plans to smack an asteroid

Amateur videos show a meteorite falling from the sky in the Ural Mountains in Russia.

By Mark Drajem, Published: February 24 | Updated: Saturday, February 23, 9:57 PM

A meteor blast over Russia is putting new focus on a transatlantic effort to crash a spacecraft into a far-flung asteroid in a bid to prove that incoming objects from space can be knocked from their path.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory are preparing a decade-long, $350 million project to propel a rocket into the asteroid Didymos as it passes close to Earth. If successful, it would be the first time an asteroid is knocked off course by human intervention.

“There is a science aspect to it and a planetary defense aspect to it,” Andy Cheng, the chief scientist of the physics laboratory in Laurel, said in an interview.

More - Link >>> http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/after-meteor-blast-in-russia-laurel-lab-plans-to-smack-an-asteroid/2013/02/24/3cc08720-7bc4-11e2-82e8-61a46c2cde3d_story.html

Source: The Washington Post.

Related Blog Posts --

Russian 'Meteorite Rush' Begins as Scientists Find Fragments (2013 Feb. 18):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/02/russian-meteorite-rush-begins-as.html

Russian Meteor: Fragments Found; NASA Revises Estimates; UN Action? (2013 Feb. 17):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/02/russian-meteor-fragments-found-nasa.html

Meteor Fall Recovery Begins in Russia (2013 Feb. 16):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/02/meteor-fall-recovery-begins-in-russia.html

Asteroid Buzzes Earth in Record-Breaking Flyby (2013 Feb. 15):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/02/asteroid-buzzes-earth-in-record.html

Meteorite Hits Central Russia, 500+ People Hurt (2013 Feb. 15):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/02/meteorite-hits-central-russia-500.html

Space Miners: Earth-Buzzing Asteroid May Be Worth $195 Billion (2013 Feb. 13):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/02/space-miners-earth-buzzing-asteroid-may.html

Feb. 15: Close Earth Flyby of Large Asteroid (2013 Feb. 4):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/02/feb-15-close-earth-flyby-of-large.html

Sunday, February 24, 2013

What If Spacewalker's Tether Breaks?

Astronaut Talks About Being In Untethered Hot Spot

NASA Astronaut Michael Reed Barratt (Photo Sources: NASA, Wikipedia.org )

Michael Barratt, who spent 199 days on the ISS, told kids at the annual meeting of the AAAS how a space walker whose line snaps can still get back to the station. Steve Mirsky reports.

Astronaut Michael Barratt spent 199 days on the International Space Station in 2009. On February 17th, 2013, he told kids about his time in space as part of the Family Science Days effort at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston. Questions from the children covered the basics: eating, sleeping and waste management. Then Barratt got this question from a child, whose mom then elucidated:

Kid: What happens is someone, the line goes off.

Barratt: If the light goes off?

Mom: No, no, if you’re at the station and you know how the astronauts are being held together by some kind of line or pipe. What if that snaps?

Barratt: So if you’re out on a space walk, you’re very careful about keeping yourself attached. So we always have two ways to attach yourself to the space station. If you come totally free, if you’re wearing the US space suit, you’ve got a little jetpack back there. So you pull a little control and a joystick in front of you, and you can actually fly yourself back to the station. We’ve never had to do that. But believe me, having done a couple of space walks, that is on your mind—you don’t want to become a satellite.

—Steve Mirsky
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]

Source: Scientific American Magazine.

Hear Scientific American "60-Second Science" Podcast at this
Link >>> http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=astronaut-talks-about-being-in-unte-13-02-22

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Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://friendsofthezeiss.org >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
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Launch From India: Canada Satellite Seeks Asteroids & Space Junk

Suitcase-Size Satellite Launching Monday to Hunt Asteroids

by Miriam Kramer, SPACE.com Staff Writer

Date: 24 February 2013 Time: 07:30 AM ET

Canada's NEOSSat satellite is shown in orbit on its asteroid-tracking mission.

An artist's

illustration of the NEOSSat asteroid-hunting satellite in Earth orbit. The Canadian Space Agency mission will search for large asteroids near Earth and track space debris.
CREDIT: Canadian Space Agency

View full size image

A small Canadian satellite launching from India on Monday (Feb. 25) will be the first spacecraft specifically designed to search for large asteroids and monitor space junk in the solar system.

The Canadian Space Agency's Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite, or NEOSSat, will seek out and track huge space rocks orbiting the sun from its position in Earth orbit, its builders say. The satellite will also track space debris and satellites still in service in Earth's orbit, splitting time between its two missions.

"The project with the CSA is essentially to survey the sky and get the best, improved near-Earth asteroid population and the ones that can sometimes cross Earth orbit," said Denis Laurin, a CSA space astronomy program scientist working on the NEOSSat mission.

More - Link >>> http://www.space.com/19930-asteroid-tracking-satellite-neossat-launch.html

Source: Space.com .

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Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
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Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
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Saturday, February 23, 2013

Video: Colorful Map of Mercury Snapped by NASA Spacecraft

This colorful view of Mercury was produced by using images from the color base map imaging campaign during MESSENGER's primary mission. These colors are not what Mercury would look like to the human eye, but rather the colors enhance the chemical, mineralogical, and physical differences between the rocks that make up Mercury's surface. Image released Feb 18, 2013.
CREDIT: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

by Miriam Kramer, SPACE.com Staff Writer

Date: 22 February 2013 Time: 03:00 PM ET

A new video by a NASA spacecraft orbiting Mercury is showing the closest planet to the sun like never before, revealing the rocky world as an oddly colorful planet.

Scientists created the new video of Mercury from space using images captured by NASA's Messenger spacecraft, which has been studying the small planet from orbit since 2011. The video shows a complete global map of Mercury as it spins on its axis and was assembled using thousands of photos into a single view.

More - Link >>> http://www.space.com/19920-mercury-color-video-messenger-spacecraft.html

Source: Space.com .

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Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://friendsofthezeiss.org >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
About the Author: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#GAW >
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< http://www.planetariu p.m. m.cc >
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* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
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2018 Mars Manned Mission Planned by 1st Space Tourist

By Michael Moyer | February 21, 2013 |

Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars

Yesterday, a mysterious group called the Inspiration Mars Foundation announced vague plans for a “historic journey to Mars and back in 501 days” scheduled for 2018. The group neglected to mention if the trip would be manned, instead directing the public to a press conference scheduled for February 27. But new information reveals that the individuals behind the Inspiration Mars Foundation plan to send two people on a flight to Mars and back—presumably in one piece.

The Inspiration Mars Foundation was formed by millionaire Dennis Tito, 72, the first person to pay for a ticket to the International Space Station. He and his partners will be giving a talk next month at the IEEE Aerospace Conference on “Feasibility Analysis for a Manned Mars Free Return Mission in 2018.” According to the NewSpace Journal, which obtained a copy of the paper the group plans to present at the conference, the Mars mission would use a modified version of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, which last year made a successful delivery of cargo to the ISS. (Dragon was designed to carry people as well as cargo, but has not yet carried any astronauts into space.) The capsule would venture out to Mars and slingshot back around toward Earth on a 501-day mission. Timing is critical: the orbits of Earth and Mars line up for a small window beginning in January 2018; the next available window for a mission like this is in 2031.

More - Link >>> http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2013/02/21/millionaire-plans-manned-mission-to-mars-in-2018/?WT_mc_id=SA_DD_20130222

Source: Scientific American Magazine.

Related Blog Post --

Married Couple to Circle Mars in 2018? (2013 Feb. 27):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/02/married-couple-to-circle-mars-in-2018.html

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Preservation? Buhl Planetarium & Schenley High School

Photo
of Buhl Planetarium in Allegheny
Square, Pittsburgh

Photographs of two historic buildings, both constructed of Indiana limestone, in the City of Pittsburgh. The photograph on the left shows Pittsburgh's original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science in the Allegheny Center section of the North Side, which was dedicated 1939 October 24 (Photo Source: Friends of the Zeiss; Photographer: Lynne S. Walsh). The photograph on the right shows Schenley High School in the Schenley Farms section of the Oakland neighborhood, which opened 1916 October 2 (Photo Source: Wikipedia.org ).

Last week, the weekly Pittsburgh City Paper published a news article on the efforts of graduates of Pittsburgh's Schenley High School to stop the Pittsburgh Public Schools from selling the historic building, so that the building can be converted into 178 luxury apartments. The Schenley alumni believe that the building is still usable as, and should remain as, a school:

Brown, AmyJo. "Most Likely to Succeed? Facing an uphill battle, a group of Schenley grads want to keep the building full of students." Pittsburgh City Paper 2013 Feb. 13.
Link >>> http://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/most-likely-to-succeed-facing-an-uphill-battle-a-group-of-schenley-grads-want-to-keep-the-building-full-of-students/Content?oid=1618064

In this week's issue of the Pittsburgh City Paper, Friends of the Zeiss Project Director Glenn A. Walsh responds with a Letter-to-the-Editor published in the "Incoming" column on page 6, comparing these efforts of the Schenley High School alumni with similar efforts, more than a decade ago, of former employees and volunteers of Pittsburgh's original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science to maintain the educational capabilities of historic Buhl Planetarium equipment and artifacts in the historic Buhl Planetarium building, currently used for educational purposes by the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh.

INCOMING

Letter to the Editor

Editor,

Deja vu is what I felt when I read your Feb. 13 article on the alumni efforts to maintain the historic Schenley High School as a school. Twelve years ago, City Paper ran a great story on our similar efforts to maintain the historic Buhl Planetarium equipment and artifacts as teaching tools in the historic building, now used by the Children's Museum.

Although the Zeiss II Planetarium Projector is now on display at The Carnegie Science Center, it no longer does what is does best: a second-to-none, realistic depiction of the planets and stars in the night sky. The 10-inch Siderostat-type Refractor Telescope and most other artifacts remain in storage, benefiting no one.

Regrettably, I fear the final result from the efforts of the Schenley alumni will mirror the result of our efforts to preserve the functionality of the historic Buhl Planetarium apparatus.

                                                                                                -- Glenn A. Walsh, project director,
                                                                                                                      Friends of the Zeiss
                                                                                                                           Mount Lebanon

Sources: Pitttsburgh City Paper, Friends of the Zeiss.

More on the History of --

Pittsburgh's original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science:
Link >>> http://www.planetarium.cc/

Historic Zeiss II Planetarium Projector of The Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science:
Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium3.tripod.com/BuhlZeissII.htm

Historic 10-inch Siderostat-type Refractor Telescope of The Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science:
Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2011/11/70th-anniversary-buhl-planetarium.html

Historic Schenley High School:
Link >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenley_High_School

Zlatos, Bill. "Pittsburgh school board approves sale of former Schenley High School."
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review On-Line 2013 Feb. 27.
Link >>> http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/3528542-74/schenley-board-voted#axzz2MEvd4bYX

Chute, Eleanor. "Schenley High School building in Oakland sold to developer."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 2013 Feb. 28.
Link >>> http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/schenley-high-school-building-in-oakland-sold-to-developer-677221/

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://friendsofthezeiss.org >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
About the Author: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#GAW >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
< http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Twitter: < http://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
Facebook: < http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpaceWatchtower/238017839577841?sk=wall >
Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
< http://www.planetariu p.m. m.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 >

Colossal Sunspot Growing Fast, Solar Storms Possible

NASA Sees Monster Sunspot Growing Fast, Solar Storms Possible

by Tariq Malik, SPACE.com Managing Editor

Date: 20 February 2013 Time: 07:09 PM ET

The bottom two black spots on the sun, known as sunspots, appeared quickly over the course of Feb. 19-20, 2013. These two sunspots are part of the same system and are over six Earths across.
CREDIT: NASA/SDO/AIA/HMI/Goddard Space Flight Center

View full size image

A colossal sunspot on the surface of the sun is large enough to swallow six Earths whole, and could trigger solar flares this week, NASA scientists say.

The giant sunspot was captured on camera by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory as it swelled to enormous proportions over the 48 hours spanning Tuesday and Wednesday (Feb. 19 and 20). SDO is one of several spacecraft that constantly monitor the sun's space weather environment.

"It has grown to over six Earth diameters across, but its full extent is hard to judge since the spot lies on a sphere, not a flat disk," wrote NASA spokeswoman Karen Fox, of the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in an image description.

More - Link http://www.space.com/19892-monster-sunspot-photo-solar-flares.html

Source: Space.com .

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://friendsofthezeiss.org >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
About the Author: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#GAW >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
< http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Twitter: < http://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
Facebook: < http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpaceWatchtower/238017839577841?sk=wall >
Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
< http://www.planetariu p.m. m.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 >