Aimless In Space
--J.B.S. Haldane--
Rachael - Detroit - WSU
Mad Scientist-in-Training
Clastrophysicist (Classics/Astronomy/Physics)
This is my super spectacular (mostly) space blog!! I also enjoy math, Doctor Who, Supernatural, Cowboy Bebop, Fullmetal Alchemist, jellyfish, Detroit, Futurama, and cats.
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I’m Good Enough, I’m Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!
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Matt Smith attends the 72nd Annual George Foster Peabody Awards (May 20, 2013)
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Twisting Solar Eruption
On May 3, 2013, a magnetic “active region” on the Sun erupted in a small solar flare. This triggered a towering prominence, a huge blast of superheated plasma into space. This footage, created from ultraviolet observations by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, shows the event, compressing three hours of real time into 19 seconds.
Video: NASA/SDO/Helioviewer.org
Audio: Kevin MacLeod, “Epic Unease”, incompetech.com
Major Solar Flare Erupts From Giant Sunspot
The sun unleashed a huge flare Thursday (July 12), the second major solar storm to erupt from our star in less than a week.
The solar flare peaked at 12:52 p.m. EDT (1652 GMT) as an X-class sun storm, the most powerful type of flare the sun can have.
“It erupted from Active Region 1520, which rotated into view on July 6,” NASA officials said in an alert. Active Region 1520, or AR1520, is a giant sunspot currently facing Earth.
NASA Fermi & SDO - Fermi Detects the Highest-Energy Light from a Solar Flare
During a powerful solar blast in March, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected the highest-energy light ever associated with an eruption on the sun. The discovery heralds Fermi’s new role as a solar observatory, a powerful new tool for understanding solar outbursts during the sun’s maximum period of activity.
Credit: NASA FERMI, NASA SDO & NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Biggest Solar Flare on Record
This recent explosion from the active region near the sun’s northwest limb hurled a coronal mass ejection into space at a whopping speed of roughly 7.2 million kilometers per hour.
(Image Source: NASA)
M-Class Flare
A particularly large and complex sunspot appeared over the left limb of the sun on Saturday, May 5, beginning its two-week trek across the face of the star in conjunction with the sun’s rotation. The sunspot, dubbed Active Region 1476, has so far produced seven M-class flares and numerous C-class flares, including two M-class flares on May 9, 2012 that peaked at 8:32 EDT and 10:08 EDT.
The sun unleashed an M4.7 class flare at 8:32 EDT on May 9, 2012 as captured here by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. The flare was over quickly and there was no coronal mass ejection associated with it. This image is shown in the 131 Angstrom wavelength, a wavelength that is typically colorized in teal and that provided the most detailed picture of this particular flare.
Flare Now & Later Rain
The Solar Optical Telescope on NASA/JAXA’s Hinode spacecraft observed the April 16, 2012 M1.7-class solar flare from Active Region 1461 over the eastern limb of the Sun.
After the eruption blobs of plasma are falling back to the surface of the Sun. Coronal rain has long been a mystery and thanks to spacecrafts like Hinode and SDO, this phenomena can be studied in much more detail. Just look at this event from almost exactly 1 year ago. On April 19, 2012 SDO observed this Coronal Rain event. A color-coded temperature movie of the eruption. Red and oranges are cool (60,000 K - 80,000 K); blues and greens are hot (1,000,000 - 2,200,000 K). The black “hair-like object” is a speck of dust on the CCD camera.
http://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2010/04/27/AIA_20100419_1200_2100_…
Solar flares are sudden releases of energy on the solar surface lasting several minutes to a few hours. They occur when magnetic fields on the sun’s surface get tangled and ‘reconnect,’ causing nearby plasma to become superheated.
Credit: NASA/JAXA Hinode
On Saturday, September 24 at 09:40 UT, the Sun blasted out a powerful flare. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory too images in the ultraviolet, which I pout together into this animation. Make sure to set it to high-resolution!
More info:http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/09/26/awesome-x2-class-so…
Credit: NASA/SDO/Helioviewer.org
NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (Little SDO)
This composite image was taken only minutes after the M-class solar flare. The very visible feature is, what I call, a Sun Snake. This is a filament. Filaments are elongated clouds of cooler gases suspended above the Sun by magnetic forces. They are rather unstable and often break away from the Sun.
On December 6, 2010 a similar filament erupted. Look at this beautiful video of that event: http://youtu.be/P9Raip0Bd3c
Credit: NASA SDO
If you follow the link, it has other images from today’s flare!
In the early hours of July 30, 2011 a fairly strong, but brief, M9-class solar flare occurred on Active Region 1261. Because it was brief it appears not to have hurled a large coronal mass ejection (CME) outwards. Additional analysis are underway.
Credit: NASA SDO
The Sun is so amazing! :)
Solar flare from July 11, 2011
Earlier today at 1103 UT the active region 1249 produced a beautiful c-class solar flare. This video shows the flare in three different wavelengths.
304 Angstrom: the chromosphere at ~50,000 degrees C.
171 Angstrom: the transition region between chromosphere and the corona at 1 million degrees C.
193 Angstrom: shows the layers at 1.25 million degrees C. (plus some light at 20 million degrees!).
Credit: NASA SDO
AHHH! I couldn’t get the video to post to my tumblr…but the extra click to follow the link is totally worth it!! :)
