Stellarium- Planetarium Software That Will Have You Seeing Stars
Mar 29, 2012; 5:30 AM ET
In my last blog post, Stargazing for Beginners: Planning Your First Night Out,
I focused on getting the most enjoyment out of your first night of
stargazing. I only touched on the resources that will help you identify
what you are seeing or help you to plan what to look for. Star charts
and moon maps are a great start because they don't overwhelm you with
too much information and are very portable. However, once you have been
out stargazing, you'll probably see a whole lot of stars that you would
like to identify, or you would like to know when a particular planet
rises and sets, so that you can plan when to be outside, looking up at
the sky. Fortunately, there is a fantastic computer program called
Stellarium, that will help you to do all of that and more. Best of all,
it is FREE, downloadable, open-source software, and is available for
MAC, Windows and Linux.
First things first - you can download Stellarium at http://www.steallarium.org/.
As I said, it is FREE. For those of you who are familiar with the
open-source software movement, you won't be surprised by that. For those
who aren't, you'll be amazed that software this powerful and useful
could possibly be free. All I can say is that as hard as it is to
believe, it is truly free - no money, no catches, no registration, no
spam, no trial period. If you have the slightest interest in being able
to easily identify the stars you see, download it now and install it.
You won't be disappointed.
I will now go over some of the highlights of Stellarium and explain
how the various features can be useful. If you want a more comprehensive
explanation, the Stellarium User Guide is available in PDF format here.
Stellarium allows you to view the sky on your computer screen, and it
can be customized to show the view of the sky at any location on earth,
including your own home. The interface is very customizable, allowing
you to adjust the display to simulate light pollution, show planetary
orbits, and display the names of the various stars and planets. You can
change the time from your current computer system time to any time in
the future, which allows you to plan for your next stargazing trip,
whether that is tonight, this weekend or next year. Or you can go back
in time to display the sky as it looked on the day you were born.
There are also a wide variety of options for showing the
constellations, with labels and lines linking the various stars in each
constellation. You can choose among the "starlore" of various cultures,
including Chinese, Norse, Aztec, Polynesian and Western, among several
others, so that you can see the constellations unique to each one.
For use on a laptop when you are outdoors at night, you can adjust
the display settings so that everything is displayed as if you are using
a red filter on your laptop screen. This will help you to preserve your
dark-adaptation, so that you won't have to wait as long for your eyes
to readjust to the dark after looking at your computer display.
To aid you in locating a particular star, you can display the
cardinal directions and several different grid configurations which will
help you to locate specific stars relative to the positions of more
easily identified constellations. If you see a star in the sky, and want
to identify it, you can reverse this process, determining its location
relative to easily identifiable constellations on the computer display,
then clicking on the star. When you click, you will see a pop up display
of the star's name and its "vital statistics", such as it's brightness,
distance from the earth, and location in the sky.
As you can see, Stellarium is very powerful and useful software. I
use it all the time, and always learn something new. I hope that you
will enjoy it as much as I do. Happy Stargazing!
- Guest Blogger and Amateur Stargazer, Paul Adomshick
You can leave your comments, as well as be part of a community where
discussions on any astronomy subject such as light pollution when you
join AccuWeather's Astronomy facebook fanpage by clicking here.
We are now well over 3,000 likes. Tell your friends about this site and
blog and have them weigh in on some exciting issues. We encourage open
discussion and will never criticize any idea, and no negative
conversation will be allowed.
My experts will keep you up to date on any astronomy related subject. Please feel free to share your opinions.
And please keep the astronomy pictures coming. They have been simply amazing. Ask questions, share comments, share anything.
http://www.accuweather.com/en/outdoor-articles/astronomy/stellarium-planetarium-software-that-will-have-you-seeing-stars-1/63385
Stargazing for Beginners: Planning Your First Night Out
Mar 28, 2012; 5:15 AM ET
If your stargazing experience is limited to looking up
at the sky while you happen to be outdoors, you're missing out on some
of the most spectacular beauty that nature provides. Once you decide to
"make a night of it", or even just a few hours, it is worth doing a few
things in preparation to get the most out of your first stargazing
adventure. Here are some tips to do just that:
1) Decide where you will be going to do your stargazing. In my previous blog post, Finding Dark Skies,
I discussed how you can find a good location for stargazing near you.
It will help you to find a place where you will be able to minimize
light pollution's effects on your stargazing experience.
2) Watch the weather forecasts. If clouds are going to be covering
most of the sky, it is likely that your time spent watching the stars
will be disappointing. In addition to the general weather forecast, I
often look at AccuWeather's local hourly forecast (which can be find by
putting in your location here
to see what the expected cloud cover will be. It will give you an idea
of whether you are likely to have clear skies or not. I generally avoid
planning any stargazing unless the cloud cover is below 30 percent.
3) Don't buy a telescope. Don't even borrow one for your first trip.
It will be a waste of your time trying to learn how to use it, and
you'll be missing the many things that you can see using just your eyes
and possibly a pair of binoculars.
4) Bring a few things that will make your experience enjoyable:
* A blanket, yoga mat, backpacker's mat, or a reclining deck chair is
essential, so that you can comfortably lay down or recline while
looking up at the sky. You will get tired of craning your neck after
only a few minutes if you try to stargaze while standing.
* Layered clothing and/or a blanket that is appropriate for
temperatures at least 10 degrees cooler than are forecast. Laying on the
cool ground can often make you feel much cooler than if you are
standing.
* A pair of binoculars is not essential, but I do recommend them.
Even a cheap pair of binoculars, that you can buy at a local discount
retail store for around $10, will make a whole lot more detail visible
to you, and will multiply the number of stars you can see. They are
especially useful when looking at the Moon or Jupiter, if it is visible.
You may even be able to see a couple of Jupiter's moons through a pair
of inexpensive binoculars.
* Download and print a copy of the latest monthly "The Evening Sky Map" here.
It is a two-page guide that will help you to locate some constellations
and planets. Get familiar with a few of them and where they will be in
the sky before you go stargazing, so that you can avoid using a
flashlight as much as possible. Every time you turn on a flashlight, you
will lose your dark-adjusted vision for several minutes. If you bring a
flashlight, cover the lens with red cellophane or a red filter. Red
light will allow you enough light to walk around safely in the dark, but
will minimize the effect on your night-adjusted vision.
* If a majority of the moon will be visible (between the first and
last quarter moon), printing out a map of the moon will be an
interesting addition to your night if you bring binoculars. There are
plenty of moon maps available online and I suggest the following site where you can print moon maps showing the names of various features.
5) Don't focus only on trying to identify the things that you see.
Spend more of your time just watching the sky and enjoying the view. If
you watch for a while, you'll see plenty of shooting stars, and maybe a
few satellites.
If you follow these tips for your first stargazing experience, I
think that you will get the most out of it, and will be planning your
next night out before you finish your first one. Happy stargazing!
- Guest Blogger and Amateur Stargazer, Paul Adomshick
You can leave your comments, as well as be part of a community where
discussions on any astronomy subject such as light pollution when you
join AccuWeather's Astronomy facebook fanpage by clicking here.
We are now well over 3,000 likes. Tell your friends about this site and
blog and have them weigh in on some exciting issues. We encourage open
discussion and will never criticize any idea, and no negative
conversation will be allowed.
My experts will keep you up to date on any astronomy related subject. Please feel free to share your opinions.
And please keep the astronomy pictures coming. They have been simply amazing. Ask questions, share comments, share anything.
Finding Dark Skies
Mar 26, 2012; 5:00 AM ET
One of the biggest obstacles facing astronomy
enthusiasts is light pollution. A majority of people worldwide live in
areas where the glow from city lights obscures much of the beauty of the
night sky. In order to really appreciate the night sky and see as many
stars as possible, it helps to make your way to a place away from city
lights and the glow that they create. The most obvious thing to do is to
go to the most remote area you can get to easily. But how can you find
the most remote dark sky location close to you? When I started observing
a few years ago, I found a number of resources that have helped to
pinpoint the best locations.
The first site I check when looking for a dark sky location is the Dark Sky Finder.
The site uses a Google Maps interface with a light pollution overlay
that covers the continental United States. It also has a large number of
known observing locations pinpointed, including many outside the United
States. Before trying to navigate the map, I recommend scrolling down
to the button that allows you to "Toggle Light Pollution" and turning it
off until you have zoomed in to the state or region you are interested
in. The light pollution overlay image is apparently quite large, causing
the site to slow down or crash if you are zoomed out to the entire
United States. Zoom in until you are showing no more than a couple of
states, then toggle the light pollution back on. Click on the pinpointed
locations for more information and links to information on individual
observing sites.
Another great resource is the International Dark-Sky Association. You can browse through their Dark Sky Finder and Destinations here.
Of particular note on the IDA site is the section at the bottom of the
linked page which highlights "Our Member's Favorite Spots". It provides
links to some of the best observing locations, although many are,
unfortunately, quite far from large cities.
Another option for locating the best observing sites near you is to
search for local astronomy clubs. If you are in an area with lots of
city lights, there are probably a whole lot of people just like you who
want to see the night sky better, and many of them belong to astronomy
clubs. They will certainly have located the best sites nearby for
stargazing. Don't be afraid to ask them for suggestions. Most of the
amateur astronomers whom I've met enjoy sharing their love of astronomy
and observing, and would be happy to point you in the right direction. Here is a link to a site that has an extensive list of astronomy clubs with their contact information.
If you are near one of the big cities on the east or west coast of
the United States, it is likely that you won't be able to get to a truly
dark sky location without taking a drive of two hours or more. However,
going to a location that is even a little darker than where you live
can be a fantastic experience for a stargazer.
- Guest Blogger and Amateur Stargazer, Paul Adomshick
You can leave your comments, as well as be part of a community where
discussions on any astronomy subject such as light pollution when you
join AccuWeather's Astronomy facebook fanpage by clicking here.
We are now well over 3,000 likes. Tell your friends about this site and
blog and have them weigh in on some exciting issues. We encourage open
discussion and will never criticize any idea, and no negative
conversation will be allowed.
My experts will keep you up to date on any astronomy related subject. Please feel free to share your opinions.
And please keep the astronomy pictures coming. They have been simply amazing. Ask questions, share comments and share anything.
Solar Storm Blasted Earth With Mega-Energy Dose
Mar 24, 2012; 4:35 PM ET
A recent spate of furious eruptions on the surface of the sun hurled a
huge amount of heat toward Earth - the biggest dose our planet has
received from our closest star in seven years, NASA scientists said.
The March 8 through 10 solar storm shot enough energy toward Earth to power every home in New York City for two years, according to space agency researchers.
Although the influx of solar energy puffed up the atmosphere,
increasing drag on low-orbiting satellites, it caused fewer disruptions
to electronic infrastructure such as electronic grids than some
expected. It also offered plenty of eye candy, sparking dazzling auroras in many places.
"It was a big event, and shows how solar activity can directly affect
our planet," Martin Mlynczak of NASA Langley Research Center said in a
statement.
The solar eruptions began on March 6, and on March 8 a coronal mass
ejection - a wave of charged particles - smashed into Earth's magnetic
field.
For the next three days, the upper atmosphere, known as the
thermosphere, absorbed 26 billion kilowatt-hours of energy. Infrared
radiation from carbon dioxide and nitric oxide, the two most efficient
coolants in the thermosphere, radiated 95 percent of that total back
into space.
"The thermosphere lit up like a Christmas tree," said James Russell of Virginia's Hampton University.
Both Russell and Mlynczak work with SABER, an instrument aboard a
NASA satellite. The instrument monitors infrared emissions from Earth's
upper atmosphere, particularly from carbon dioxide and nitric oxide.
Both compounds play a key role in the energy balance hundreds of miles
above our planet's surface.
Mlynczak said that, despite the impressive numbers, there's no way to
harness the incredible amount of energy the sun shot at the Earth.
"It's so diffuse and out of reach high above Earth's surface," he said.
And, he added, carbon dioxide and nitric oxide send the majority of the
energy back into space.
Although the early March solar storm is ended, the scientists said there is plenty more to come.
"We're just emerging from a deep solar minimum," Russell said. "The
solar cycle is gaining strength with a maximum expected in 2013."
Follow OurAmazingPlanet for the latest in Earth science and exploration news on Twitter @OAPlanet and on Facebook.
By OurAmazingPlanet Staff
Evidence for Flowing Water on Mars Grows Stronger
Mar 24, 2012; 10:17 AM ET
THE WOODLANDS, Tex.-Today's Mars is a frigid desert, a place where water-the key to life as we know it-has gone into hiding. Whatever water may have once existed on Mars in rivers, lakes or even oceans is now frozen into ice caps, locked up in hydrated minerals or buried in debris-coated glaciers.
But last year compelling evidence emerged that when conditions are right, salty brines may persist to this day in liquid form at midlatitude regions on Mars. Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona and his colleagues found tracks in high-resolution imagery that looked like liquid flowing downhill. The tracks appeared annually during the warmer Martian months on equator-facing slopes, extended downhill and then faded as temperatures dropped once again. One tantalizing interpretation was that the streaks were caused by briny water melting and seeping downhill through the soil.
LINING UP: Recurring slope lineae at Horowitz Crater on Mars may be the tracks of fluid flowing through the soil. Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
At the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference being held here this week, the researchers provided an update on their search for and analysis of the mysterious features, which they call recurring slope lineae, or RSL. Not only have they more than doubled the count of known RSL but they have been unable to devise a good explanation that does not involve the presence of liquid water.
"No one has come up with alternative models that they believe," McEwen says. "Nor have we." Lujendra Ojha, an Arizona undergraduate student who has done much of the heavy lifting in identifying RSL in imagery from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, announced in a talk at the conference that he and his colleagues have now confirmed RSL in 15 locations, up from seven when the features were first announced in a 2011 Science paper. Probable RSL have been identified on 23 additional slopes, but they have not yet been shown to recur year after year. "There's more there that we're going to find," McEwen says.
Other phenomena that have pointed to liquid water on modern-day Mars have plausible explanations involving only dry processes, McEwen notes. Streaky slopes closer to the equator, for instance, do not seem to display the seasonality that would be expected of melting and could simply be tracks from boulders rolling downhill. "In all these cases, you can explain the observations without liquid water," McEwen comments. "You have to favor the nonwater models if you can make it work. For the RSL, we can't make it work."
Support for the liquid-water explanation is coming from studies of arid, frigid regions here on Earth. In another talk at the conference, Joe Levy of Oregon State University compared RSL to similar-looking features caused by saline groundwater seeping downhill through the soil in Taylor Valley in Antarctica. Using satellite observations of Antarctic water tracks, Levy and a colleague found that they could estimate the soil's permeability from orbit by measuring how the tracks propagated downhill. And that estimate agreed reasonably well with the actual soil properties, which Levy and his colleagues have measured in field studies. "For flowing water features that darken the surface, it turns out you can do hydrogeology from orbit, which sure beats hiking," Levy said.
Applying the same calculations to Mars, he concluded that the RSL could be explained by brines if the slopes had the permeability of sand or silt. That matches the kind of soil expected to prevail at the sandy RSL sites. In other words, whatever is moving down the Martian slopes behaves as liquid would in that environment. "The RSL and the [Antarctic] water tracks are both flowing like water through sediment," Levy said. "If it moves like water, it may very well be water."
By John Matson
Mercury Surprises: Tiny Planet Has Strange Innards and Active Past
Mar 22, 2012; 7:16 AM ET
The small, sun-scorched planet Mercury has an interior unlike
that of any other rocky planet in our solar system and a surprisingly
dynamic history, two new studies suggest.
Using observations from NASA's Messenger spacecraft in
orbit around Mercury, researchers have found that the planet's huge
iron core is even larger than they had thought, and it's likely overlain
with a solid shell of iron and sulfur — a layered structure not known
to exist on Earth, Venus or Mars. And there's more: Mercury appears to
have remained geologically active for a surprisingly large chunk of its
evolutionary history, researchers said.
Perspective view of ancient volcanic plains in the northern high
latitudes of Mercury revealed by NASA's Messenger spacecraft. Purple
colors are low and white is high, spanning a range of about 2.3 km.
Width of area spans about 1200 km. Each li
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/CIW-DTM/GSFC/MIT/Brown University. Rendering by James Dickson and Jim Head
"Many scientists expected Mercury, being a small planet only slightly larger than the moon,
to have cooled off not long after it formed and to be essentially
'dead' for most of its evolution," said Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, lead author of one of the new studies and a
co-author on the other. "But it appears that Mercury had an exciting and
active middle age."
Mercury from above
The $446 million Messenger (MErcury Surface, Space
ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) spacecraft launched in 2004. It
then took a circuitous route to the solar system's innermost planet,
becoming the first probe ever to orbit Mercury in March 2011. [Latest Mercury Photos from Messenger]
Since then, Messenger has been zipping around the baking-hot
planet — which orbits the sun from just 36 million miles (58 million
kilometers) away, compared to 93 million miles (150 million km) for
Earth — once every 12 hours.
Ancient volcanic plains in the northern high latitudes of
Mercury revealed by NASA's Messenger spacecraft. Purple colors are low
and white is high, spanning a range of about 1 km. Width of area spans
about 250 km.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/CIW-DTM/GSFC/MIT/Brown University. Rendering by James Dickson and Jim Head
The probe is mapping Mercury's surface and
gathering data on the planet's composition, magnetic environment and
tenuous atmosphere, among other features. To date, Messenger has taken
nearly 100,000 images and made more than 4 million measurements of the
planet's surface, researchers said.
Messenger's original science campaign was designed to last
one Earth year, but NASA announced in November that it had granted the
spacecraft a one-year mission extension. Messenger officially began its extended mission earlier this week.
Surprising findings
The two new studies, which both appear in the March 23 issue
of the journal Science, detail findings that should help scientists
better understand Mercury's murky past.
In one study, researchers used observations made by
Messenger's laser altimeter to map the topography of Mercury's northern
hemisphere. They found that the range of elevations was smaller than
that found on either Mars or the moon.
Messenger also observed that the floors of many Mercury craters
have been tilted substantially. Part of the floor of the Caloris basin —
at 960 miles (1,550 km) across one of the largest impact features in
the solar system — has even been raised above its rim.
These discoveries suggest that internal forces pushed the
craters up after the impacts created them, providing strong evidence
that Mercury remained geologically active long after its formation. This
may surprise many scientists given the planet's small size, Zuber said.
"It is not out of the question that Mercury is still active
today," she told SPACE.com via email, "though I note that this is not
very likely, and for sure we have not observed an active eruption or
extrusion."
Peering inside
Researchers also estimated Mercury's gravity field by precisely radio-tracking Messenger's movements around the planet.
From these estimates, they determined that Mercury has
"mascons," large positive gravity anomalies associated with big impact
basins (the term is short for "mass concentrations").
"These were first discovered on the moon in 1968 and caused great problems in the Apollo program because
they tugged low-orbiting spacecraft around and made navigation
difficult," Zuber said. "Subsequently mascons were discovered on Mars,
and now we find out that Mercury has them, so they appear to be a common
feature of terrestrial planetary bodies."
The team's gravity calculations also suggest that Mercury has
an iron core that comprises roughly 85 percent of the planet's radius.
(For comparison, Earth's iron core covers about half of its radius.)
Scientists had suspected the planet's core is big, but many will be
surprised that it's so gigantic, Zuber said.
Further, it looks like a layer of solid iron sulfide overlies
Mercury's core — a feature not known to exist on any other terrestrial
planet, researchers said.
The new findings should help shed light on Mercury's past,
and on the formation and evolution of rocky planets in general. But they
also serve to remind scientists that they're in for many more surprises
as they continue to probe the solar system's many mysteries, Zuber
said.
"With new data, we are continually reminded that when you
think you know what's going on you probably don't," she added. "Nature
is more perplexing than we can possibly conceive."
You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
- Most Enduring Mysteries of Mercury
- Mercury's Weak Shield No Match For Solar Wind
- Our Solar System: A Photo Tour of the Planets
Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
By: Mike Wall and AccuWeather
>
More about Comet SWAN Crashing into the SUN
Mar 16, 2012; 4:05 AM ET
This blog is written by AccuWeather Facebook page's astronomy expert Daniel Vogler.
The other day, we witnessed something spectacular in my opinion,
although the event is considered by most mainstream scientists a
"coincidence." I happen to believe there are no coincidences, we just
have yet to figure out the reasoning behind them.
The event I am referring to is the Comet SWAN making it to its final
destination that is the Sun and what happened after that. To see the
comet again, click here.
A Coronal Mass Ejection was present nearly an hour or two later after the comet disappeared into the corona.
For a comet to have an effect on the Sun, it would require immense
magnetic field strength. The comet itself does not have its own magnetic
field, but it CAN get one as it gets closer to the sun. An induced
magnetic field works like this: A comet's most abundant ice species is
the H2O water ice. As the comet gets closer to the sun, the ice
sublimates, producing gas that trails behind it along with dust. It's
this setup that allows the mass ionization around the tail known as the
ion tail. When you have ions, you then can have a magnetic field
generating from the incoming solar wind from the sun. Once the particles
have been ionized, they attain a net positive electrical charge. As the
comet, now with its induced magnetic field, travels, a bow shock is
formed. In this bow shock, large concentrations of cometary ions (called
"pick-up ions") congregate and act to "load" the solar magnetic field
with plasma, such that the field lines "drape" around the comet forming
the ion tail. (Carroll, B. W.; Ostlie, D. A. (1996). An Introduction to
Modern Astrophysics. Addison-Wesley. pp. 864-874)
The addition of heavy cometary ions to the solar wind flow alters the
dynamics due to the mass addition itself and also because the pick-up
ions have a large pressure. The net effect is to slow down the solar
wind. This slow-down process takes place continuously until a critical
mass flux is reached, at which point a shock forms. (Galeev, A. A.,
Plasma processes in the outer coma, in Comets in the Post-Halley Era,
vol. 2, eds. R. L.Newburn, Jr. et al., p. 1145, Kluwer Acad., Norwell,
MA, 1991.)
Please check out this diagram showing the ins and outs of a cometary magnetic field.
Why am I being so technical with the vocabulary? If you haven't
figured out yet, the Sun's own magnetic field is the main reason behind
CMEs. And what would happen if something like a comet with an induced
magnetic field that gets stronger, collecting plasma, as it gets closer
to the Sun? My idea goes along the lines of the strength of the bow
shock once it gets at the sun's chromosphere, it generates enough
magnetic force to shove each other and one will have to give, and since
the sun is a gas star (albeit way bigger than the comet), the reaction
comes from the other side (CME). Imagine trying to push two really big,
like-sided magnets together.
I really hope this makes better sense as to how a comet gets a
magnetic field and how this induced field is actually the culprit of the
CME. Keep in mind, this is just a theory running around in my head with
a few works cited on how the magnetic field is made. I have yet to see a
real peer-reviewed study of this "coincidence." If you have something
to add to the theory that I may have not thought of, please like and
comment on AccuWeather Astronomy on facebook for discussion.
http://www.accuweather.com/en/outdoor-articles/astronomy/more-about-comet-swan-crashing-into-the-sun-1/62831
Amazing Picture: Southern Lights from ISS
Mar 14, 2012; 7:27 AM ET
A picture from the International Space Station, provided Saturday
by Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers, shows southern lights between
Antarctica and Australia.
Courtesy of NASA
Amazing picture of the southern lights as seen from the International Space Station.
A Comet Crashes into the Sun and Causes a CME? What do You Think?
Mar 15, 2012; 1:29 AM ET
This blog is written by AccuWeather Facebook Astronomy Expert Daniel Vogler.
Last night, we watched intently as Comet SWAN, just recently found a
week ago, take a swan dive into the sun (pun intended). What we didn't
expect, though, was what happened afterwards.
As you can see below, the comet was trekking to the sun, ready for
impact. The first image is from 2012/3/14 at 21:12 UTC (5:12 p.m. EST),
the middle at 21:24 (5:24 p.m. EST) and the last image is at 21:36 UTC
(5:36 p.m. EDT) The projection is from the SW corner of the sun heading
NE.
Then the next three images come roughly some six hours later, at
03:12 UTC (11:12 p.m. EDT), 03:36 UTC (11:36 p.m. EDT) and 04:00 UTC
(midnight EDT).
As you can see, the Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) is visible from the NE part of the sun!
This is NOT a coincidence in my book. There has been several
documented cases of comets impacting the sun and followed by a CME on
the opposite side.
There was one in May of 2011 that can be found on youtube, and Comet
McNaught in 2007 also created a CME. How many more sun-diving comets
will it take to use them as evidence for CMEs?
My theory is that comets have their own magnetic field and traveling
at such a high speed that the impact also distorts the sun's magnetic
field, and what comes out is enough force to sling plasma out on the
other side.
This is still a new concept and not widely excepted in mainstream
science but I believe over time this will be yet another way we forecast
Geomagnetic storms and won't be caught by surprise.
Check out this movie of the comet hitting the sun by clicking here.
If you are interested in this subject, you should join AccuWeather Astronomy on facebook.
The last several days have seen incredible growth on the page as well
as a massive amount of discussions, questions and observations. I cannot
say how proud I am of this page and how much it has become a valuable
resource for those interested in any subject related to astronomy. I
would highly recommend that you check it out! There is something for
experts to beginners and everyone in between. Me and "my team" will
answer your question personally.
Make Sure You Look for the Northern Lights Tonight!
Mar 12, 2012; 6:24 AM ET
As I mentioned in my last blog, predicting where the
northern lights will be visible is a very difficult science. We do not
fully understand and are not able to predict very far in advance many of
the phenomena that are involved with the aurora borealis.
That be said, we do feel that there is a pretty good chance at
southern locations (what is southern? We will get into that in a bit)
seeing the northern lights tonight. Why is that?
This explanation is from astronomy expert Daniel Vogler, "Tonight
will be another opportune time to see the northern lights. A big mass of
plasma, (Coronal Mass Ejection, or CME) should make a better, more
direct hit than the last (big) one from Wednesday night. Early models
show the blob arriving this evening, perfect for us. We need to have
several things to line up for auroras to come down pretty far (south).
First, the CME must have a southern negative charge, known as a southern
Bz. The Bz is just another term for the magnet needle of the
Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF). It's important because it
effectively cancels out the magnetosphere of the Earth's atmosphere at
the point of contact.
After we have established a Southern Bz for several hours, the solar
wind speed is the another factor. The faster the wind, the more
particles are fed in to the atmosphere. Look for speeds in excess of 700
km/s+ for auroras to reach fairly far south.
Thirdly, the proton density is another important factor, obviously
the more dense it is, the more protons are being tossed around in the
atmosphere to help create the aurora (they are then turned in to
photons, which we see as colors). Density needs to be 20 protons/cm^3 at
least.
You need a clear sky and a dark place. The moon shouldn't be in the
way this time. (Wish it was a New Moon but beggars can't be choosers,
lol) And also normally the best viewing time is from midnight-3 a.m.,
but with big storms, you can still see them whenever it's dark and
active."
Daniel knows his stuff. He frequently posts on AccuWeather Astronomy on facebook,
otherwise known as AWA. Daniel is available and likes to answer any of
your astronomy questions whether it is on the northern lights or
wormholes, so do us a favor and join the site and ask away!
Here are a couple of links to help you view the northern lights. This is called ovation aurora forecast from NASA.
This is for North America. NASA also has links for the ovation model
for Europe and Asia. Basically, if the red line is near you or to your
south, go outside and look! This link refreshes by itself every 30
seconds or so.
This link tells you about the Bz. As Daniel said, you want the Bz to be south. So in this link from the ACE satellite
you want the top red line to be negative. If it is, we have a greatly
enhanced chance of a great light show! It also shows the solar winds,
the second to bottom line. Remember, the faster the better. We want
speeds of at least 700 km/s. This also shows the proton density (the
middle graph). The more protons, the more photons there will be and thus
more colors! The magic number is 20 protons per cm cubed.
Lastly, here are a couple more links. The first one is a Kp index map and it shows where the northern lights may be seen when the Kp index reaches a certain level. In this link
it shows what the current Kp index is. So if you see a 6, 7 or even a
8, a lot of people may be able to see the northern lights!
A good idea, if you are a fan of seeing the northern lights (and if
you are reading this you probably are) is to bookmark these links so you
can access them easily. And join AWA!
Also, we are in the middle of an astronomy photo contest. If you get a great shot(s), please share them on AWA!
Increased Auroras Possible Monday Night
Mar 11, 2012; 12:51 PM ET
Photo courtesy of Photos.com.
Another solar flare taking aim at Earth could lead to increased aurora activity on Monday.
As Expert Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski pointed out last week,
"Aerial coverage of the displays produced by each coronal mass ejection
are difficult to gauge ahead of time."
The best chance for viewing the show Monday night, if Earth's
magnetosphere cooperates, will be across the northern Plains and
far-northern New England.
A storm moving into the East and a storm moving onshore in the
Northwest will create clouds and poor viewing conditions for many.
About 80 percent of the moon will be visible Monday night, which could detract from viewing the show somewhat.
According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, the coronal mass
ejection should start to affect Earth late Monday into early on Tuesday,
with intensities lower than those observed last week.
Experts at SpaceWeather.com state that not only do the magnetic
storms unleashed by the flares cause auroras, but they can be somewhat
disruptive.
Sosnowski also pointed out that "the expanse of the Northern Lights
and disruptions depend on whether or not the flare directly strikes the
Earth versus a glancing blow, as well as the strength of the coronal
mass ejection itself."
In the extreme case, there can be brief disruptions to radio and GPS signals.
Space Weather indicates that a strong magnetic storm can cause satellites onboard computer systems to reboot.
As a precaution, some commercial flights will reroute their trips from polar regions.
The Recent Solar Storm
Mar 9, 2012; 10:01 AM ET
First off, if you are interested in this subject you are about to read, you should join AccuWeather Astronomy on facebook.
The last several days have seen incredible growth on the page as well
as a massive amount of discussions, questions and observations. I cannot
say how proud I am of this page and how much it has become a valuable
resource for those interested in any subject related to astronomy. I
would highly recommend that you check it out! There is something for
experts to beginners and everyone in between. Me and "my team" will
answer your question personally.
Anyway, a lot was said in the news the last few days about the solar
event, which is often caused a solar storm. We had several questions on
AccuWeather Astronomy on facebook (hereby abbreviated as AWA) about what
it is, what can we expect, etc. If you are interested in those answers,
please check out AWA.
I was writing this blog today to say that there were some effects felt here on Earth, even if you did not notice them.
The Huff Post had an article headlined, " Solar Flare 'Blinds' Venus Express Probe, Spacecraft Operators Say".
According to the BBC, several planes had to reroute and not fly over
polar regions for loss of disruption of communication equipment.
There were numerous reports on AWA of people having slower or
malfunctioning cell phone service, problems with internet service, and
satellite and cable TV being interfered with.
I will say that as a whole, this event did not affect many people. We
had a real busy night Wednesday night on AWA as people we hoping to see
and tracking the Northern Lights. In general, this event disappointed
many. My experts at AWA have some great explanations why this event was
rather miniscule for sky watchers, especially in the Lower 48.
As a disclaimer, I am a meteorologist and not an astronomer. We know
even less about "spaceweather" than the weather we have in our own
atmosphere. There are a lot of complicated parts going on high in the
magnetosphere and in space to make forecasting where the Northern Lights
can be seen and where effects on Earth will be felt very difficult. The
best we can do at times is "nowcast", tell you where they are visible
and to go outside and look. That is a lot of what we did Wednesday night on AWA.
A New Type of Planet
Feb 28, 2012; 4:20 PM ET
Our solar system contains three types of planets: rocky,
terrestrial worlds, such as Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars; gas giants
like Jupiter and Saturn; and ice giants, like Uranus and Neptune.
Planets orbiting distant stars come in an even wider variety, including
lava worlds and "hot Jupiters."
Observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have added a new type
of planet to the mix. By analyzing the previously discovered world GJ
1214b, astronomer Zachory Berta at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics and his colleagues proved that it is a "water world"
enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere.
GB 1214b is about 2.7 times Earth's diameter and weighs almost seven
times as much. It orbits a red-dwarf star every 38 hours at a distance
of 1.3 million miles, giving it an estimated temperature of 450 degrees
Fahrenheit.
Since the planet's mass and size are known, astronomers can calculate
the density, which works out to about 2 grams per cubic centimeter.
Water has a density of 1 g/cm3, while Earth's average density is 5.5
g/cm3. This suggests that GJ 1214b has much more water than Earth and
also much less rock.
GJ 1214b is located in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus,
just 40 light-years from Earth. It is a prime candidate for study by the
next-generation James Webb Space Telescope
You can leave your comments, as well as be part of a community where
discussions on any astronomy subject such as wormholes when you join
AccuWeather's Astronomy facebook fanpage by clicking here.
We are now well over 2,500 likes. Tell your friends about this site and
blog and have them weigh in on some exciting issues. We encourage open
discussion and will never criticize any idea, and no negative
conversation will be allowed.
My experts will keep you up to date on any astronomy-related subject. Please feel free to share your opinions.
And please keep the astronomy pictures coming. They have been simply
amazing. Please keep it up. Ask questions, share comments, and share
anything.
Days on Venus Are Longer
Feb 20, 2012; 1:24 AM ET
Using an infrared camera to see through the thick atmosphere of Venus, scientists recently discovered an interesting change.
Some known surface features were displaced by around 12 miles from
where they were, as measured by NASA's Magellan orbiter in the early
1990s. This change is distance means that days on Venus are about 6-7
minutes longer than they were about 20 years ago.
This could be important information if we ever want to explore Venus so that landing sites could be selected and then tracked.
Why are the days getting longer? The most logical hypothesis is that
Venus's very dense atmosphere, which is more than 90 times the pressure
of Earth's, interacts with high-speed weather systems found on the
planet. This may change the planet's rotation rate due to friction with
the surface.
You can leave your comments, as well as be part of a community where
discussions on any astronomy subject such as wormholes when you join
AccuWeather's Astronomy facebook fanpage by clicking here.
We are now over 2,500 likes. Tell your friends about this site and
blog, and have them weigh in on some exciting issues. We encourage open
discussion and will never criticize any idea, and no negative
conversation will be allowed.
My experts will keep you up to date on any astronomy-related subject. Please feel free to share your opinions!
And please keep the astronomy pictures coming! They have been simply
amazing! Please keep it up. Ask questions, comments, share anything!
Dark Matter Core Defies Explanation in Hubble Image
Mar 8, 2012; 6:45 PM ET
Astronomers observed what appeared to be a clump of
dark matter left behind during a bizarre wreck between massive clusters
of galaxies. The dark matter collected into a "dark core" containing far
fewer galaxies than would be expected if the dark matter and galaxies
hung together. Most of the galaxies apparently have sailed far away from
the collision. This result could present a challenge to basic theories
of dark matter, which predict that galaxies should be anchored to the
invisible substance, even during the shock of a collision.
The initial observations, made in 2007, were so unusual that
astronomers shrugged them off as unreal, due to poor data. However, new
results obtained in 2008 from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope confirm that
dark matter and galaxies parted ways in the gigantic merging galaxy
cluster called Abell 520, located 2.4 billion light-years away. Now,
astronomers are left with the challenge of trying to explain dark
matter's seemingly oddball behavior in this cluster.
ABOUT THIS IMAGE:
This composite image shows the distribution of dark matter, galaxies,
and hot gas in the core of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520, formed
from a violent collision of massive galaxy clusters.
The natural-color image of the galaxies was taken with NASA's Hubble
Space Telescope and with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii.
Superimposed on the image are "false-colored" maps showing the
concentration of starlight, hot gas, and dark matter in the cluster.
Starlight from galaxies, derived from observations by the
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, is colored orange. The green-tinted
regions show hot gas, as detected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.
The gas is evidence that a collision took place. The blue-colored areas
pinpoint the location of most of the mass in the cluster, which is
dominated by dark matter. Dark matter is an invisible substance that
makes up most of the universe's mass. The dark-matter map was derived
from the Hubble Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 observations by detecting
how light from distant objects is distorted by the cluster of galaxies,
an effect called gravitational lensing.
The blend of blue and green in the center of the image reveals that a
clump of dark matter resides near most of the hot gas, where very few
galaxies are found. This finding confirms previous observations of a
dark-matter core in the cluster. The result could present a challenge to
basic theories of dark matter, which predict that galaxies should be
anchored to dark matter, even during the shock of a collision.
Abell 520 resides 2.4 billion light-years away.
Object Name: Abell 520
Image Type: Astronomical
Credit: NASA, ESA, CFHT, CXO, M.J. Jee (University of California, Davis), and A. Mahdavi (San Francisco State University)
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