Astronomy


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

An Example of a Sky Map

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
 
This image, captured in the first week of March, shows the sun in the midst of a flurry of eruptions. CREDIT: NASA
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.
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
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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.









This image shows Venus's cloudy 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!

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/astronomy/days-on-venus-are-longer/61798


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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