I like the way the future happens in front of other stuff... like today and yesterday.
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Great Woods, Narnia
Earth: near Werda,...
NASA | SDO’s Ultra-high Definition View of 2012 Venus Transit (by NASAexplorer).
The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which has been totally stalking the sun, collected these incredible images of the transit of Venus. These are constructed from wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light and a portion of the visible spectrum.
Image of the Day: The International Space Station Looks Like a Speck of Dust on the Sun
The International Space Station, with Discovery attached, crosses the sun. This amazing photo was taken by astrophotographer Alan Friedman.
The ISS is about the width and length of a football field and took 0.2 seconds to travel across the sun.
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Spicules: jets on the Sun
Imagine a pipe as wide as a state and as long as the Earth. Now imagine that this pipe is filled with hot gas moving 50,000 kilometers per hour. Further imagine that this pipe is not made of metal but a transparent magnetic field. You are envisioning just one of thousands of young spicules on the active Sun. Pictured above is one of the highest resolution image yet of these enigmatic solar flux tubes.
Spicules line the above frame of solar active region 11092 that crossed the Sun last month, but are particularly evident converging on the sunspot on the lower left. Time-sequenced images have recently shown that spicules last about five minutes, starting out as tall tubes of rapidly rising gas but eventually fading as the gas peaks and falls back down to the Sun. What determines the creation and dynamics of spicules remains a topic of active research.
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The sun and a solar prominence (by Alan Friedman, via Bad Astronomy).
(via unknownskywalker)
Incredible flare emitted by the sun on v-day. It entered our atmosphere yesterday and probably caused some lovely aurorae tonight.
Valentine’s Day Solar Flare
Looks like the new solar cycle is beginning to ramp up. The sun emitted its first X-class flare in more than four years on February 14 at 8:56 p.m. EST. X-class flares are the most powerful of all solar events that can trigger radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms.
Source: NASA/SDO
And here’s a wonderful image via Astronomy Picture of the Day.
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Flying into the Heavens by Codie Westphall
Remarkables Mountain Range in New Zealand
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The light on those clouds! Beautiful.
Plasma Attack!
That’s a streamer of plasma shooting out of adorable Sunspot 1123. The flash preceding it is a solar flare. It erupted early yesterday and if it strikes the Earth’s magnetic field (Nov 14 or 15), folks in the higher latitudes may witness in increase in auroras. Get all science-y with The Bad Astronomer. NASA has a nifty time lapse gif.
