alanfriedman:

Our Active Star

The sun is killing me! Too many beautiful days with too much to photograph and too little time to finish the pictures. Here is the sun from May 4th, sporting a plethora of active regions, highlighted by the large sunspot group in AR1734 near the center.

Hey kids. This dude takes original pictures of the sun and space. You should probably follow him.

The CME, leaving the sun at 600 miles per second on April 11th that is going to cause bangarang auroras tonight across the world.

On Saturday, February 9th, around 0640 UT, a magnetic filament in the sun’s northern hemisphere erupted, hurling a coronal mass ejection (CME) toward Earth. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the UV flash from the underlying C2-class solar flare.

colchrishadfield:

We live right next to a star. Today it ejected a huge blob at 500 mi/sec. But not to worry - should be good aurorae :)

Sweet. Makes my tumblring easier.

The ongoing geomagnetic storms were caused, originally, by an eruption on the sun. NASA has just released new high-resolution images of the giant magnetic filament that snapped on August 31st. Each panel shows the eruption in a different wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light. By comparing the colors, which trace different temperatures and densities of solar plasma, researchers can learn more about the dynamics of filaments—and maybe one day to predict when they will erupt.

RUPTING MAGNETIC FILAMENT: A filament of magnetism connecting sunspots AR1538 and AR1540 rose up and erupted on August 4th. Look for the extreme UV glow of hot plasma in this movie recorded by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

As the filament ripped through the sun’s atmosphere, it propelled a massive CME into space: movie. The expanding cloud does not appear to be on a collision course with Earth, although a glancing blow might be possible 2 to 3 days hence. Stay tuned for further analysis.

A coronal mass ejection (CME) blasted away from the sun this morning with rare speed: 2930 km/s or 6.5 million mph. CMEs moving this fast occur only once every ~5 to 10 years. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded the cloud’s emergence on July 23rd starting around 0300 UT

(Source: spaceweather.com)

ALMOST X-FLARE : Sunspot complex AR1520-1521 erupted again on July 19th, this time producing an M7-class solar flare that almost crossed the threshold into X-territory. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash.

(Source: spaceweather.com)

gifmovie:

Universe!

According to a forecast track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the CME will hit Earth on July 14th around 10:20 UT (+/- 7 hours) and could spark strong geomagnetic storms. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras this weekend.

Sunspot AR1520 unleashed an X1.4-class solar flare on July 12th. Because the sunspot is directly facing Earth, everything about the blast was geoeffective. For one thing, it hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) directly toward our planet. According to a forecast track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the CME will hit Earth on July 14th around 10:20 UT (+/- 7 hours) and could spark strong geomagnetic storms. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras this weekend.

The explosion also strobed Earth with a pulse of extreme UV radiation, shown here in a movie recorded by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory: The UV pulse partially ionized Earth’s upper atmosphere, disturbing the normal propagation of radio signals around the planet. Monitoring stations in Norway, Ireland and Italy recorded the sudden ionospheric disturbance. Finally, solar protons accelerated by the blast are swarming around Earth.

The radiation storm, in progress, ranks “S1” on NOAA space weather scales, which means it poses no serious threat to satellites or astronauts. This could change if the storm continues to intensify. Stay tuned.

The Coronal Mass Ejection associated with this X1-class flare is of Type O and traveling at approx. 1,400 km/s. While it is Earth directed, no major impact is expected. 

This image combines two sets of observations of the sun at 10:45 AM EDT, July 12, 2012 from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to give an impression of what the sun looked like shortly before it unleashed an X-class flare beginning at 12:11 PM EDT. 

The image incorporates light in the 171 Angstrom wavelength, which shows off giant loops of solar material overlying the middle of the sun over Active Region 1520 where the flare originated. 

The second set of observations is called a magnetogram, which highlights magnetic fields on the sun. Together these kinds of observations can help scientists understand the magnetic properties of the sun that lead to giant explosions like flares. 

Credit: NASA SDO

During the late hours of July 8th, a series of rapid-fire explosions on the sun propelled three coronal mass ejections into space. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded their exit.

Despite the number of eruptions and the breadth of the billowing ejecta, Earth is little affected. All of the clouds appear set to miss our planet. Nevertheless, this flurry of CMEs highlights the currently-high level of solar activity. It is only a matter of time before a significant CME comes our way.