This prominence from the Sun is approximately 158,000 km high. Credit: Monty Leventhal, OAM
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Just in time for Halloween, the Sun has been putting on some spectacular shows recently, including this ghostly-looking prominence captured by amateur astronomer Monty Leventhal from Australia. He estimates this giant pillar shot up over 158,000 km (98,000 miles) from the Sun’s surface! Monty took the image on October 26, 2011 using a Meade SC 10 inch telescope, with a Hydrogen Alpha filter and a Canon 300D camera.
Monty Leventhal is a noted amateur astronomer in Australia and his work has been recognized with several awards including a medal in the General Division of the Order of Australia, “For service to science through volunteer roles at the Sydney Observatory,” and also the Steavensen Award from the British Astronomical Association for his careful and conscientious observations of the Sun for almost two decades. Congratulations to Monty and we thank him for sharing his observations with Universe Today.
This video created with data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory is just absolutely and astoundingly beautiful, showing magnetic loops on the Sun earlier today (October 22, 2011). Via @TheSunToday Twitter feed, just watch how the magnetic loops jump, shimmer and coil back into the Sun, following a long duration M1 flare at about 1100 UTC.
This beautiful time-lapse video was created by photographer Joe Capra during his 17-day solo trek around Iceland in June 2011. A “photographer’s paradise”, summer in Iceland never gets fully dark as the Sun sets around midnight and rises three hours later. The stars don’t even reappear until August!
While you can’t exactly call Joe Brimacombe an amateur astrophotographer, he’s managed to capture an elusive solar event on film… a coronal mass ejection!
A huge, conical-shaped magnetic prominence had been lingering for days and calling attention to itself. On the morning of October 13, 2011 – it delivered.
According to SpaceWeather, much of the prominence fell back to the solar surface, but some of the structure did fly into space, producing a coronal mass ejection. SOHO coronagraphs of the CME show that it is propagating up and out of the plane of the solar system and chances are good that no planet will be hit by the expanding cloud.
But that’s professional instruments! Imagine the excitement between 0200 and 0345 UT at Coral Towers Observatory when Joe was using either a Takahashi Sky 90 or Astrophysics 130 telescope to capture the action! Both telescopes operate at a focal ratio of F/5 and he was using a Coronado Solar Filter and various Skynyx cameras.
Doing what space telescopes do!
Many thanks to Joe Brimacombe for sharing his work – and passion – with us!
Compare the size of Eath to a prominence on the Sun on October 10, 2011. Credit: Ron Cottrell
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The Sun is big. And comparatively, Earth is a tiny Lilliputian. We’ve all seen images comparing the size of Earth to the Sun, but here are two images from October 10, 2011 that really bring home the size-scale of features on the Sun when compared to the size of Earth. Amateur astronomer Ron Cottrell from Oro Valley, Arizona took these images of two different features on the the Sun yesterday, overlaying the size of the Earth for reference. Both are viewed in Hydrogen- Alpha light, and the first is a fiery-looking huge prominence from the northwest limb of the Sun. Yikes!
Below, see a comparison of Earth to a current sunspot:
The Earth compared to Sunspot 1312 on 10-10-11. Credit: Ron Cottrell.
This is sunspot 1312 which has a classic sunspot shape with a core a that’s larger than the Earth.
Ron used a 40mm Coronado telescope and a webcam to capture the images. He explains the colors of the Sun in Hydrogen-Alpha, and in particular why the prominence appears fiery red:
“The red color of the prominence is very close to the color collected in the image. The yellow disk is enhanced. I actually capture the disk image in black and white and add the color. I can choose any color. The final image is a composite of two separate images. Prominences are, in general, much fainter than the bright disk. Therefore, the prominence image is captured at a slower shutter speed, e.g. 1/25 sec, compared to the disk image captured at 1/100 sec. The two images are combined in PhotoShop.”
And speaking of the Sun, activity on our closest star has been ramping up and last week a series of active regions were lined up one after the other across the upper half of the Sun. Interestingly, the Solar Dynamics Observatory was able to capture how these regions twisted and interacted with each other. The video shows activity from Sept. 28 – Oct. 2, 2011, as seen in extreme UV light. The magnetically intense active regions sported coils of arcing loops and numerous times these magnetic field lines above them can be seen connecting with the active region next door. Towards the end of the clip, a leading active region blasted out a coronal mass ejection, quickly succeeded by a blast from another active region. The disruption of the magnetic field from one likely triggered the second, a phenomenon that has been observed before by SDO.
This amazing video from the SOHO mission (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) shows a sun-diving comet hitting the solar surface on October 1, 2011 and unexpectedly a huge explosion occurs shortly after. Are the two events related? Probably not, but solar scientists don’t know for sure. The region where the CME originated was on the opposite side of the Sun from the comet hit, so that is very great distance. Scientists say there is no known mechanism for comets to trigger a CME.
SpaceWeather.com reports that before 2011 most solar physicists would have discounted these two events as being related, but earlier this year, the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) watched another sungrazer comet disintegrate in the Sun’s atmosphere, and it appeared to interact with plasma and magnetic fields in its surroundings as it fell apart. Could a puny comet cause a magnetic instability that might propagate and blossom into a impressive CME? Most likely this is just a coincidence, but this is definitely an event in which solar scientists are taking a closer look. The comet, named SOHO-2143, was just discovered on Sept. 30 by an amateur astronomer.
Sun Set with the Massive Sun Spot 1302 (Upper left on the Sun) Credit: Adrian Scott
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A highly active region on the Sun threatens to deliver powerful geomagnetic storms over the week ahead. Highly energetic solar eruptions are likely heading in our direction to give Earth’s magnetic field a significant glancing blow!
Over the past few days the new sunspot AR1302 has been incredibly active, hurling massive X-class solar flares into space and it will soon face Earth.
The massive sunspot, many times larger than the Earth (see images below) is expected to increase in size and energy, and is expected to release powerful solar flares, sparking strong geomagnetic storms.
Sun Spot AR1302 through the clouds Credit: Tavi Greiner
What does this mean for the Earth and it inhabitants?
The Earth experiences material ejected from the Sun on a daily basis and we are protected by the Earth’s own magnetic field. This is normal and has been happening since the birth of the solar system. But occasionally the Sun erupts and sends vast quantities of solar material our direction in the form of Coronal Mass Ejections (CME’s).
This can trigger very powerful geomagnetic storms, which can damage satellites in orbit and cause problems for communications and power networks. One positive outcome, though, is amazing displays of aurorae at the poles (Northern and Southern Lights).
Sunspot 1302 is expected to eject material towards Earth over the next few days, so look for news of strong geomagnetic activity and displays of aurorae.
Several observers are reporting that AR1302 is easily visible on the Sun at sunset or sunrise. Never ever look at the sun with your eyes, or any other optical aid! This will damage your eyesight permanently! The Sun should only be viewed using specialist equipment.
It’s eclipse season for the Solar Dynamics Observatory! Twice a year near each equinox, the orbital dynamics lines up so that from SDO’s vantage point, the Earth passes between SDO and the Sun. Eclipse season lasts for about three weeks and each eclipse can last up to 72 minutes in the middle of an eclipse season. This current eclipse season started on September 11 and lasts until October 4. There’s no way to avoid the loss of images, the SDO team says, but the continuous contact with the ground station SDO’s orbit allows was judged to outweigh the loss of some images.
A digital filtergram shows a type 4B Flare with an X-ray class of X-2 in active region 1283 on Sept. 6, 2011. Credit: Monty Leventha
The Sun sent two flares yesterday from active region 1283. This video shows the second flare, at 6:12 p.m. EDT (2212 GMT) on Tuesday an even bigger flare than the M-class flare from early on Sept. 6, at about 0150 GMT. This was an X-class flare, major events that can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms. The latest update says the CMEs could sail north of Earth, delivering a glancing blow to Earth’s magnetic field, and could arrive between September 8 -10. Spaceweather.com says high-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras in the nights ahead.
The image below was sent in to Universe Today by Monty Leventhal showing the type 4B Flare with an X-ray class of X-2 in active region 1283.
Stanford researchers have found a way to detect sunspots such as these two days before they reach the surface of the Sun. Image Credit: Thomas Hartlep
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For solar enthusiasts, we’re all quite aware of sunspots and their implications. Able to disrupt power grids, shut down satellite communications and pose hazards to astronauts, these “cool” customers are revealing themselves ahead of their surface appearance. Thanks to the Michelson Doppler Imager aboard NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory satellite, known as SOHO, researchers were able to take 15 years of “sound” data from our nearest star… and develop a new technique for detecting sunspots before they emerge.
By combining information with NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite, which carries the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager, scientists have discovered a new method for detecting sunspots as deep as 65,000 kilometers below the solar surface. The areas of intense magnetic fields produce acoustic waves from the turbulence of plasma and gases. Near the surface, a convection cell echoes the information which travels back to the solar interior – only to be refracted again. By comparing their findings to seismic waves studied here on Earth, researchers measure the waves between points to predict anomalies.
Detection of Emerging Sunspot Regions – 18 August 2011: Movie showing the detected travel-time perturbations before the emergence of active region 10488 in the photosphere. The first 10 seconds of the movie show intensity observations of the Sun. The intensity later fades out and the photospheric magnetic field is shown. In the next 20 seconds, we zoom in to a region where a sunspot group would emerge. The upper layer shows magnetic field observations at the surface and the lower layer shows simultaneous travel-time perturbations, detected at a depth of about 60,000 km. After the emergence, intensity observations show the full development of this active region, until it rotates out of view on the west solar limb. (movie made by Thomas Hartlep) Courtesy of the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager.
“We know enough about the structure of the Sun that we can predict the travel path and travel time of an acoustic wave as it propagates through the interior of the Sun,” said Junwei Zhao, a senior research scientist at Stanford’s Hansen Experimental Physics Lab. “Travel times get perturbed if there are magnetic fields located along the wave’s travel path.”
By comparing and measuring millions of pairs and points, researchers are able to pinpoint areas where sunspots are likely to happen. What they have discovered is larger spots rise to the surface faster than smaller ones… a prediction which can be made in approximately 24 hours. For less ominous appearances, lead times increase to up to two days.
“Researchers have suspected for a long time that sunspot regions are generated in the deep solar interior, but until now the emergence of these regions through the convection zone to the surface had gone undetected,” Ilonidis said. “We have now successfully detected them four times and tracked them moving upward at speeds between 1,000 and 2,000 kilometers per hour.”
The ultimate goal is to improve space weather forecasting. If events can be predicted three days prior, advance notice can be given and proper precautions taken.
