Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known
Founder: Joseph Barone
Contributors: crookedindifference, bumerangue, propagandery, rocketmagic, rostenbach
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
What the hell is happening on the Sun?
In less than 24 hours, the Sun has unleashed a trio of X-Class solar flares. They are the first, second and third X-class eruptions of 2013, making them the most powerful of the year by a substantial margin. What’s more, each burst has been more violent than the last. So uhh… what the hell is going on here?
It’s official: the Sun is the most perfect natural sphere ever measured
The Earth is not round, but the Sun — contrary to long-standing scientific belief — is a different story.
To be clear: the Earth certainly isn’t flat, but it’s definitely not a perfect sphere. Technically speaking, it’s an oblate spheroid — a sphere that’s been squashed, such that the distance from Earth’s center to sea level is about 13 miles greater at the equator than at its poles. Earth isn’t really smooth, either; in actuality, it’s kind of bumpy.
Celts: Freyr
According to Norse mythology, Freyr was closely linked with the Sun. He was the god of peace and fertility. His parents were the sea god Njord and the giantess Skadi. On a journey to the underworld, he saw and fell in love with the giantess Gerd.
He sent his servant, Skirnir, on a journey to convince Gerd to marry him. He also gave him a magic sword to use. Skirnir, however, could not convince Gerd to marry his master. It wasn’t until he threatened her with the magic sword that Gerd agreed to meet Freyr in a grove of trees to become his bride.
Skirnir’s journey into the underworld is symbolic of the winter months in the Norse lands, where there are long periods of darkness.
* Solar Folklore
For centuries, humans have attempted to explain the Sun in terms of their own worldviews. The Sun can be a god, a demon, a mischievous spirit, an omnipotent creator or a ruthless taker of life. Whatever role it plays, most cultures have recognized the significance of the Sun as prime controller of all life on Earth.
As you read these, remember they were not stories created to entertain, nor were they written for children. These myths, legends and accounts represent their culture’s worldview, a peoples’ attempt to explain, understand, and come to grips with nature’s phenomena. To the people who tell them, these reports are as relevant and true, as deeply meaningful and spiritually important, as any scientific explanations.
Source: NASA SDO Facebook page.
People of ancient civilization all around the world have gazed up to the heavens and wondered at the Sun and the stars as they wheeled across their vision. Many referred to the Sun as a male, others as a female. To some it is an “it”. What it is to you? Mother Sun, Father Sun or even something else?
In Greek mythology, Apollo was the son of Zeus (Jupiter) and Leto (Letona). He was the twin brother of the goddess Artemis. He was the god of the Sun, logic, and reason, and was also a fine musician and healer.
Leto travelled all over Greece to find a place to give birth to Apollo. She finally came upon an island named Delos. The island agreed to allow the birth of Apollo if he in turn founded a temple on the island. Leto agreed, and when Apollo grew up, he changed Delos into a beautiful island.
Apollo was known as the god who could foretell the future. His most famous sacred place was at Delphi, site of the Oracle of Delphi.
Source: NASA SDO Facebook page.
Yesterday’s X7 solar flare is the largest in this solar cycle and created a beautiful proton event, which might cause some satellite communication disruptions.
This image is taken at 133 angstroms and shows ~10 million and ~16 millionº C. upper corona.
Credit: NASA SDO
Comparision between our Moon, neighbour planets and VY Canis Major - the largest known star.
Source: @spacefuture
Around 0200 UT on July 30, 2011 a fairly powerful, but brief M9-class solar flare erupted from active region 1261. It has been the strongest flare in the last few weeks.
Credit: NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Years After Crash Landing in 2004, NASA’s Genesis Reveals Data About Solar Chemistry
Back in 2001, NASA launched a mission named Genesis toward the sun to collect solar particles streaming from our star and return them to Earth. Genesis arrived back on Earth right on time in 2004, but all didn’t go according to plan. When Genesis’s parachute failed, the spacecraft crash landed in Utah, spilling it’s contents across the ground. But seven years later scientists are still picking up the pieces, and making big discoveries as they continue to sift through the wreckage.
Dennis Simmons captured the International Space Station on June 24 going across the solar disk. It takes about a blink of the eye at over 17,000 mph.
Credit: Dennis Simmon / Spaceweather.com
Earth is inside a solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole. This image comes from the Solar Dynamic Observatory in 193 angstrom.
A high-speed solar wind stream is currently impacting the Earth’s magnetic field. The mixture of the high-speed stream and CME that erupted from solar corona on June 21 is expected to keep the geomagnetic activity level elevated. Auroral displays are possible at high-latitude locations.
Credit: NASA SDO
Awesome comparision
In the picture above, where do you think our Sun stands, beside all this other stars - all depicted here in perspective?
Our Sun is on the very far left.
VY Canis Major, the largest known star (a red hypergiant star located in the constellation Canis Major), is to the very right. VY Canis Major is a giant; between 1800 and 2100 solar radii (approx 2.7 billion km across or 1.7 billion miles) and is about 4,900 light years away from Earth. What would a small eruption look like there?
Source: NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory
NASA’S Solar Dynamics Observatory Detects Superfast Solar Waves Moving at 2,000 KM per second.
Scientists using the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument on board NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), have detected quasi-periodic waves in the low solar corona that travel at speeds as high as 2,000 kilometers per second (4.5 million miles per hour). These observations provide, for the first time, unambiguous evidence of propagating fast mode magnetosonic waves at such high speeds in the Sun’s low atmosphere. Dr. Wei Liu, a Stanford University Research Associate at the Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL) at the company’s Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in Palo Alto, presented the findings Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society, in Las Cruces, N.M. A paper detailing the discovery has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
What’s down with the Sun? Major drop in solar activity predicted
A missing jet stream, fading spots, and slower activity near the poles say that our Sun is heading for a rest period even as it is acting up for the first time in years, according to scientists at the National Solar Observatory (NSO) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)
As the current sunspot cycle, Cycle 24, begins to ramp up toward maximum, independent studies of the solar interior, visible surface, and the corona indicate that the next 11-year solar sunspot cycle, Cycle 25, will be greatly reduced or may not happen at all.
The results were announced at the annual meeting of the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society, which is being held this week at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.
