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"Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler", Albert Einstein
Browsing All posts tagged under »Sun«
Let’s Measure the Diameter of the Sun!
You can measure the diameter of the sun from your own backyard! You’ll just need a few simple tools and a little clever math. A really long tape measure is NOT required! As always, NEVER look directly at the sun!!! As an added challenge, can you prove that the formula used to determine the diameter […]
Van Gogh Sun
July 20, 2012
A crucial, and often underappreciated, facet of science lies in deciding how to turn the raw numbers of data into useful, understandable information — often through graphs and images. Such visualization techniques are needed for everything from making a map of planetary orbits based on nightly measurements of where they are in the sky to […]
The ‘monster’ sunspot AR 1476
May 9, 2012
Heat is on: ‘Monster’ sunspot could put Earth in the crosshairs of powerful solar storms It could result in a gigantic coronal mass ejection, which would blast the Earth with radiation and possibly knock-out power lines and disrupt satellites… Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk http://youtu.be/kP-dwbXgLsc
A Big Blast
April 16, 2012
A beautiful prominence eruption producing a coronal mass ejection (CME) shot off the east limb (left side) of the sun on April 16, 2012. Such eruptions are often associated with solar flares, and in this case an M1 class (medium-sized) flare occurred at the same time, peaking at 1:45 PM EDT. The CME was not […]
Mysteries of the Sun . . . Explained in Video
April 7, 2012
NASA has just released five new videos called “Mysteries of the Sun”. The videos describe the science of the sun and its effects on the solar system and Earth. Scientists study the sun not only to better understand the orb that influences life, but also to study how it sends solar material out into space, […]
Plasma Indirection
March 29, 2012
The Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a spectacular rotation of material in a solar prominence, which created a massive tornado-like feature on the Sun, five times bigger than the Earth. “This is perhaps the first time that such a huge solar tornado is filmed by an imager,” said Dr. Xing Li of Aberystwyth University, presenting his […]
Solar Storm Dumps Gigawatts into Earth’s Upper Atmosphere
March 24, 2012
http://youtu.be/t2Biv2YAE6Y Earth’s atmosphere lights up at infrared wavelengths during the solar storms of March 8-10, 2012. This ScienceCast video explains the physics of this phenomenon. A recent flurry of eruptions on the sun did more than spark pretty auroras around the poles. NASA-funded researchers say the solar storms of March 8th through 10th dumped enough […]
Sunspots and Solar Flares
March 20, 2012
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured this image of an M7.9 class flare on March 13, 2012 at 1:29 p.m. EDT. It is shown here in the 131 Angstrom wavelength, a wavelength particularly good for seeing solar flares and a wavelength that is typically colorized in teal. The flare peaked at 1:41 p.m. EDT. It […]
Active Region on the Sun Spits Out Three Flares
March 5, 2012
On March 2, 2012 a new active region on the sun, region 1429, rotated into view. It has let loose two M-class flares and one X-class so far. The M-class flares erupted on March 2 and on March 4. The third flare, rated an X1, peaked at 10:30 ET on March 4. A CME accompanied […]
The Sun As Art
February 10, 2012
A new interactive NASA art exhibit opens February 9 at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore that will showcase stunning images of the sun. Called “Sun As Art,” the collection consists of 20 full-color, high-resolution images of the star with which we live. Some of the pieces stand alone, beautiful images that hold true to […]
Large X-class Flare Erupts on the Sun
February 7, 2012
On Jan. 27, 2012, a large X-class flare erupted from an active region near the solar west limb. X-class flares are the most powerful of all solar events. Seen here is an image of the flare captured by the X-ray telescope on Hinode. This image shows an emission from plasma heated to greater than eight […]
Was The Sun Born In A Massive Cluster?
November 17, 2011
Donald Dukes, Mark R. Krumholz A number of authors have argued that the Sun must have been born in a cluster of no more than about 1000 stars, on the basis that, in a larger cluster, close encounters between the Sun and other stars would have truncated the outer Solar System or excited the outer […]
A 360 Degree View of an X-class Flare and A CME
November 6, 2011
The sun sent out two different kinds of solar activity last night in different directions. One was an X 1.9 class flare that burst out from an active region on the sun, numbered AR1339, which just rounded over the left side of the sun into Earth’s view. That flare began at 3:27 PM ET on […]
Measuring elusive neutrinos flowing through the Earth, physicists learn more about the sun
October 7, 2011
Using one of the most sensitive neutrino detectors on the planet, an international team including physicists Laura Cadonati and Andrea Pocar at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are now measuring the flow of solar neutrinos reaching earth more precisely than ever before. The detector probes matter at the most fundamental level and provides a powerful […]
Europe to lead daring Sun mission
October 5, 2011
Europe is to lead the most ambitious space mission ever undertaken to study the behaviour of the Sun. Known as Solar Orbiter, the probe will have to operate a mere 42 million km from our star – closer than any spacecraft to date. The mission proposal was formally adopted by European Space Agency (Esa) member […]
Sun puts relativity to the test
September 13, 2011
Alternatives to Einstein’s general theory of relativity can be investigated by studying the Sun. That is the claim of a group of physicists in Portugal who have found that a variation of a theory put forward nearly a century ago by Arthur Eddington is constrained but not ruled out by observations of solar neutrinos and […]
Solar Interior May Reveal Modifications to Gravity
September 6, 2011
We know lots about gravity in a vacuum but very little about gravity inside extremely massive objects. But astrophysicists say the Sun could reveal all Einstein’s theory of general relativity is one of the cornerstones of modern physics. As such, it is unquestionably a towering achievement. And yet it also raises uncomfortable questions for physicists. The […]
Solstice Flare και CME
June 21, 2011
Late in the evening on June 20 the sun emitted a long lasting C7.7 class flare that peaked around 11:25p.m. EDT. A C-class flare is a relatively small flare. The flare was associated with a coronal mass ejection that bloomed off the sun at 11:09p.m. EDT (0412 UT). The movie shown above was captured by […]
STEREO Sees Complete Far Side
June 11, 2011
The far side unveiled! This is the first complete image of the solar far side, the half of the sun invisible from Earth. Captured on June 1, 2011, the composite image was assembled from NASA’s two Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft. STEREO-Ahead’s data is shown on the left half of image and STEREO-Behind’s data […]
April 19, 2013
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