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Solar flares make CBC radio 2 reception crappy. Completely a first world problem, but I really do like clear reception when Radio2 isn’t playing crap. Not to worry too much though, apparently the storm will not wipe our earth slate clean:
“A solar storm that began with a massive flare on the sun’s surface Thursday is due to slam into Earth’s magnetic field Saturday morning and last through Sunday.Scientists said it will be a minor event, and they have notified power grid operators, airlines and other potentially affected parties.”
Stay Calm, Carry On. But…
“The storm began Thursday when the sun unleashed a massive flare that hurled a cloud of highly charged particles racing toward Earth at 4.8 million kilometres per hour. It was the sixth time this year that such a powerful solar outburst has occurred. None of the previous storms caused major problems.
In severe cases, solar storms can cause power blackouts, damage satellites and disrupt GPS signals and high-frequency radio communications. Airlines are sometimes forced to reroute flights to avoid the extra radiation around the north and south poles.”
So out technological butts could be smacked around a bit, but nothing to serious. Let’s hope they are correct. :)
Astronomy is another passion of mine. Enjoy this short clip on the fate of our Sun and similar stars.
It is one of those lifetime events, as Venus rarely crosses the plane of our orbit while in front of the sun.
“Our nearest planetary neighbour will be passing between the Earth and the sun starting at 6:04 p.m. ET on June 5 and will be aligned in such a way that its passage will be visible with the naked eye. The transit, as it’s known, will last about six hours, but in most parts of Canada, it will be visible for only a few hours before sunset.”
That doesn’t happen very often because most of the time when Venus crosses Earth’s orbital plane, Earth is somewhere else in its orbit, so there is no direct sight line from Earth to Venus and the Sun
“Earth orbits the sun slower than Venus. If they both orbited in the same plane, like runners running around a track, then every time Venus ‘lapped’ Earth, there would be a transit,” Reid said.
“However, Venus’s orbit is ’tilted’ relative to Earth’s orbit, so the only way Venus and Earth can line up with the sun is if Venus laps Earth exactly when Venus happens to be passing through the plane of Earth’s orbit.
“That only occurs at two points in Venus’s orbit (the two points where the ring of Venus’s orbit ‘punctures’ Earth’s orbit). The odds of Venus happening to be at one of those two points when it ‘laps’ Earth are small.”
As with the annular eclipse that dazzled millions of people around the world on May 20, the key to viewing the transit of Venus safely is to avoid looking directly at the sun without a protected lens. Sunglasses or ordinary telescope lenses are not enough to protect the eyes.
To be safe, lenses must be treated with something like an aluminized film like Mylar or have a strong filter such as the type found on some welder’s glasses. The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada lists a number of safe lens options in a special section of its website devoted to the transit.
Whatever viewing method you choose, the key, says Reid, is to not miss what will be your last chance to see Venus in transit.
“It will not occur again until 2117, so it’s worth trying to see it,” Reid said.
Astronomy is fantastic when done correctly and edited to make it all bright and shiny. :)
“First of all, a supernova is an exploding star — one of the most violent events in the Universe. There are different kinds of supernovae, but a Type Ia occurs, it’s thought, when a superdense white dwarf — the remnant core of a dead star — siphons material off a companion star. If enough material piles on top of the white dwarf, it can suddenly start to fuse hydrogen into helium. This starts a runaway effect, and the entire star explodes. This supernova can release so much energy it can actually outshine its host galaxy! If you want more details, I’ve written about Type Ia supernovae before: Astronomers spot ticking supernova time bomb and Dwarf merging makes for an explosive combo.
So this kind of supernova is incredibly bright, making them easy to spot over vast distances. These events are very important, because we think that each Type Ia supernova is very similar in the way it explodes, making them useful as benchmarks in gauging distances to very distant galaxies. In fact, it is the study of these explosions that has helped us nail down how fast the Universe is expanding, and also led to the discovery of dark energy. Clearly, the more we know about them, the better.”
No surprises here, just a nice video of the birth and eventual death of our star.
Sleep, like being coherent, is for the weak. Prepare people, we get two celestial events instead of one today.
“This year’s winter solstice on Tuesday will fall on the same day as a full lunar eclipse for the first time in 456 years. The rare, 72-minute lunar eclipse — when the sun, the Earth and the moon align — will begin in the early morning hours on Dec. 21 in North America, and should cast an amber glow on snowy landscapes, said NASA.”
Well, it is nice when we finally reach the nadir of the bleak midwinter, AND we get to see a full lunar eclipse to boot.
“Tuesday marks the first day of winter in the northern hemisphere, and the winter solstice begins in the evening at 6:38 p.m. ET, which is 8:08 p.m. NT, 7:38 p.m. AT, 5:38 p.m. CT, 4:38 p.m. MT, and 3:38 p.m. PT.
Scientists said the last time a full lunar eclipse coincided with the winter solstice was in AD 1554. NASA forecasts that at 1:33 a.m. ET on Tuesday, “Earth’s shadow will appear as a dark red bite at the edge of the lunar disk.”
After roughly an hour, that “bite” will eventually grow to cover the whole moon. That stage, known as “totality,” will probably start at 2:41 a.m. ET and last 72 minutes.
As for the best time to witness the cosmic event, NASA suggests being outside at 3:17a.m., “when the moon will be in deepest shadow, displaying the most fantastic shades of coppery red.”
So, if sleep is not in the cards on Tuesday night, your plans have already been made.
Remember 3:17am is optimal viewing time.
We are not alone in our galaxy. We have a visitor. By the name of HIP 13044 b? Leave it to science to find a really poetic name.
“Astronomers say they’ve found the first known planet to orbit a star that began its life outside our own Milky Way galaxy. In the last 15 years, almost 500 planets have been detected orbiting stars in our galaxy. But until now, no planet has been discovered that came from another galaxy.The discovery of a giant planet around the star HIP 13044 changes all that, a team of astronomers claims.”
“Because of the great distances involved, there are no confirmed detections of planets in other galaxies,” he said in a statement. “But this cosmic merger has brought an extragalactic planet within our reach.”
The planet — named HIP 13044 b — lies about 2,000 light years from Earth in the southern constellation of Fornax. Its mass is at least 1.25 times that of Jupiter’s and takes only 16.2 days to complete an orbit.
It was discovered by looking for the tiny wobbles produced when an orbiting object creates a pull on a star’s gravity. Astronomers used a high-resolution spectrograph attached to the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.
Way to go astronomers. I’m looking forward to more news on our first exoplanet discovery.
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