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Solar Flare, CME and Tsunami Generated by a “Blank Sun”

Even during solar minimum, the Sun can be surprisingly dynamic. We are currently observing a sunspot-less solar disk, but on Saturday the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) observed a noteworthy X-ray flare. It was a B3.8 flare, producing a coronal mass ejection (CME), sending vast quantities of hot plasma into interplanetary space. Admittedly, it is strange to witness CMEs of this size at this time in the solar cycle, but what is even weirder is that the flare was produced by a region devoid of sunspot activity (see image). SOHO captured the CME event with its LASCO instrument and the two-probe Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) captured an incredible “solar tsunami” (or Sun Quake) as the flare caused the Sun’s surface to ripple. And all this without an intense magnetic field and sunspot pair…
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Daily Roundup: Jules Verne, Space Sports and Why we Shouldn’t Tamper with Sulphites

It’s been a busy day of article writing at the Universe Today with three articles:

ATV Jules Verne Boosts Space Station to Higher Orbit (Video)
Space Golf and Other Zero-G Sports on the ISS
Potential Global Warming “Fix” Will Damage the Ozone Layer

Also, my recent Soyuz Hard Landing article got picked up by Slashdot and appears to be getting a lot of attention. I hope to write a summary article about the “ballistic re-entry” of the Russian Soyuz descent module on astroengine.com soon, but for now, check it out on the Universe Today…

Cheers! Ian

2009, The International Year of Astronomy Trailer (Video)

In December 2007, the year 2009 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Astronomy. In a bid to increase the awareness of astronomy and our place in the Universe, 2009 will be a year to learn about astronomy as a science and gain a better personal understanding of what we know about the cosmos. Today they released a superb trailer advertising the occasion…
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Carnival of Space Week 51

Hello and welcome to the 51st edition of the Carnival of Space! My name is Ian O’Neill, UK solar physicist and writer for the Universe Today. I am honoured to be hosting the Carnival, so thank you Fraser for letting me loose on seven days-worth of excellent space related news from the growing blogosphere. Astroengine is my online home, delving into the inner workings of the cosmos, so it’s good to freshen the site up with news from a superb cross-section of space blogs.

There is a huge breadth of topics this week with no particular trend, but as Earth Day was on April 22nd, I’ll kick off with the some of the stories a little closer to home (and then end up somewhere in the proximity of the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago). As said by the great Yuri Gagarin, “I see Earth! It is so beautiful!” I begin with our Blue Planet…
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Aliens More Likely to Pick Up Our NEO Radar Transmissions than Radio

When you stop to think about it, sending transmissions via radio into space in the hope to contact aliens is a bit silly. The intention behind the 16 transmission we have directed into space is to a) make contact with extraterrestrials, b) advertise our presence in the cosmos, and c) tell ET something useful about mankind. We know we are leaking transmissions into space all the time (i.e. radio and TV), but we assume they don’t travel that far or are too weak for aliens to detect. But wait one second… We are constantly blasting radar into space, tracking near earth asteroids; will aliens pick up those transmissions? Well, these radar transmissions have covered 2000 times more sky than radio and last 500 times longer. And since the 1960’s we’ve sent 1400 radar transmissions into space. So, what’s the verdict? Aliens are one million times more likely to receive the tracking signal from NEO tracking radar than radar intended for aliens…
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Supermassive Black Hole Flare Lights Up Mysterious Molecular Torus

Theoretically, supermassive black holes that occupy the centre of galaxies (including our own) are surrounded by a vast cloud of gas. Depending on the angle you are viewing this molecular torus will obscure the supermassive black hole’s bright accretion disk. Until now, this vast doughnut of matter has never been observed, but with the help of the supermassive black hole accretion disk and a dying star, there’s a possibility that the molecular torus will not only be observed, but also mapped…
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What Happens When Two Galaxies Collide?

So what does happen? Will the stars crash into one another, sending out huge emissions of gamma radiation and gravitational waves? The effects of two galaxies meeting and colliding are actually a little more elegant than that – for starters, it’s most likely that none of the stars will meet due to the huge distances between star systems. Also, the merging of the systems will spark a huge campaign of star creation within the newly formed fertile gas clouds. So what will we see long after the galaxies have ripped each other apart? Simulations show huge arcs of tidally-formed dust and stars, looking strangely like the precursors to the galactic ghosts recently observed…
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Carnival of Space #50 @KySat

This week’s 50th edition of the Carnival of Space is hosted by Wayne Hall over at KySat in Kentucky. The Kentucky space science movement seems to be in full swing, culminating in the excellent KySat website. This week, we have stories ranging from rocket racing, monkeys in space (my personal favourite!), Saturn’s moon Titan and my contribution: “LHC Worries are Based on Fear of the Unknown, not Science“.

Superb space science reading from the entire space-science blogosphere, so go and check it out…

The Sinister Side of the Cosmos: Killer Galaxies, Cosmic Forensic Science and Deadly Radiation

It’s been a busy day with a range of topics posted on the Universe Today, but all have a common thread: the universe is a deadly place for man and galaxy. For starters, research into the radiation mankind will face when settling on Mars and the Moon could prove to be one of our main challenges in space. The threat of a massive dose of radiation from a solar flare is bad enough, but the gradual damage to our cells and increased risk of cancer is a problem we need to solve, or at least manage. But that’s nothing compared with what dwarf galaxies have to put up with; their larger spiral cousins like to eat them for dinner, leaving behind galactic ghosts of the dwarfs that were…
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Astronaut Photographers Take Stunning Pictures of Earth Too

We may have some of the best, high resolution robotic cameras looking down on Earth from orbit, but you can’t beat the human eye for choosing the right shot. This spectacular image is a view of Harrat Khaybar, about 140 kilometres to the northeast of the city of Medina, Saudi Arabia. Old volcanic calderas, deserts and ancient lava flows can be seen. This picture was taken by a member of NASA’s Expedition 16 crew on October 10th, 2007, but has only just been released as part of the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment. We pay so much attention studying the Martian landscape and peering into galactic cores, sometimes it’s nice to turn the lenses around and see the complex geology of Planet Earth. There’s a lot more pictures where this one came from…
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