As you may know, our Sun follows a relatively predictable 11-year cycle of solar activity. During the solar minimum, there’s very little activity, and only a handful of sunspots. During the solar maximum, there can be frequent and powerful coronal mass ejections and X-ray flares.
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See the Sun, In Thrilling 3-D!
NASA’s newest solar observatories have released their first images of the Sun, and they’re great. Of course, to really enjoy the pictures, you’ll need 3-D glasses.
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Podcast: The Sun, Spots and All
It’s Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and that means the Sun is back. But it’s more than just a free heat lamp for your garden, it’s an incredible, dynamic nuclear reaction complete with flares, coronal mass ejections, twisting magnetic fields and the solar wind. Put in your headphones, head outside and enjoy the sunshine while you listen to this week’s podcast.
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Hinode’s Amazing New Images of the Sun’s Surface
NASA released some absolutely amazing new images of the surface of the Sun today, taken by the Japanese Hinode spacecraft. Just look at the attached image with this story, and you’ll get a sense of why astronomers think this spacecraft will do for solar astronomy what Hubble has done for the visual spectrum.
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Ulysses Sees a Surprise at the Sun’s South Pole
Our Sun is very close to the calmest point of its 11-year cycle of activity, what scientists call the “Solar Minimum”. But that doesn’t mean it’s totally quiet. In mid-December, NASA/ESA’s Ulysses spacecraft encountered a torrent of particles bursting from the Sun’s southern pole.
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First Images of the Sun from STEREO
Remember the recent launch of the STEREO spacecraft? These are two identical solar observing spacecraft which will give astronomers a thrilling 3-D view of the Sun. Officially, they’re the Solar TerrEstrial RElations Observatories (STEREO… get it?), and they were lofted into orbit on October 25.
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Early Images of the Sun From Hinode
The recently launched Japanese Hinode spacecraft is turning in some amazing new photographs of the Sun as part of its checkout phase.
Last Weekend’s Auroras… From Space
Of course, as usual, we had rain here on Vancouver Island, Canada in December. But large portions of the Northern Hemisphere were treated to quite the sky show over the weekend – beautiful auroras stretched across the skies. All thanks to a powerful flurry of solar flares unleashed from the Sun last week.
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Mercury’s Transit Captured by Hinode
The Japanese solar observing spacecraft Hinode captured this photograph of Mercury’s transit this week. Hinode, formerly known as Solar B, is currently in its shakedown period, where controllers ensure that each of its scientific instruments are working. But they couldn’t pass up this opportunity, so they pointed the spacecraft at the Sun, and watched the entire transit. Hinode should resume its normal science operations next month.
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Photos of Mercury’s Transit
I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t able to watch the Mercury transit directly. Fortunately, our hardworking friends in the Bad Astronomy/Universe Today Forum were outside with telescopes and cameras rolling. There are some still photographs, some mosaics of the transit, and some movies.
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