space weather

Close Encounters: Comet Ison

Desert Gypsy's picture

Submitted by Desert Gypsy on

Waking Times-10/20/13, Julie Umpleby

Flickr - Comet Ison - UCL Mathematical and Physical Sciences

The space-weather community is abuzz with Comet Ison, dubbed by many as ‘The Comet of the Century’.  As it travels deeper into our solar system en route to a close encounter with our sun later in November there are many watching with intense interest.

As some spectacular images of this significantly sized comet emerge (the comet nucleus is estimated to be anywhere between 0.5km – 4km in diameter), we would be wise to bear in mind the electrical nature of comets and the potential implications of its encounter with the sun. Far from being huge chunks of ice, comets are in fact more like asteroids and are highly electrically charged, with the nucleus acting as a charge capacitor. This often very high electric charge interferes with the plasma sheath of the sun, most often resulting in an outburst of plasma from the solar surface, a Coronal Mass Ejection.

Mammatus Clouds: An Intriguing Enigma

Desert Gypsy's picture

Submitted by Desert Gypsy on

Spaceweather.com, 7/24/13

MAMMATUS OVER MICHIGAN: July 22, 2013, Laura Tappy.

Named for their resemblance to a cow's underbelly, mammatus clouds sometimes appear at the end of severe thunderstorms when the thundercloud is breaking up. Researchers have called them an "intriguing enigma," because no one knows exactly how and why they form. The clouds are fairly common but often go unnoticed because potential observers have been chased indoors by the rain. If you are one of them, go back outside when the downpour stops; you could witness a beautiful mystery in the sky.

Read More

 

NASA finds particle accelerator in solar winds

Rain's picture

Submitted by Rain on

Source: The Extinction Protocol - 3/10/13

March 10, 2013 – SPACE - The solar wind is a hot and fast flow of magnetized gas that streams away from the sun’s upper atmosphere. It is made of hydrogen and helium ions with a sprinkling of heavier elements. Researchers liken it to the steam from a pot of water boiling on a stove; the sun is literally boiling itself away. “But,” says Adam Szabo of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, “solar wind does something that steam in your kitchen never does. As steam rises from a pot, it slows and cools. As solar wind leaves the sun, it accelerates, tripling in speed as it passes through the corona. Furthermore, something inside the solar wind continues to add heat even as it blows into the cold of space.” Finding that “something” has been a goal of researchers for decades. 

 

What’s Up for March 2013: Comets and Other Phenomena

Desert Gypsy's picture

Submitted by Desert Gypsy on

The Watchers-2/26/13, Chilimanjaro

 

The first of the year's two potential bright comets is visible for those who can see low on the western horizon and find out which spacecraft is on a 10-yr mission to catch up with another comet.

 

 

The first of this year’s two potential bright comets is visible for those who can see low on the western horizon and find out which spacecraft is on a 10-year mission to catch up with another comet. - See more at: http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2013/02/28/whats-up-for-march-2013/#sthash.ZHg49oLj.dpuf

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - space weather