Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




SOLAR SCIENCE
Spotlighting the sun
by Staff Writers
Washington DC (SPX) Oct 29, 2014


Taken with a cell phone through a 60mm Lunt Hydrogen Alpha Telescope, this image shows off sunspots, prominences and filaments. Image courtesy Rob Sparks, NOAO.

Astronomers with the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) captured pictures not only of Thursday's partial solar eclipse, but also of the "monster" sized active region or sun spot that has many comparing it to one of a similar size that occurred 11 years ago.

The sun spots were earlier reported by scientists with the NSF-supported National Solar Observatory. According to astronomers Frank Hill and Kiran Jain, "As of Oct 21, 2014, a very large active region is currently on the solar disk and producing flares as strong as an X1.

"Solar flares are classified according to their strength, and X-class flares are the biggest. It is eerily reminiscent of another very large active region, which appeared almost exactly 11 years ago around Halloween 2003 very close to the same location on the sun and produced an X17 event, the largest solar flare recorded in modern history.

"That flare was one of a series of very strong flares now known as the Halloween flares. We may be in for an encore. This active region currently covers 2,000 millionths of the solar disk area and is almost the size of Jupiter."

What's the significance of active regions?
When they produce X17 events with solar winds that spew solar matter full of charged particles, they can impact the Earth's ionosphere, the very upper part of our atmosphere.

That's where our satellites reside, so extreme solar winds can hamper our communications systems that rely on these satellites, such as GPSs and telecommunications, as well as have impact on power grids.

Additionally, the increased solar activity makes that upper atmosphere a little hotter, which causes more wear-and-tear on the satellites.

The last Halloween flares actually knocked out power grids in Sweden, so they can be cause for concern here on Earth. The current active region showed up in late September and is likely to stick around for a few weeks, so astronomers are monitoring it closely to see how it grows or changes.

And NOAO's Robert Sparks showed that sometimes all it takes is a phone camera and a telescope to provide photos with amazing detail.

In two of the photos, he used cell phones attached to a telescope, providing not only a good look at the sun's active region, but also prominences (large, bright, gaseous features that extend outward from the sun's surface, often in loop shapes) and filaments (large regions of very dense, cool gas, held in place by magnetic fields that appear as dark, long and thin).


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


.


Related Links
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Solar Science News at SpaceDaily






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








SOLAR SCIENCE
Sunspot continues to shoot out solar flares
Washington (UPI) Oct 27, 2014
It's no longer just the largest sunspot in more than 20 years; it's the sunspot that just won't quit. The solar region, known as Active Region 12192 (or AR 2192), has been ripping off solar flares for more than a week now, and has shown no signs of slowing down. The region - which began forming as far back as 2008, and is still rich in electromagnetic activity - launched an X1 flare o ... read more


SOLAR SCIENCE
New lunar mission to test Chang'e-5 technology

Next Chinese mission to moon will return to Earth

China's ailing moon rover weakening

NASA Mission Finds Widespread Evidence of Young Lunar Volcanism

SOLAR SCIENCE
Mars 2020 Will Continue Search for Habitability

NASA Seeks Ultra-lightweight Materials to Help Enable Journey to Mars

Eight months on 'Hawaiian Mars' tests rigors of exploration

Increasing cosmic radiation a danger for Mars missions

SOLAR SCIENCE
US space budget still exceeds rest of world's combined

NASA seeks proposals for deep space exploration, journey to Mars

North Alabama Companies Play Big Part in Orion's First Flight

NASA Awards Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder for the JPSS-2 Mission

SOLAR SCIENCE
China's lunar orbiter modifies orbit

China's Main Competitor in Space Exploration is India, Not Russia

China launches first mission to moon and back

China to send orbiter to moon and back: report

SOLAR SCIENCE
Russian space station resupply rocket launches, docks at ISS

Russian cosmonauts finish all planned work outside ISS

Russian Progress-M Cargo Spacecraft Undocks From ISS

EPJ E Highlight - Thermodiffusion in weightlessness

SOLAR SCIENCE
SpaceX may soon start landing rockets on a platform

SpaceX returns to Earth loaded with lab results

Proton-M Lofts Express-AM6 Satellite

China Completes Country's Largest Spaceport

SOLAR SCIENCE
In a first, astronomers map comets around another star

Getting To Know Super-Earths

Astronomers Spot Faraway Uranus-Like Planet

NASA's Hubble Maps the Temperature and Water Vapor on an Extreme Exoplanet

SOLAR SCIENCE
Strengthening thin-film bonds with ultrafast data collection

Triplet threat from the sun

What a Star Wars laser bullet really looks like

Engineers Harvest and Print Parts for New Breed of Aircraft




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.