APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Comments and questions about the APOD on the main view screen.
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APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by APOD Robot » Wed Mar 14, 2012 4:06 am

Image Angry Sun Erupting

Explanation: It's one of the baddest sunspot regions in years. Active Region 1429 may not only look, to some, like an angry bird -- it has thrown off some of the most powerful flares and coronal mass ejections of the current solar cycle. The extended plumes from these explosions have even rained particles on the Earth's magnetosphere that have resulted in colorful auroras. Pictured above, AR 1429 was captured in great detail in the Sun's chromosphere three days ago by isolating a color of light emitted primarily by hydrogen. The resulting image is shown in inverted false color with dark regions being the brightest and hottest. Giant magnetically-channeled tubes of hot gas, some longer than the Earth, are known as spicules and can be seen carpeting the chromosphere. The light tendril just above AR 1429 is a cool filament hovering just over the active sunspot region. As solar maximum nears in the next few years, the increasingly wound and twisted magnetic field of the Sun may create even more furious active regions that chirp even more energetic puffs of solar plasma into our Solar System.

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neufer
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Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by neufer » Wed Mar 14, 2012 5:13 am

http://www.universetoday.com/94129/huge-coronal-hole-is-sending-solar-wind-our-way/#more-94129 wrote:
Click to view full size image 1 or image 2
SDO AIA 211 image showing a large triangular hole in the Sun's corona
SDO AIA 193 image of the March 13 coronal hole
Images courtesy NASA, SDO and the AIA science team.
Huge Coronal Hole Is Sending Solar Wind Our Way
by Jason Major on March 13, 2012

<<An enormous triangular hole in the Sun’s corona was captured earlier today by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, seen above from the AIA 211 imaging assembly. This gap in the Sun’s atmosphere is allowing more charged solar particles to stream out into the Solar System… and toward Earth as well.

Normally, loops of magnetic energy keep much of the Sun’s outward flow of gas contained. Coronal holes are regions — sometimes very large regions, such as the one witnessed today — where the magnetic fields don’t loop back onto the Sun but instead stream outwards, creating channels for solar material to escape.

The material constantly flowing outward is called the solar wind, which typically “blows” at around 250 miles (400 km) per second. When a coronal hole is present, though, the wind speed can double to nearly 500 miles (800 km) per second.

Increased geomagnetic activity and even geomagnetic storms may occur once the gustier solar wind reaches Earth, possibly within two to three days. The holes appear dark in SDO images because they are cooler than the rest of the corona, which is extremely hot — around 1,000,000 C!>>
Art Neuendorffer

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Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by geckzilla » Wed Mar 14, 2012 5:27 am

Not an angry bird. A frogmouth!
Just call me "geck" because "zilla" is like a last name.

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Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by Beyond » Wed Mar 14, 2012 5:44 am

Art's picture looks like a nice big soft pink fuzzy. :yes:
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ro_star

Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by ro_star » Wed Mar 14, 2012 6:42 am

not an angry bird, more like 3 teardrop lobes at 120 deg from each other, with a clearly visible dark (hot) heart at the center; secondary shape to the right could be a cliff overhang or sphinx rotated 90 deg ; and the triangle in the above comment is actually 2 triangles obviously

Guest

Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by Guest » Wed Mar 14, 2012 9:15 am

What happened to "Planet Pair"? i was expecting something to do with the conjunction!

Nice sun spots though...

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Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by Indigo_Sunrise » Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:33 am

Impressive!

(when I first saw today's image, I thought: 'close-up of a pink shag pillow....?' :lol: )


:thumb_up:
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Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by jandotto » Wed Mar 14, 2012 11:46 am

The expected solar maximum is likely next February, not in a few years - and is much weaker than recent cycles maximums.

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Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by orin stepanek » Wed Mar 14, 2012 12:39 pm

Umm! Too hot to touch! :mrgreen:
Orin

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Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by twixter » Wed Mar 14, 2012 1:24 pm

APOD Robot wrote:
Explanation: It's one of the baddest sunspot regions in years...As solar maximum nears in the next few years, the increasingly wound and twisted magnetic field of the Sun may create even more furious active regions that chirp even more energetic puffs of solar plasma into our Solar System.
Well look out for those baaaad plasma chirpers! :D

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Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by geckzilla » Wed Mar 14, 2012 1:58 pm

jandotto wrote:The expected solar maximum is likely next February, not in a few years - and is much weaker than recent cycles maximums.
What makes you say that?
Just call me "geck" because "zilla" is like a last name.

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Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by neufer » Wed Mar 14, 2012 2:04 pm

Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Art Neuendorffer

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Refueling UFO?

Post by neufer » Wed Mar 14, 2012 4:23 pm

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/03/14/solar-eruption-mistaken-for-refueling-ufo-spaceship/ wrote:
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Solar eruption mistaken for refueling UFO spaceship
Written By Natalie Wolchover
TechMediaNetwork, March 14, 2012

<<Telescope images captured of the sun on Monday, March 12, show what appears to be a planet-size shadowy object tethered to the sun by a dark filament. In the image sequence, a burst of brightly lit material can be seen erupting from the sun's surface surrounding the dark object, after which the orb detaches from the sun and shoots out into space.

The footage, a composite of images captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory and processed by scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, has quickly garnered attention on YouTube, where viewers are suggesting it shows a UFO spacecraft refueling by sucking up solar plasma, or at the very least, the birth of a new planet.

However, according to NASA scientists, the feature is actually a little-understood, but frequently observed, type of solar activity called a "prominence," and the way it is situated beneath another solar feature gives it its otherworldy appearance. The thread extending from the lower left edge of the sun in the video is known as a "prominence," a feature containing cooler, denser plasma than the surrounding 3.5-million-degree Fahrenheit corona, said Joseph Gurman, project scientist in the Solar Physics Laboratory at NASA Goddard. It isn't yet known exactly how prominences develop, but these dense plasma loops can extend from the sun's surface thousands of miles into space.

"When prominences are that extended in height above the limb [edge of the sun], it's usually a sign that they're about to erupt, as this one did," Gurman told Life's Little Mysteries. C. Alex Young, a solar astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center who runs a website called The Sun Today, explained that the prominence is situated below a tunnel-shape feature called a filament channel. "When you look at it from the edge of the sun, what you actually see is a spherical object. You're actually looking down the tunnel. And this tunnel sits up top of the filament," Young explained at The Sun Today. He added that the development of these structures is quite common. Gurman explained that all the light in the SDO images is the same color — a specific wavelength that is emitted by iron atoms that have been ionized 13 times, known as Fe XIV. The dark filament seen in the images (the refueling UFO's "tether," according to YouTube users) is a part of the prominence that happens to absorb light of this color, making it appear dark. "The absorption is typically seen in lines such as Fe XIV only in the thinnest, densest parts of the prominence, which is here seen edge-on as it rotates over the solar limb," he said.>>
Art Neuendorffer

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Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by ta152h0 » Wed Mar 14, 2012 6:26 pm

Think this is angry, travel about 8000 ly and check out Eta Carinae. Or WR104. There are a few bad boys out there
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Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by Anthony Barreiro » Wed Mar 14, 2012 7:06 pm

This is an awesome photo. I've enjoyed looking at AR1429 through a small telescope with a simple solar filter. It's really big, and even at low magnifcation (30x) there are many discernible details.
May all beings be happy, peaceful, and free.

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Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by Sandstone » Wed Mar 14, 2012 7:22 pm

geckzilla wrote:
jandotto wrote:The expected solar maximum is likely next February, not in a few years - and is much weaker than recent cycles maximums.
What makes you say that?
Here's a good article:

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/sc ... veyorbelt/

saturn2

Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by saturn2 » Thu Mar 15, 2012 12:03 am

The ARP 1429 solar region has expelled powerful flares and coronal mass ejections very important.
The Sun loses mass and energy in each event of solar activity.
Last edited by bystander on Fri Mar 16, 2012 6:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Wolf kotenberg

Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by Wolf kotenberg » Thu Mar 15, 2012 12:56 am

interesting connection with this 40 year cycle, is also written in the bible that it took Moses 40 years to cross the desert with the israelites.
Last edited by bystander on Fri Mar 16, 2012 6:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by Ann » Thu Mar 15, 2012 1:32 am

ta152h0 wrote:Think this is angry, travel about 8000 ly and check out Eta Carinae. Or WR104. There are a few bad boys out there
That's absolutely true. But our Sun is more interesting than we realize. It is more powerful than most stars in our galaxy, because it is bigger, brighter and more massive than most. At the same time it is "less angry" than most other main sequence stars of spectral class G. That is why Kepler is having more trouble than expected detecting planetary transits of G-type stars. Most other G-type stars are more variable, and therefore "angrier", than our own.

The more we learn about other stars and planets, the less typical the Sun and the solar system appears to be.

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Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by geckzilla » Thu Mar 15, 2012 1:42 am

Found a good pic. Sun is definitely a tawny frogmouth.

Image
Tawny Frogmouth Portrait by Dale Mengel, on Flickr
Just call me "geck" because "zilla" is like a last name.

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Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by Beyond » Thu Mar 15, 2012 2:23 am

That looks like two suns to me, geckzilla. Even looking with one eye. :lol: :mrgreen:
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Re: APOD: Angry Sun Erupting (2012 Mar 14)

Post by bystander » Thu Mar 15, 2012 2:28 pm

The Sun’s angry red spot
Bad Astronomy | 2012 Mar 15
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