NEW SUNSPOT: Observers are reporting a new sunspot forming near the sun's southeastern limb.
It appears to be a member of Solar Cycle 24. images: #1, #2.

Earth is inside a solar wind
stream flowing from the
 indicated coronal hole.
 Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope

Light goes out on solar mission

Engineers expect contact to be lost with Ulysses very soon After more than 18 years studying the Sun, the plug is finally being pulled on the ailing spacecraft Ulysses. Final communication with the joint European-US satellite will take place on 30 June. The long-serving craft, launched in October 1990, has already served four times its expected design life. The Esa-Nasa mission was the first to survey the environment in space above and below the poles of the Sun. Data from the craft, published last year, also suggested that the solar wind - the stream of charged particles billowing away from the Sun - is at its weakest for 50 years. "We expected the spacecraft to cease functioning much earlier," said Paolo Ferri of the European Space Agency (Esa). "Although it is always hard to take the decision to terminate a mission, we have to accept that the satellite is running out of resources and a controlled switch-off is the best ending." Long life Ulysses has already defied the odds several times. In its 18-year life, the mission has been extended four times. But its protracted mission has taken its toll. Ulysses' main transmitter no longer works and its back-up systems are also beginning to fail. Last year, the space agencies finally announced that they were finally ready to pull the plug after the satellite's power supply had weakened to the point where the craft could no longer prevent its hydrazine fuel from freezing. Engineers believed the craft would become uncontrollable and its end of life was scheduled for 1 July 2008. However, mission scientists came up with a short-term fix whereby the fuel could be kept circulating by performing a short thruster burn every two hours. The ingenious fix gave the craft another year of life. But, now, scientists believe it is time to switch off the mission. In particular, they feel the scientific return has reached a level where it is hard to justify the operational costs. Final communication with the craft will begin at 1635 GMT and run until 2120 GMT on 30 June, after which no further contact is planned. The craft will in effect become a man-made comet. "[It] will be a very sad day when we send the last commands to Ulysses," said Nigel Angold, Esa Mission Operations Manager.

VOLCANIC SUNSET: On June 22nd, photographer Brian Whittaker was flying 35,000 feet above Nunavut, Canada, when he witnessed "the most spectacular sunset that I have ever seen," he says. "The giant volcanic cloud from Russia's Sarychev Peak [see below] was illuminated by the arctic sun--and this completely transformed the landscape. For a moment, I thought I was on Mars."

This was the view from the window seat:

"All the curtains were drawn so that people could sleep which is very normal," notes Whittaker. "It is possible that very few people have seen this despite all the potential observers!"

Whittaker's airplane traveled all the way from British Columbia to Europe, so he got a good long look at the cloud. "It stretched for more than 4,000 kilometers. Will it reach Europe?" he wonders. Stay tuned for updates.

more images: #1, #2, #3, #4

SARYCHEV PEAK VOLCANO: Perfect timing. On June 12th, just as Russia's Sarychev Peak volcano was erupting for the first time in 20 years, the International Space Station flew directly overhead. Astronauts had their camera ready and snapped one of the most dramatic Earth-science photos ever taken from space:

Researchers are studying this rare photo to learn about the early stages of powerful volcanic eruptions. A few phenomena stand out:

(1) The volcano erupted with such force, the plume actually punched through the atmosphere. Note how clouds around the volcano have parted in a circular ring--that is a result of a shock wave produced by the upward blast. (2) The plume is a mixture of brown ash and white steam. A "dirty thunderstorm" complete with lightning could be in progress within the roiling cloud. (3) The smooth white bubble on top of the plume is probably a mass of water condensing from air shoved upward by the rising ash column. If so, it is akin to the iridescent pileus clouds sometimes featured on spaceweather.com.

If you're not amazed yet, try this: Put on a pair of red-blue stereo glasses and behold the eruption in 3D. The anaglyph was created by graphic artist Patrick Vantuyne of Belgium. No stereo glasses? A cross-eyed version is also available.

more images: from Andy Dodson of Huirangi, New Zealand; from Pavol Rapavy of Observatory Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia; from Steve Wainwright of Swansea South Wales, UK;

Sunspot 1022 is rapidly fading away. Both 1022 and 1023 are members of Solar Cycle 24. Credit: SOHO/MDI

Amateur astronomer Jacob Bassøe took the picture hours ago from his backyard observatory in Copenhagen, Denmark. "It is a nice bipolar sunspot with a bushy dark filament emerging from one of the cores," he says.

The magnetic polarity of sunspot 1023 identifies it as a member of new Solar Cycle 24. Its appearance coincides with the movement of two solar jet streams into a range of heliographic latitudes that promotes sunspot formation. No one knows exactly how the sun's deep jet streams boost the sunspot count, but they do. As a result, this week's sunspot activity might herald more to come. Stay tuned for updates.

more images: from Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from Didier Favre of Brétigny-sur-orge, France; from Michael Buxton of Ocean Beach, California; from Peter Paice of Belfast, Northern Ireland

The magnetic polarity of the two spots

.htm"> solar jet streams into a range of heliographic latitudes that promotes sunspot formation. No one knows exactly how the sun's deep jet streams boost the sunspot count, but they do. As a result, these tiny spots might herald more to come. Stay tuned for updates.

more images: from Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from Didier Favre of Brétigny-sur-orge, France; from Michael Buxton of Ocean Beach, California

Current conditions

A solar wind stream flowing
from this far-northern coronal
hole will probably miss Earth
or at most deliver a glancing
blow on or about June 25th.
Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope

Space Weather News for June 22, 2009
http://spaceweather.com

LUNAR FLYBY: Tomorrow morning, NASA's LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite) spacecraft will fly by the Moon and send pictures back to Earth from only 9000 km above the lunar surface. The purpose of the maneuver is to put LCROSS in an elongated Earth orbit and position it for impact at the lunar south pole later this year. Live video streaming of the flyby begins at approximately 5:20 AM PDT on Tuesday, June 23, 2009. Visit http://spaceweather.com for links and updates.

NEW SUNSPOTS: Since 2007, it has been unusual to see even a single spot on the sun. Today there are two.  A pair of new-cycle sunspots is emerging in the sun's southern hemisphere.  This is a good opportunity for readers with solar telescopes to witness sunspot genesis in action.
 

A solar wind stream flowing
from this far-northern coronal
hole will probably miss Earth
or at most deliver a glancing
blow on or about June 25th.
Credit:
SOHO Extreme UV Telescope

The onrushing landscape is what Kaguya's cameras saw as the spacecraft glided into the lunar surface at a shallow angle. When the 2,900 kg spacecraft hit the surface at 6,000 km/hr, astronomers in Australia observed a fireball at the impact site. The explosion punctuated a remarkably successful mission of lunar discovery.

Why bother hitting the Moon? For one thing, it's a good way to end a mission. Lunar satellites can't orbit forever because the Moon's gravitational field is weird and lumpy. Crashing is better than flying off into space, where the spacecraft could pose a hazard to other missions. Crashing also produces a fireball, which allows astronomers to estimate the "luminous efficiency" of objects hitting the Moon. Luminous efficiency is a key parameter required to interpret genuine lunar meteorite impacts. Also, hitting the Moon might uncover something interesting--like evidence of water. NASA's LCROSS spacecraft will attempt that trick later this year.

GREAT GANYMEDE: On June 16th, Paul Haese of Blackwood, South Australia, looked at Jupiter through his 14-inch Celestron telescope and witnessed a "dark and foreboding spot. It was Ganymede," he says, "transiting the cloudtops of Jupiter."

If Ganymede looks big in Haese's photo, that's because it is. Ganymede is the largest moon in the whole solar system--slightly wider than the planet Mercury and more than three-quarters the size of Mars. If it orbited the sun instead of Jupiter, Ganymede would surely be considered a planet.

Ganymede is easy to see through backyard telescopes. Look for it right beside (or sometimes directly in front of) Jupiter in the southern sky just before dawn: sky map.

Mystery of the Missing Sunspots, Solved?

June 17, 2009: The sun is in the pits of a century-class solar minimum, and sunspots have been puzzlingly scarce for more than two years. Now, for the first time, solar physicists might understand why.

At an American Astronomical Society press conference today in Boulder, Colorado, researchers announced that a jet stream deep inside the sun is migrating slower than usual through the star's interior, giving rise to the current lack of sunspots.

Rachel Howe and Frank Hill of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson, Arizona, used a technique called helioseismology to detect and track the jet stream down to depths of 7,000 km below the surface of the sun. The sun generates new jet streams near its poles every 11 years, they explained to a room full of reporters and fellow scientists. The streams migrate slowly from the poles to the equator and when a jet stream reaches the critical latitude of 22 degrees, new-cycle sunspots begin to appear.

Above: A helioseismic map of the solar interior. Tilted red-yellow bands trace solar jet streams. Black contours denote sunspot activity. When the jet streams reach a critical latitude around 22 degrees, sunspot activity intensifies. [larger image] [more graphics]

Howe and Hill found that the stream associated with the next solar cycle has moved sluggishly, taking three years to cover a 10 degree range in latitude compared to only two years for the previous solar cycle.

The jet stream is now, finally, reaching the critical latitude, heralding a return of solar activity in the months and years ahead.

"It is exciting to see", says Hill, "that just as this sluggish stream reaches the usual active latitude of 22 degrees, a year late, we finally begin to see new groups of sunspots emerging."

Because it flows beneath the surface of the sun, the jet stream is not directly visible. Hill and Howe tracked its hidden motions via helioseismology. Shifting masses inside the sun send pressure waves rippling the tied to the creation of sunspots and how jet streams can affect the timing of the solar cycle."

There is, however, much more to learn.

"We still don't understand exactly how jet streams trigger sunspot production," says Pesnell. "Nor do we fully understand how the jet streams themselves are generated."

To solve these mysteries, and others, NASA plans to launch the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) later this year. SDO is equipped with sophisticated helioseismology sensors that will allow it to probe the solar interior better than ever before.

Right: An artist's concept of the Solar Dynamics Observatory. [more]

"The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on SDO will improve our understanding of these jet streams and other internal flows by providing full disk images at ever-increasing depths in the sun," says Pesnell.

Continued tracking and study of solar jet streams could help researchers do something unprecedented--accurately predict the unfolding of future solar cycles. Stay tuned for that!

FROM: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/17jun_jetstream.htm

"The movie shows several blobs of plasma dripping like rain from the arch, while others leap up from the sun's surface to join the action," describes Alvarez. "At the end there is a small explosion off to the left that is extremely quick."

Prominences are clouds of hot plasma (ionized gas) held aloft by solar magnetic fields. How "plasma blobs" manage to leap and fall through the magnetic thicket is a matter of keen interest to nuclear engineers. Controlling plasma is key to the development of fusion reactors, and the sun is an excellent laboratory for studying interactions between plasma and magnetic fields.

There are many more prominences dancing around the edge of the sun today. Readers, if you have a solar telescope, take a look.

more images: from Guenter Kleinschuster of Feldbach, Styria, Austria; from Jacob Bassøe of Copenhagen, Denmark; from Mike Borman of Evansville, Indiana; from P. Fitzpatrick et al of South Portland, Maine; from Didier Favre of Brétigny-sur-Orge, France; from Günther Strauch of Borken, Germany; from Cai-Uso Wohler of Bispingen, Germany; from Matthias Juergens of Gnevsdorf, Germany; from Eric Roel of Valle de Bravo, México;

Although it resembles fire, no combustion is involved. Prominences are glowing clouds of solar plasma held aloft by magnetic fields. The shape of the prominence traces the shape of the underlying magnetic field--in this case a towering triangle. For scale, Earth would fit beneath the arch with room to spare.

There are many more prominences dancing around the edge of the sun today. Readers, if you have a solar telescope, take a look.

more images: from Patrick Pelletier of Serbannes, France; from Marco Vidovic of Stojnci, Slovenia; from Matthias Juergens of Gnevsdorf, Germany

Military Hush-Up: Incoming Space Rocks Now Classified
By Leonard David
SPACE.com's Space Insider Columnist
posted: 10 June 2009
05:35 pm ET

Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than four decades. He is past editor-in-chief of the National Space Society's Ad Astra and Space World magazines and has written for SPACE.com since 1999.

Japan's Kaguya spacecraft will crash into the Moon on Wednesday, June 10th, at around 1830 UT. The timing favors telescopic observers in east Asia, Australia and New Zealand, who may be able to see a brief flash of light or a plume of debris rising from the Moon's southeastern limb close to selenographic coordinates 80ºE, 63ºS. The expected impact point is marked by a red dot in this image from astrophotographer Pete Lawrence:
Click on the image for a more detailed view.

Kaguya is a big spaceship. It masses 2,900 kg and will hit the Moon at an oblique angle traveling approximately 6,000 km/hr. Whether it tumbles and bounces along the lunar surface or runs headlong into some towering crater wall, no one can say. Clues to the end of Kaguya will come on June 10th in the form of an explosive flash (or lack thereof) and high-res images of the crash site taken by future lunar orbiters.

The impact is not accidental. The Japanese space agency, JAXA, has long planned to end the mission in this fashion. Kaguya has been in lunar orbit since Oct. 2007; it has searched dark craters for evidence of frozen water, mapped the moon's gravitational field, and taken some of the all-time prettiest pictures of Earth's satellite.

Farewell, Kaguya! Links for observers: #1: #2, #3.

Astronomers Jeremy Bailey and Steve Lee used the observatory's Infrared Imager and Spectrograph (IRIS2) to record the fireball, which appeared at 18:25 UT when the 2,900 kg spacecraft slammed into the lunar surface at 6000 km/hr. The observations were made with a 2.3 micron narrow band filter, and are part of a time series of 1 second exposures with 0.6 seconds dead time between each frame.

Readers are asking, why bother hitting the Moon? For one thing, it's a good way to end a mission. Lunar satellites can't orbit forever because the Moon's gravitational field is weird and lumpy. Crashing is better than flying off into space, where the spacecraft could pose a hazard to other missions. Crashing also produces a fireball, which allows astronomers to estimate the "luminous efficiency" of objects hitting the Moon. Luminous efficiency is a key parameter required to interpret genuine lunar meteorite impacts. Also, hitting the Moon might uncover something interesting--like evidence of water. NASA's LCROSS spacecraft will attempt that trick later this year.

If there's one thing I've realized when writing articles about space, is that it is very easy to link a mysterious astronomical phenomena with doom. If not doom for Earth, certainly doom resulting in a huge explosion of some kind, destroying something, somewhere...

flyby images: from Alberto Quijano Vodniza of Pasto, Nariño, Colombia

Solar wind
speed: 330.8 km/sec
density: 3.8 protons/cm³
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2314 UT

more images: from Jérôme Grenier of Paris France; from Marco Vidovic of Stojnci, Slovenia; from Pavol Rapavy of Observatory Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia; from Steve Wainwright of Swansea, S.Wales, UK; from Gilles Frenette of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; ; from Deirdre Kelleghan of Bray, Co Wicklow, Ireland; from J. Maciaszek and J. Stetson of South Portland, Maine; from Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from Etienne Lecoq of Mesnil-Panneville, Normandy, France; from P-M Hedén of Vallentuna, Sweden;

Solar wind
speed: 275.2 km/sec
density: 0.3 protons/cm³
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 0355 UT

it is called #11 on 6-1-09 and changed to #19 on 6-3-09

more images: from Steve Rismiller of Milford, Ohio; from Matthias Juergens of Gnevsdorf, Germany; from Mike Borman of Evansville, Indiana; from Peter Paice of Belfast, Northern Ireland; from Cai-Uso Wohler of Bispingen, Germany; from Howard Eskildsen of Ocala, Florida;
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