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POSSIBLE NAKED-EYE COMET IN MARCH: A comet falling in from the distant reaches of the solar system could become a naked-eye object in early March. This is Comet Pan-STARRS's inaugural visit to the inner solar system, so surprises are possible as its virgin ices are exposed to intense solar heating for the first time. [full story] [video] [photo]
DARK SPIRAL: Decaying sunspot AR1667 erupted on Feb. 6th, producing a double-peaked C9-class solar flare that lasted more than ten hours from beginning to end. The slow explosion hurled a twisting, inky-dark plume of plasma into space. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the spiral:
The darkness of the material is a sign that the plasma was dense and cool relative to the surrounding atmosphere of the sun. This isn't the first time that the sun has produced a dark explosion. Since the launch of Solar Dynamics Observatory in 2010, researchers have catalogued many instances of cool plasma emerging from flare sites. "Cool" has a special meaning, however, on the sun. The temperature of the dark blobs is "only" about 20,000 K vs. 40,000 K to 1,000,000 K for the gas in the surrounding atmosphere.
Decaying sunspot AR1667 probably won't erupt again. NOAA forecasters put the odds of a significant (M-class or stronger) flare today at 10% or less. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.
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COMET ISON SPROUTS A TAIL: Comet ISON, which is plunging toward the sun for a bright and fiery encounter in late 2013, has just sprouted a tail. It's not much--yet--but that is because the comet is still in deep space near the orbit of Jupiter. On. Feb. 3rd, amateur astronomer Rolando Ligustri photographed the development using a robotic telescope in New Mexico:
Comet ISON doesn't look very impressive now as it glides through the cold vacuum more than 600,000 km from Earth, but its appearance will improve later this year. On Nov. 28th, ISON is going to glide through the sun's atmosphere only 1.1 million km above the stellar surface. It could emerge from the encounter glowing as brightly as the full Moon, visible in broad daylight near the sun. If so, today's budding tail would likely grow into a garish appendage that wows observers in both hemispheres--no telescope required. Stay tuned for updates.
Update: NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has also observed Comet ISON's sprouting tail. Click here for a video.
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