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REMAIN ALERT FOR LYRIDS: Earth is passing through a stream of debris from ancient Comet Thatcher, source of the annual Lyrid meteor shower. Last night, NASA's All Sky Fireball Network detected 21 Lyrid fireballs--an above-average haul. Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office advises sky watchers to look for more tonight. The show might not be over yet. [meteor gallery]
BIG SUNSPOT, CHANCE OF FLARES: Sunspot AR1726 has developed a 'delta class' magnetic field that harbors energy for strong eruptions. This has prompted NOAA forecasters to up the odds of M-class flares to 40% and X-class flares to 15% within the next 24 hours. Because of the sunspot's almost-central location on the solar disk, any eruptions todat would likely be Earth-directed. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.
The sunspot is more than a dozen times wider than Earth, which makes it an easy target for backyard solar telescopes. Amateur astronomer Dennis Simmons sends this picture, taken April 22nd, from Brisbane, Qld, Australia:
"This hi-res image was a freak capture when the seeing stabilised for some 150 frames during my morning observing session," says Simmons.
The resolution was fine enough to show not only the sunspot's planet-sized dark cores, but also thousands of smaller granules surrounding the active region. Granules are evidence of boiling on a titanic scale. The upper layers of the sun sit atop a 15-million degree nuclear furnace, and they boil much like water on a hot stove. Granules are akin to the roiling bubbles you see in a pan of boiling water, a million times amplified: Solar granules are as wide as Alaska.
Check the realtime SWx gallery for more images. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
SPACE WEATHER BALLOON: On April 20th in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Bishop, California, a group of high school students launched a "space weather balloon" into the stratosphere. Their goal is to monitor the effects of solar flares on Earth's atmosphere. Scroll below the image for more information:
The silver capsule, built by Mihai Ciustea of Sammamish WA and launched by the Earth to Sky team of Bishop CA, is bristling with sensors to measure, e.g., ozone, pressure, humidity, acceleration and other variables of interest. The capsule travels to 125,000 feet--well inside Earth's ozone layer--and lingers there for approximately two hours before parachuting back to Earth with the data. The April 20th launch was a test flight to measure baseline levels when solar activity is relatively low.
The capsule also serves another purpose: It is a bacteria collector. A door at the bottom of the capsule can open, guiding air into a filter designed to capture microbes during the flight. Mihai Ciustea hopes to find ice-nucleating bacteria and other lifeforms living high above Earth's surface. Stay tuned for updates about this mission!
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