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LAUNCH POSTPONED:
Today's scheduled launch of space shuttle
Endeavour to the International Space Station has been postponed
due to a leak in the gaseous hydrogen venting system outside the
external fuel tank. Managers officially scrubbed the launch for
at least 96 hours, and they say the earliest the shuttle could be
ready for liftoff is June 17th. [updates]
SOLAR ACTIVITY:
This morning, John Stetson
of Portalnd, Maine trained his solar telescope on the sun and witnessed
an enormous "triangle of fire." Students P. Fitzpatrick
and F. Stewart helped him take this picture:
"We really enjoyed observing and imaging this prominence on
the sun's northwestern limb," says Stetson.
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
COSMOLOGY BALLOON:
On June 11th, researchers at NASA's Columbia
Scientific Balloon Facility in Texas launched a telescope named
EBEX.
Its mission: to measure the faint polarization of cosmic microwave
background radiation (CMBR). Linear polarization of the CMBR could
prove that the large-scale structure of the Universe today was
cast by tiny quantum fluctuations in space just a split-second after
the Big Bang. EBEX is probing the earliest moments of creation.
"After seeing alerts that the balloon was crossing central
Arizona, I ran outside with my family," reports Jeremy Perez
of Flagstaff. "To the naked eye, it was brilliant against the
twilight and definitely non-stellar in appearance." (continued
below)
"We got a great look at the balloon and payload through 15
x 70 binoculars. At one point it went through a striking color phase
with a delicate pink base and yellow-orange top. I ran in, grabbed
my 8-inch telescope and camera (a Canon
300D), and snapped the picture shown above. The great color
was gone. but it was still a beautiful sight."
The balloon is still in flight. Sky watchers who wish to attempt
a sighting can track
its progress here.
2009
Noctilucent Photo Gallery
[previous years: 2008,
2007, 2006,
2005, 2004,
2003]
Explore
the Sunspot Cycle
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