The European Space Agency announced on Dec. 2 that it will stop trying to contact the stranded Russian Phobos-Grunt spacecraft, which has been stuck in the wrong orbit for almost a month now. So it looks like it will fall to Earth. Russia’s Phobos-Grunt probe launched
With no strong flares this week, the sun’s x-ray output has nearly flatlined. The solar activity is quiet and is expected to continue for another 24+ hours. NOAA forecasters estimate a mere 20% chance of M-class solar flares.C-Class flares continue to be detected
Last week, ESA’s ground station in Perth, Australia added a feedhorn antenna to existing one and succeeded in communicating with Phobos-Grunt on two successive days. But all attempts to renew the contact failed since then. Yesterday station in Perth gave another try
With no sunspots producing strong flares, the sun is officially quiet. But although the sun is officialy “quiet” multiple C-Class flares have been detected within the past 24 hours. C-Class flares continue to be detected around various locations on the visible solar
A solar wind stream is buffeting Earth’s magnetic field and this is causing electrical currents to flow in the Earth itself at high latitudes.Rob Stammes sends this report from the Polar Light Center in Lofoten, Norway to SpaceWeather.com “Today, a magnetic
Two new regions rotated into view on the eastern limb and were numbered 1363 and 1364 on Tuesday. Numerous low level C-Class flares have been detected within the past 24 hours around Sunspot 1362 and new Sunspot 1363.Region 1361 in the northern hemisphere is now
The European Space Agency will once again attempt to call the Russian Phobos-Grunt spacecraft tonight (Nov. 29), after officials received no response yesterday. The probe has been stranded in the wrong orbit since it was launched on November 8.A ground station in
A line of sunspots stretching across the sun’s northern hemisphere appears to be an independent sequence of dark cores. A telescope tuned to the red glow of solar hydrogen, however, reveals something different. The sunspots are connected by sinuous filaments of
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has stopped acquiring images from the 27-year-old Landsat 5 Earth observation satellite due to a rapidly degrading electronic component.Landsat 5 was launched in 1984 and designed to last 3 years. The USGS assumed operation of
Astronomers at the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium in Australia took incredible time-lapse video . The sequence shows a plume drifting against the background stars, probably caused by venting from the Centaur rocket stage that sent the Mars Science
