On April 18th and 19th, a series of minor CMEs puffed away from the sun. Three of them are heading in our general direction. Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab have prepared an animated forecast track of the ensemble:According to the forecast, the clouds are
Strange phenomenon spotted over Mars two weeks ago puzzled astronomy community. An unusual protrusion has appeared in the planet’s southern hemisphere, preceding the sunrise terminator. Astrophotographer Wayne Jaeschke reports on his website of a “strange feature”
On March 24th, 25th and 26th, Venus, Jupiter and crescent Moon will appear side by side again in the western sky at sunset. Best time for observing the sky show is before the sky fades completely black. These bright objects are extra-beautiful when they are framed by
Venus and Jupiter are the second and third brightest objects in the night sky, after the Moon. Every evening Venus has appeared higher and Jupiter lower on the western sky. Now they’re about to cross paths. From now until March 17th the two planets will be within 5°
A recent study, appearing online in the Journal of Geophysical Research on February 29, 2012, has found clear evidence on Venus for a type of space weather outburst quite common at Earth, called a hot flow anomaly. These anomalies, also known as HFAs, cause a temporary
If the weather is clear this weekend, even those who normally do not look at the sky may be struck by a dazzling celestial scene in the west after sunset: a view of two bright planets and an even more eye-catching crescent moon. You can catch them before the sky fades
The CME cloud launched from the Sun on February 24th should reach Earth today, Feb. 26th around 13:30 UTC, according to analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab. A filament of magnetism erupted at the sun’s northeastern limb on February 24th and hurled CME into
On January 27, 2012, Curiosity’s spacecraft was hit by the most intense solar radiation storm since 2005. The event began when sunspot AR1402 produced an X2-class solar flare. (On the “Richter Scale of Solar Flares”, X-flares are the most powerful kind.) The
Jupiter,Venus and Moon will be seen in close proximity to each other on the nights of Saturday and Sunday (Feb. 25 and 26), forming an astronomical event and skywatching treat known as a triple conjunction.A triple conjunction is an astronomical event, where
Using the VIRTIS instrument at infrared wavelengths to penetrate the thick cloud cover, scientists studied surface features and discovered that some were displaced by up to 20 km from where they should be given the accepted rotation rate as measured by NASA’s
