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Astronomy and Outer Space
Body-by-Guinness:
Sarychev Peak on Matua Island is one of the most active volcanoes in the Kuril Island chain, northeast of Japan. Astronauts took this photo of an eruption on June 12. The plume appears to be a combination of brown ash and white steam. The vigorously rising plume gives the steam a bubble-like appearance; the surrounding atmosphere has been shoved up by the shock wave of the eruption. Credit: NASA/ISS/Earth Observatory
http://www.livescience.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?s=environment&c=news&l=on&pic=090622-matua-volcano-02.jpg&cap=Sarychev+Peak+on+Matua+Island+is+one+of+the+most+active+volcanoes+in+the+Kuril+Island+chain%2C+northeast+of+Japan.+Astronauts+took+this+photo+of+an+eruption+on+June+12.+The+plume+appears+to+be+a+combination+of+brown+ash+and+white+steam.+The+vigorously+rising+plume+gives+the+steam+a+bubble-like+appearance%3B+the+surrounding+atmosphere+has+been+shoved+up+by+the+shock+wave+of+the+eruption.+Credit%3A+NASA%2FISS%2FEarth+Observatory&title=
DougMacG:
BBG, Amazing photo!! Curious, do they apply for a greenhouse gas permit before eruption or, like Communist China, is God excluded from Kyoto jurisdiction?
Body-by-Guinness:
Doug, these emissions are all natural, which, by definition, means they must be good, at least judging by all the labels I see at the supermarket.
Body-by-Guinness:
NGC 1097: Spiral Galaxy with a Central Eye
Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SINGS Team (SSC)
Explanation: What's happening at the center of spiral galaxy NGC 1097? No one is sure, but it likely involves a supermassive black hole. Matter falling in from a bar of stars and gas across the center is likely being heated by an extremely energetic region surrounding the central black hole. From afar, the entire central region appears in the above false-color infrared image as a mysterious eye. Near the left edge and seen in blue, a smaller companion galaxy is wrapped in the spectacular spiral arms of the large spiral, lit in pink by glowing dust. Currently about 40 thousand light-years from the larger galaxy's center, the gravity of the companion galaxy appears to be reshaping the larger galaxy as it is slowly being destroyed itself. NGC 1097 is located about 50 million light years away toward the constellation of the furnace (Fornax).
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Body-by-Guinness:
This abstract is pretty dense, and leads to the full piece that's even denser. Not sure either is worth wading through, though I do think it's important to note how small the data set for our star is and how it's failed to adhere to the model extrapolated from that small data set. As the sun is the source of the energy that warms the planet, one would think the global warming crowd would be inspired toward humility by pieces like this.
Some speculation that solar cycle 25 has already begun
1
08
2009
Leif Svalgaard writes:
Some speculation that solar cycle 25 has already begun:
http://xrt.cfa.harvard.edu/resources/pubs/savc0707.pdf
From a 2006 NASA News article - In red, David Hathaway's predictions for the next two solar cycles and, in pink, Mausumi Dikpati's prediction for cycle 24, and the expected "low" cycle 25.
Graph source: NASA News
This would be stunning, because it suggests that the sun has skipped a solar cycle (#24) . Researchers, three from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the other from Marshall Space Flight Center-NASA, have published a paper that suggests this possibility.
Does a polar coronal hole’s flux emergence follow a Hale-like law?
A. Savcheva1, J.W. Cirtain2, E.E. DeLuca1, L. Golub1
ABSTRACT
Recent increases in spatial and temporal resolution for solar telescopes sensitive to EUV and X-ray radiation have revealed the prevalence of transient jet events in polar coronal holes. Using data collected by the X-Ray Telescope on Hinode, Savcheva et al. (2007) confirmed the observation, made first by the Soft X-ray Telescope on Yohkoh, that some jets exhibit a motion transverse to the jet outflow direction.
The velocity of this transverse motion is, on average, 20 kms−1. The direction of the transverse motion, in combination with the standard reconnection model for jet production (e.g. Shibata et al. 1992), reflects the magnetic polarity orientation of the ephemeral active region at the base of the jet. From this signature, we find that during the present minimum phase of the solar cycle the jet-base ephemeral active regions in the polar coronal holes had a preferred east-west direction, and that this direction reversed during the cycle’s progression through minimum.
In late 2006 and early 2007, the preferred direction was that of the active regions of the coming sunspot cycle (Cycle 24), but in late 2008 and early 2009 the preferred direction has been that of the active regions of sunspot cycle 25. These findings are consistent with the results of Wilson et al. (1988) that there is a high latitude expansion of the solar activity
cycle.
Full paper here:
http://xrt.cfa.harvard.edu/resources/pubs/savc0707.pdf
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/08/01/some-speculation-that-solar-cycle-25-has-already-begun/
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