FARSIDE SUNSPOTS: Today, there are 8 sunspot groups on the solar disk--the most in years. Get ready for two more. NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft is monitoring a pair of extreme ultraviolet hotspots behind the sun's eastern limb. It is probably the glow of two more sunspot groups. The active regions will rotate into view by mid-week.
DOUBLE TROUBLE: Since yesterday, big sunspot AR3014 has doubled in size. This 24-hour movie from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the sunspot's rapid growth. AR3014 has a 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for strong M-class solar flares. https://www.spaceweather.com/images2022/18may22/double_anim_strip.gif
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TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE MOON: There's something magic about the darkness that falls during a lunar eclipse. The nightscape should be flooded with moonlight. Instead, the stars pop out. On May 15th, Brad Goldpaint photographed the phenomenon from Farmington, New Mexico.
Source: https://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=184898
Source: https://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=184898
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INCREASING CHANCE OF FLARES: Big sunspot AR3014 has an unstable 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that harbors energy for strong explosions. NOAA forecasters estimate a 35% chance of M-class solar flares and a 15% chance of X-flares on May 19th. Any eruptions will be geoeffective because the sunspot is directly facing Earth.
OLD VENUS PROBE TO CRASH INTO EARTH: In March 1972, Russia launched a spacecraft to Venus. The Venera probe (since renamed "Kosmos 482") never made it out of Earth orbit. A new analysis by Dr. Marco Langbroek suggests that orbital decay is bringing the old probe back to Earth. "This is a lander built to withstand atmospheric reentry [on Venus]," notes Langbroek, so it "will make for an interesting reentry sometime between 2024 and 2026."
Read: https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4384/1
Read: https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4384/1