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
ACTIVE SUNSPOT: A storm is swirling around sunspot AR3014. This morning in Romania, astronomer Maximilian Teodorescu made a 45 minute movie of the sun's atmosphere above the huge sunspot. It is literally seething.
https://www.spaceweather.com/images2022/19may22/seething_strip_opt.gif
"I caught a pretty big M-class solar flare," says Teodorescu. In addition, dark filaments of magnetism can be seen snaking through the region as lesser flares illuminate the interstices. The tumult overlies of the biggest sunspots of Solar Cycle 25 with an unstable 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that harbors energy for powerful X-flares.
https://www.spaceweather.com/images2022/19may22/seething_strip_opt.gif
"I caught a pretty big M-class solar flare," says Teodorescu. In addition, dark filaments of magnetism can be seen snaking through the region as lesser flares illuminate the interstices. The tumult overlies of the biggest sunspots of Solar Cycle 25 with an unstable 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that harbors energy for powerful X-flares.
