SATURN AT ITS BEST: Tonight, April 28th, Saturn will be at its closest to Earth for all of 2013. This is the best time to look at the ringed planet, which is glowing about twice as brightly as a 1st-magnitude star. Even small telescopes show Saturn's icy rings in crisp detail. [sky map] [NASA video]
EDGE-ON SUNSPOT: Big sunspot AR1726 rotated off the Earthside of the sun this weekend, surmounting the west limb of the solar disk as it headed for the sun's farside. Amateur astronomer Harald Paleske of Langendorf, Germany, took the opportunity to photograph a sunspot, edge-on:
EDGE-ON SUNSPOT: Big sunspot AR1726 rotated off the Earthside of the sun this weekend, surmounting the west limb of the solar disk as it headed for the sun's farside. Amateur astronomer Harald Paleske of Langendorf, Germany, took the opportunity to photograph a sunspot, edge-on:
To create this extraordinary composite image, he assembled several exposures from his 225mm Unigraph solar telescope into a single panorama spanning more than 150,000 km. It shows a maelstrom of magnetic turbulence and heaving plasma--a true solar storm.
The last time we saw it clearly, AR1726 had a delta-class magnetic field that harbored energy for powerful X-class solar flares. The flare-threat has now shifted to the farside of the sun. Earth is safe, but Mercury and Mars are in the line of fire.
RESUMING COMMUNICATIONS WITH MARS: For much of April, NASA's communications with Mars have been suspended as the Red Planet passed behind the sun. Transmissions are resuming again this weekend. SOHO coronagraphs show Mars emerging from solar conjunction: [go to www.spaceweather.com to watch brief video]
The last time we saw it clearly, AR1726 had a delta-class magnetic field that harbored energy for powerful X-class solar flares. The flare-threat has now shifted to the farside of the sun. Earth is safe, but Mercury and Mars are in the line of fire.
RESUMING COMMUNICATIONS WITH MARS: For much of April, NASA's communications with Mars have been suspended as the Red Planet passed behind the sun. Transmissions are resuming again this weekend. SOHO coronagraphs show Mars emerging from solar conjunction: [go to www.spaceweather.com to watch brief video]
According to a NASA press release, command transmissions will resume, but with some restrictions for the next few days. By May 1st, the Mars orbiters will begin a full dump of data accumulated during the blackout period. Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter could have about 40 gigabits of data from its own science instruments and about 12 gigabits of data from Curiosity stored for sending to Earth. www.spaceweather.com
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