Delta4Embassy
Gold Member
SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
Cool pics, though even the 2 blowups didn't help me see what others did.
"GIANT SUNSPOT HIDES SPACESHIP: Sunspot AR2443 is so big, it is attracting the attention of astrophotographers around the world. Yesterday when Peter Rosén of Stockholm, Sweden, photographed the sprawling complex, he found a spaceship hiding among its dark cores. Seriously. Take a close look at the image below:
Can't find the spaceship? Click here and here. "It is the International Space Station," explains Rosén. "I caught it making a split-second transit of the giant sunspot."
Indeed, AR244 is huge. From end to end it measures almost 200,000 km. Many of the dark cores are as large as terrestrial continents--and a couple are as large as Earth itself. These dimensions make it an easy target for backyard solar telecopes.
Of greater interest is the sunspot's potential for explosive activity. The spotty complex has a 'beta-delta' magnetic field that harbors energy for strong M-class solar flares. Any such explosions will be geoeffective as the sunspot turns squarely toward Earth in the days ahead."
Large versions mentioned in the first graph are here and here:
http://www.spaceweather.com/images2015/02nov15/iss_hiding2.jpg?PHPSESSID=s6ucje47brniue3d65djfvu1a2
http://www.spaceweather.com/images2015/02nov15/iss_hiding3.jpg?PHPSESSID=s6ucje47brniue3d65djfvu1a2
Cool pics, though even the 2 blowups didn't help me see what others did.
"GIANT SUNSPOT HIDES SPACESHIP: Sunspot AR2443 is so big, it is attracting the attention of astrophotographers around the world. Yesterday when Peter Rosén of Stockholm, Sweden, photographed the sprawling complex, he found a spaceship hiding among its dark cores. Seriously. Take a close look at the image below:
Can't find the spaceship? Click here and here. "It is the International Space Station," explains Rosén. "I caught it making a split-second transit of the giant sunspot."
Indeed, AR244 is huge. From end to end it measures almost 200,000 km. Many of the dark cores are as large as terrestrial continents--and a couple are as large as Earth itself. These dimensions make it an easy target for backyard solar telecopes.
Of greater interest is the sunspot's potential for explosive activity. The spotty complex has a 'beta-delta' magnetic field that harbors energy for strong M-class solar flares. Any such explosions will be geoeffective as the sunspot turns squarely toward Earth in the days ahead."
Large versions mentioned in the first graph are here and here:
http://www.spaceweather.com/images2015/02nov15/iss_hiding2.jpg?PHPSESSID=s6ucje47brniue3d65djfvu1a2
http://www.spaceweather.com/images2015/02nov15/iss_hiding3.jpg?PHPSESSID=s6ucje47brniue3d65djfvu1a2
