News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
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The spectacular structure of Planetary nebula NGC 2818 contains the outer layers of a star that were expelled into interstellar space. The glowing gaseous shrouds in the nebula were shed by the central star after it ran out of fuel to sustain the nuclear reactions in its core. More on NGC 2818
March 2010 - A Month of Increasing Solar Activity, CME's, Mysterious Objects, Near Earth Asteroids, Mars in close approach to Earth Northern Lights (view gallery) , Comets, Incredible Sky Phenomena, Solar Flares & Eruptions, Auroras, Deep Space Discoveries, Crazy Planetary Weather, Comets and Geo-Magnetic Storms
March 10, 2010: Lots of news about Mars and the Sun today as astrologically Mars stationed direct today in Leo (Sun is exalted in Leo) Regarding Phobus the Greek god of fear and one of the sons of Ares and Aphrodite in Greek mythology we need to look here on earth as some people are harvesting fears .
Major Solar Eruption Magnetic fields around the corpse of old sunspot 1045 erupted this morning, March 10th, at 0745 UT. SOHO's extreme ultraviolet telescope recorded the action, which you can see by clicking on the image below:
The eruption did not produce a lot of X-rays (the corresponding flare registered only B1), but it did hurl a billion-ton coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. The cloud is not aimed directly at Earth, but it could deliver a glancing blow to our planet's magnetic field on or about March 13th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras around that date.
THE MYSTERY OF PHOBOS: Something is wrong with Phobos. The martian moon looks like a solid, but it is not as dense as a rocky solid should be. Some researchers think Phobos might be riddled with vast caverns; others say it is just a "rubble pile" masquerading as a solid body. To solve the mystery, Europe's Mars Express spacecraft is making a series of close Phobos-flybys this month.
March 8, 2010: Venus now in fiery Aries (solar) with a trine to Mars in Leo along with a Venus-Saturn TSQ to Pluto
to could focus on this intense energy on earth via a solar flare.
Solar Activity Intensifies: Solar Filaments Continue .
SOLAR FILAMENTS: Today, amateur astronomers around the world are monitoring a pair of dark magnetic filaments on the sun.
Seen here: A movie of these monster filaments here. The massive, plasma-filled filament has been remarkably stable since SOHO first spotted it on March 5th. However, filaments like this have been known to collapse. If this one does and hits the stellar surface,
The largest filament, which is curling over the sun's northeastern limb, stretches at least 50,000 km from end to end. SOHO has been monitoring the plasma-filled behemoth for more than three days How long can this filament hold itself up? If it collapses and hits the stellar surface, the impact could produce a powerful Hyder flare.
March 6, 2010: New energies are flowing into our world and the solar system as Venus enters Aries on March 7th and Mars finally moves direct in Leo on March 10th.
BE ALERT FOR ZODIACAL LIGHT:
If you live in the northern hemisphere, now is the time to look for the Zodiacal Light. It jumps up in the west after sunset, a luminous triangle that can amaze observers in dark rural areas.
The Zodiacal Light More Images Here The phenonenon is caused by sunlight shining on billions of tiny dust particles scattered throughout the plane of our solar system. The tilt of the sky favors evening sightings in the weeks of late winter and early spring--in other words, now! For best results, get away from city lights. Find a place with a clear western horizon. Let your eyes adapt to the darkness after sunset and prepare to be amazed.
March 2, 2010: On March 3rd. here on earth, the Moon enters Mars ruled Scorpio with a square to transiting Mars in Leo
for some fireworks Also on March 3rd. Venus is in a conjunction with Uranus for the unusual and strange phenomena
Where there is Venus there is Mars and where there is Mars there is also Phobus
Phobus is the Greek god of fear and one of the sons of Ares and Aphrodite in Greek mythology
PHOBOS FLYBY: On March 3rd, Mars Express will fly past Phobos at a distance of only 67 km, the closest any spacecraft has ever been to this mysterious moon of Mars. The purpose of the flyby is not to take pictures but to map the gravity field of Phobos and, thus, to determine its internal structure. Spacecraft cameras will be turned off during the encounter to provide a clean "carrier signal" for the radio-gravity experiment. Hi-res images will be made, however, on March 7th during a follow-up flyby at a range of 107 km.
March 1, 2010: As we approach the ingress of Venus into Aries (March 7th) and the Mars station in Leo on March 10th,
all solar activity will instensify with more CME's directed at earth.
Updates on CME's - Check out this anmimation. The past eruption hurled a billion-ton CME away from the sun (image), but not toward Earth. The blast site is located on the sun's eastern limb where it faces away from our planet. This marks the fourth time in the past two days that a CME has billowed away from the sun without heading in our direction. Earth keeps dodging the bullet.
February 2010 - A Month of Increasing Solar Activity, Mysterious Objects, Near Earth Asteroids, Mars in close approach to Earth Northern Lights (view gallery) , Comets, Incredible Sky Phenomena, Solar Flares & Eruptions, Auroras, Deep Space Discoveries, Crazy Planetary Weather, Comets and Geo-Magnetic Storms
February 25, 2010: As Mars continues to retrograde till March 10th, we should expect more of these solar eruptions and consequently CME's
SOLAR FILAMENT ERUPTION
The 'Great Magnetic Filament' on the sun that we've been tracking for the past week finally erupted yesterday.
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) images bracket the eruption between 0719 and 1919 UT on Feb. 24th. The event did not produce a bright solar flare, as sometimes happens when filaments erupt, but there was a coronal mass ejection (CME). SOHO coronagraphs observed at least one and possibly as many as three clouds billowing away from the sun: movie. If any of this material is heading for Earth--a big unknown!--it should arrive on Feb. 27th or 28th. Arctic sky watchers should be alert for auroras on those dates.
February 23, 2010: Yesterday I mentioned that much of this increasing solar activity might be linked to the Mars transit retro.
in Leo There is also a correlation with cardinal signs like Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn - let's see what happens as Moon enter Cancer today to TSQ Saturn-Pluto....
GREAT FILAMENT:
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is tracking an enormous magnetic filament on the sun. It stretches more than one million kilometers from end to end, which makes it an easy target for backyard solar telescopes. R
February 22, 2010: From now on past March 10th when Mars stations direct in Leo expect some major sunspots, solar flares and explosions to coincide with Mercury-Venus then Jupiter (June) to translate the energies of the ongoing Saturn-Uranus-Pluto TSQ
Solar Magnetism and a Potential Hyder Flare NASA spacecraft and amateur astronomers alike are monitoring a staggeringly-long filament of magnetism on the sun. It stretches more than a million kilometers around the sun's southeastern limb:
As this movie shows, the filament has remained mostly stable for at least two days. However, similar filaments in the past have been known to collapse, and when they hit the surface of the sun--bang! A tremendous explosion called a "Hyder flare" results, sometimes rivaling the strongest flares produced by sunspots. Solar physicists have not yet learned to predict Hyder flares, so we cannot estimate the odds of one now
February 19, 2010: The news of this discovery hit the web on 2-18-10 when an adolescent Moon in Aries was in a powerful sextile to Neptune in Aquarius From the discovery pov. (point of view) Mercury applying toward a conjunction with Mercury in deep space sign Aquarius Venus is separating from a past conjunction with the Lord of Travel - Jupiter. Venus will also meet Uranus ruler of Aquarius and the dispositor where Venus-Uranus together can mean the erratic and unstable on many levels.
Youngest Extra-Solar Planet Discovered University of Hertfordshire astronomers, Dr Maria Cruz Gálvez-Ortiz and Dr John Barnes, are part of an international collaboration that has discovered the youngest extra-solar planet around a solar-type star, named BD+20 1790b.
The giant planet, six-times the mass of Jupiter, is only 35 million years old. It orbits a young active central star at a distance closer than Mercury orbits the Sun. Young stars are usually excluded from planet searches because they have intense magnetic fields that generate a range of phenomena known collectively as stellar activity, including flares and spots. This activity can mimic the presence of a companion and so can make extremely difficult to disentangle the signals of planets and activity.
Dr Maria Cruz Gálvez-Ortiz describing how the planet was discovered said: “The planet was detected by searching for very small variations in the velocity of the host star, caused by the gravitational tug of the planet as it orbits – the so-called “Doppler wobble technique”. Overcoming the interference caused by the activity was a major challenge for the team, but with enough data from an array of large telescopes the planet’s signature was revealed.”
NORTHERN LIGHTS DELIVER All week long, the Arctic Circle has been aglow with auroras. "The lights have been incredibly bright and active," says Øystein Lunde Ingvaldsen of Bø i Vesterålen, Norway. He took this picture on Feb. 17th:
"This has been a very nice month for auroras," agrees Wioleta Zarzycka of Iceland, where coastal waters have been turning green in reflection of the sky above. The lights have even descended as far south as Scotland. "On Monday night, we had the first auroras I have seen here in years," reports Gordon Mackay of Campsie Fells.
All this activity is a sign that the sun is coming back to life after a long, deep solar minimum. Sunspots have returned crackling with solar flares, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are once again buffeting Earth's magnetic field. NOAA forecasters estimate a 25% to 30% chance of more geomagnetic activity tonight. Even a new sunspot # 1049 is growing and we could see another round of solar flares
February 16, 2010: Tonight is the exact Venus-Jupiter conjunction in the sign of wild imagery and imaginations, Pisces
As the sun continues flaring, we should expect to see more amazing aurora's
AURORA BLAST
On Feb. 15th, an intense wave of Northern Lights swept across Scandinavia. "We had a fantastic blast of auroras here in Kvaløya, Norway," reports Helge Mortensen. "They were bright and very active. What a view!" He made this self-portrait below:
The display got started when the sun's magnetic field near Earth tipped south. This opened a hole in Earth's magnetosphere. Solar wind poured in and fueled the auroras. The lights were so bright they reflected in water, cast shadows on snow, and descended as far south as Scotland and Northern Ireland.
February 15, 2010: The Moon is translating the light from romantic Venus-Jupiter conjunction as Luna separates and heads toward a thrilling visit with Uranus @ 6:32 AM February 16th.
On 6:14 PM, Venus and
Jupiter are exactly conjunct in Pisces for more visuals.
The only problem is, the event is happening deep inside the glow of the setting sun. Are you ready for the conjunction challenge? Go outside 15 to 30 minutes after sunset and look directly below the crescent Moon. Venus and Jupiter are down there together.
SUNSET SKY SHOW: Tonight, about 15 minutes after sunset, go outside and look west. You'll find an exquisitely-slender crescent Moon hovering just above the horizon. Point your finger at the Moon and trace a line down, down, down--voila! It's Jupiter and Venus. The two brightest planets are converging for a conjunction deep in the glow of the setting sun. Find them if you can: sky map.
February 13, 2010: All things are a go with today's New Moon with Sun-Moon-Chiron-Neptune in Aquarius along with
a visual Venus-Jupiter Conjunction in Pisces.
AURORA WATCH: Right on time for Valentine's Night
High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras on Feb. 14th and 15th. That's when a solar wind stream flowing from a coronal hole on the sun is expected to reach Earth. The scene on Valentine's Night could look like this:
Zoltan Kenwell took the picture on Feb. 11th from the banks of the Athabasca River in Alberta, Canada. "I used a Canon 5D2 set at ISO 1000 for 10 seconds," he says. "The auroras were very active."
Check out the February Gallery of Northern Lights Picts.
NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% to 35% chance of minor geomagnetic storming during the late hours of Feb. 14th and 15th. The activity could descend to northern-tier US states such as Minnesota and Wisconsin. Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia are better bets, however.
February 13, 2010: Even though Mercury is separating from a furious aspect, an opposition to Mars in solar Leo, that brings turmoil her on earth - Pluto will is in a strained 150 degree Quincunx to Mars. as is Venus now in Pisces
An Angry Sun with the SOHO EIT 171 Latest Image
Sunspot 1046 continues to put on a good show. Yesterday it unleashed the brightest solar flare in more than two years (an M8-class eruption) and today it is seething with magnetic activity. Rogerio Marcon photographed the turmoil from his backyard observatory in Campinas, Brazil:
NOAA forecasters estimate a 70% chance of another M-flare from this region during the next 24 hours. The chief effect of impulsive M-flares is to ionize the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere. Waves of ionization can affect the propagation of terrestrial radio signals, suppressing some frequencies (shortwave) while boosting others (VLF). Radio listeners should be alert for disturbances.
February 12, 2010: By now you might know that we are in a solar cycle which is extremely active.
From an astrological perspective, Mars retrograde in solar-oriented Leo is the primary resonant factor
and tomorrow's new moon in Aquarius hosts both an oppositon from Mercury to Mars and a powerful quincunx involving Pluto and Mars.
Another Solar Flare - This Time Sunspot 1046 Rocks
Sunspot 1046 is crackling with M-class solar flares. This morning in the Netherlands, amateur astronomer Emiel Veldhuis happened to be looking when one of them erupted. He captured the following images using a Lunt LS60T CaK backyard solar telescope:
February 11, 2010: The launch to study the "now awakened" Sun took off with conservative Taurus rising in a TSQ to Mercury in Aquarius in the 10th and Mars in 4th Notice that NASA had delayed the launch three times Wednesday because of windy conditions.
especially with Mercury opposing Mars now retrograde. With Saturday's New Moon in Aquarius - Sun-Moon-Chiron-Neptune will blow away a lot of the current coverups regarding this mission.
SPECTACULAR LAUNCH: The Solar Dynamics Observatory lifted off from Kennedy Space Center this morning at 10:23 am EST, kicking of a 5-year mission to study the variability of the sun. Moments after liftoff, SDO flew right through a bright, rainbow-colored sundog and destroyed it.
Watch a video (10 MB Quicktime)
Living With a Star Mission - A urgent attempt by NASA to study the 2012 solar storms Last year we reported about NASA Solar Study report regarding solar Storm. Which was carried out for NASA by the US National Academy of Sciences.And it said what Hopi, Mayan and Web Bot talked about Predicted for 2012, a big solar storm catastrophe.
And today NASA launched "Atlas 5 rocket" under Star NASA Mission and according to NASA spokes person the purpose of the SDO is to "understand the Sun's influence on Earth and Near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously."
We don't think so its just co-incidental, especially considering the upcoming solar storms during the peak of the years 2012 - 2013 . NASA 2009 report concluded that "The sun operates on an 11-year cycle, with the next "active" phase due in 2012 likely to present the nearest danger."
February 10, 2010: There are conflicting reports that the meteorite crashed at either 4:30 PM or 6:30 PM CST
The chart set for 6:30 PM has Leo rising with Mars in the 12th and an Aquarian Stellium in the 7th or descendant.
Chart set for 4:30 PM has Mars in the first with Cancer rising with Mars opposing Mercury in the 7th - either way this was a fiery and unexpected crash from the heavens.
With Translation: Mexico's meteorite fall between Puebla and Hidalgo Ahuazotepec .- Authorities reported a meteorite falling on Wednesday afternoon between the towns of Ahuazotepec and Cuautepec, which allegedly caused the cave-a bridge.
De acuerdo a la Policía Municipal de Huauchinango, los primeros reportes descartan que haya lesionados y aseguran que el impacto generó un estruendo que se escuchó hasta Zacatlán y Tulancingo, Hidalgo. According to the Municipal Police Huauchinango, the first reports out there being injured and ensure that the impact generated a roar that was heard up Zacatlan and Tulancingo, Hidalgo.
La estación de radio XENQ de Tulancingo fue la que dio la primicia hace algunas horas. The radio station Tulancingo XENQ was who gave the scoop a few hours ago. De acuerdo con Jorge Martínez, reportero de XENQ, desde las 15:30 recibieron reportes de habitantes de Huauchinango, Tulancingo, Acaxochitlán e incluso Pachuca que decían haber escucha una fuerte explosión. According to Jorge Martinez, a reporter for XENQ, from 15:30 received reports of people in Huauchinango, Tulancingo Pachuca Tulancingo borders and even they said they had heard a loud explosion.
El portal informativo de Puebla, e-consulta.com , informó que los hechos se registraron hoy a las 18:30 horas entre ambas poblaciones y señaló que al lugar ha llegado el Ejército mexicano para acordonar la zona. The Puebla information portal, e-consulta.com, said the incident took place today at 18:30 hours between the two populations and noted that the site has reached the Mexican army to cordon off the
February 9, 2010: As we move toward a magnificent New Moon in Aquarius on Feb. 13th both Mercury (earth weahter) and Venus (moisture/atmosphere) both changes signs before this lunation. Venus will be in Pisces moving into a conjunction with Jupiter for
much more visible evidence of these awesome CME's Also as Mars retro in Solar Leo to oppose Mercury, expect these other sunspots like 1046 & 1047 to flare up too.
GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH & NORTHERN LIGHTS: Over the past few days, active sunspot 1045 has hurled a series of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) toward Earth. These are not the kind of major CMEs that will spark auroras over, say, Florida, but they could spark some very nice lights around the Arctic Circle. (continued below)
High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for Northern Lights on Feb. 9th through 11th when the CMEs are expected to arrive. NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance of some geomagnetic activity and as much as a 5% chance of a major geomagnetic storm over the next three days.
February 8, 2010: Strictly from an astrological point of view with Sun-Chiron-Neptune-Venus together in Aquarius expect the unexpected and all of these bodies are in a sextile to explosive Sagittarius Moon-Ceres With Mars retro. in Leo lots of energies are emitting from the Sun these days...
Update: RADIO-ACTIVE SUNSPOT: Behemoth sunspot 1045 is crackling with M-class solar flares--and that's not all. "There have been many loud shortwave radio bursts over the past two days," reports amateur radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft of New Mexico. "Some of the bursts have completely saturated my receivers." Just listen to the sounds coming from the loudspeakers in his observatory. (continued below)
The roaring sounds you just heard were mainly Type III radio bursts, caused by beams of electrons streaming through the sun's outer atmosphere. Sunspot 1045 appears poised to explosively accelerate more electrons in the days ahead as the flare-show continues
February 6, 2010: The first major eruption occured yesterday @ 1:30 AM UT and using Heliocentric settings:
a stellium of Leo of Vest-Hygeia-Earth-Mars in a powerful opposition to Chiron-Neptune-Venus in Aquarius. and an intense TSQ to Mercury-Ceres in Scorpio
BIG NEW SUNSPOT 1045 EXPANDS
In less than 48 hours, a monsterous sunspot group has materialized in the sun's northern hemisphere. Rogerio Marcon sends this picture of new sunspot 1045 taken earlier today from his backyard observatory in Campinas, Brasil
The active region is crackling with solar flares. The strongest eruption on Feb 6th by was an M2-class eruption at 1900 UT.
But more eruptions followed. The arcs in Marcon's photo are unstable and they have already erupted at least six times this weekend, producing a series of C- and M-class flares.
M-class flares are medium-sized; they can cause brief radio blackouts that affect Earth's polar regions. Minor radiation storms sometimes follow an M-class flare.
There is a 10% chance of a much more powerful X-flare in the next 24 hours, according to NOAA forecasters, so bigger things could be in the offing. -X-class flares are big; they are major events that can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms
(See the movie from NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft.) Each of the spot's dark cores is about twice as wide as Earth, which makes it an easy target for backyard solar telescopes. Stay tuned for solar activity!
February 4, 2010: Energies have intensifed here on earth as Pluto is sextile Juipiter while Moon in Scorpio (ruled by Pluto) is in a powerful abrupt square with Mars in Solar Leo. Fiery Juno in trine with Ceres in Sagittarius adds to the explosive elements applying to sextiles
with Sun-Venus-Neptune in Aquarius for more unexpected changes.
Solar Eruptions Directed at Earth:
NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft is tracking four active regions strung across the eastern hemisphere of the sun. Click on the image below to set the scene in motion--and keep an eye on number 4.
The movie shows an eruption of unstable magnetic loops. The blast occured around 0130 UT on February 5th and it appears to have hurled some material in the general direction of Earth. Images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) are not yet available to evaluate that possibility. Stay tuned for updates in a few hours.
February 3, 2010: Leo was rising @ 24 degrees when the fireball spotted over Ireland at around 6pm local time.
Asc. was in opposition to Neptune for more confusion and mysteries regarding this fireball with some observers saying that a UFO landed.
The Libra moon was also applying to an opposition to Juno in fiery Aries adding to conflicting opinions and stories.
Breaking NewsHuge Fireball Reported Over Ireland Fireball seen over Ireland We're seeing reports popping up on the internet of a huge fireball spotted over Ireland at around 6pm local time on Feb. 3, 2010. There was a video posted to You Tube which claimed to be footage of the event, but it now seems that was old footage, so we have removed the embedded video. (We'll post any new verified images or videos when they become available.) Any Irish readers out there see anything? The Irish Times said members of the public throughout the country have been reporting sightings of the fireball. The Times quoted Tommy Moore from Astronomy Ireland: “A major explosion happened in the sky over Ireland. We think it’s a fireball, that’s a rock from space the earth has slammed into and they burn up as huge shooting stars. This one appears to have lit up the whole country. The phones here in Astronomy Ireland are going crazy.”
February 3, 2010: It appears that the mysterious x -shaped debris is from an asteroid collision which for us on earth could relate astrologically to the Sun-Mars opposition on January 29th.
Suspected Asteroid Collision Leaves Trailing Debris Hubble Detects Mysterious Spaceship-Shaped Object Traveling at 11,000MPH WASHINGTON -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observed a mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust that suggest a head-on collision between two asteroids. Astronomers have long thought the asteroid belt is being ground down through collisions, but such a smashup has never been seen before.
Asteroid collisions are energetic, with an average impact speed of more than 11,000 miles per hour, or five times faster than a rifle bullet. The comet-like object imaged by Hubble, called P/2010 A2, was first discovered by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research, or LINEAR, program sky survey on Jan. 6. New Hubble images taken on Jan. 25 and 29 show a complex X-pattern of filamentary structures near the nucleus.
"This is quite different from the smooth dust envelopes of normal comets," said principal investigator David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles. "The filaments are made of dust and gravel, presumably recently thrown out of the nucleus. Some are swept back by radiation pressure from sunlight to create straight dust streaks. Embedded in the filaments are co-moving blobs of dust that likely originated from tiny unseen parent bodies."
February 2, 2010: Explosive cardinal aspects with Moon TSQ Saturn-Pluto also coicide with a developing Solar Explosion
EXPLOSION ON THE SUN: Coronagraphs onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) observed a bright double-ringed coronal mass ejection (CME) billowing over the sun's western limb during the late hours of Feb. 1st. At present, the source of the blast is unknown. Watch the movie and stay tuned for updates. Recent picture of the Solar Explosion:
February 1, 2010: Almost in synch with the last Full Moon in Leo, we have a new sunpot emerging.
Sunspot 1043 Emerges.
Over the weekend, sunspot 1043 emerged in the sun's northern hemisphere--and it continues to grow today. "It is taking on a nice shape in my Coronado PST (personal solar telescope)," reports amateur astronomer Jo Dahlmans. He sends this snapshot from his backyard observatory in Ulestraten, The Netherlands:
Here is a movie of the event that astrophotographer Micheal Buxton recorded of the new active region (1632-1701 UT on Jan. 31st). "I watched in amazement as plasma recoiled between the sunspot's dark magnetic cores," says Buxton. "Until the clouds rolled in, it was quite a show!"
January 2010 - A Month of Increasing Solar Activity, Near Earth Asteroids, Northern Lights (view gallery) , Comets, Incredible Sky Phenomena, Solar Eruptions, Auroras, Deep Space Discoveries, Crazy Planetary Weather, Comets and Geo-Magnetic Storms
January 31, 2010: In astrological relationships lightening is signified by Uranus ruler of the Aquarian Sun-Venus and Neptune
especially with Mercury (relating to atmosphere) moving towards a sextile with Uranus
the phenomena of Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes, or TGFs is being studied by 'Firefly'
MYSTERY OF THE TERRESTRIAL GAMMA-RAY FLASHES: There's a mystery in the skies of Earth. Something is producing bright flashes of gamma radiation in the upper atmosphere of our own planet. A spacecraft called 'Firefly' is going to investigate: full story. High-energy bursts of gamma rays typically occur far out in space, perhaps near black holes or other high-energy cosmic phenomena. So imagine scientists' surprise in the mid-1990s when they found these powerful gamma ray flashes happening right here on Earth, in the skies overhead.
They're called Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes, or TGFs, and very little is known about them. They seem to have a connection with lightning, but TGFs themselves are something entirely different.
"In fact," says Doug Rowland of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, "before the 1990s nobody knew they even existed. And yet they're the most potent natural particle accelerators on Earth."
January 30, 2010: Incredible lights timed with the solar wind hitting on Jan. 30th the day of the Full Moon in Leo with Mars at closest point to earth.
INTENSE NORTHERN LIGHTS: A solar wind stream hit Earth on Jan. 30th. It was a minor gust, but enough to spark these Northern Lights over Tromsø, Norway:
Another solar wind stream is coming--and it's probably quite a bit stronger than this one was. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras when it arrives on or about Feb. 10th.
January 29, 2010: The dramatic Leo Moon @ 10 degrees 14 minutes is conjunct Mars still retrograde and boiling in the sign of the royal Lion. This lunation occurs on January 29th @ 10:18 PM PST or January 30th @ 1:18 AM EST
BIGGEST FULL MOON OF THE YEAR: This Friday night, if you think the Moon looks unusually big, you're right. It's the biggest full Moon of 2010. Astronomers call it a "perigee Moon," some 14% wider and 30% brighter than lesser full Moons of the year.
Johannes Kepler explained the phenomenon 400 years ago. The Moon's orbit around Earth is not a circle; it is an ellipse, with one side 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other. Astronomers call the point of closest approach "perigee," and that is where the Moon will be Friday night: diagram.
Tomorrow look around sunset when the Moon is near the eastern horizon. At that time, illusion mixes with reality to produce a truly stunning view. For reasons not fully understood by psychologists, low-hanging Moons look unnaturally large when they beam through foreground objects such as buildings and trees. Why not let the "Moon illusion" amplify a full Moon that's extra-big to begin with? The swollen orb rising in the east may seem close enough to touch.
January 28, 2010: Jupiter now in highly visual yet bizarre and strange Pisces reflects many weird apparitions and images
but in this case is the Norwegian Aurora mystery really solved?
Aurora Mystery Solved? On Jan. 20, 2010, Per-Arne Mikalsen was photographing a vast aurora erupting over the northern Norwegian town of Andenes.
Because solar activity is on the increase, aurora spotters have many opportunities to see the Northern Lights. On this particular night the aurora was intense, stretching toward the southern latitudes of Norway.
In one of the photographs taken by Mikalsen was an "object" that couldn't be identified. Although Mikalsen had taken several images at the same location, just one photo showed a mysterious green parachute-like object hanging with the main aurora. (This time, it appears that the Russian military was not involved in the making of this strange shape in the sky.)
At first it seemed easy to dismiss the object as a lens flare or a spot on the camera lens, but after further study it became clear that the answer wasn't that simple.
View Image Here:
January 27, 2010: As we approach the astrological 2nd. Pluto square to Saturn in cardinal, active signs on Jan. 31st.
along with a transit of Mercury sextile Uranus prompts more discoveries in deep space.
Pluto's Little Sister Found? When it comes to objects in the Kuiper Belt, the vast, icy ring that encircles our solar system, size matters.
The frozen worlds orbiting beyond Neptune include not only dwarf planets like Pluto and Ceres, but also a tiny, icy toehold just one-third of a mile wide.
The discovery, made by a team of astronomers scouring Hubble Space Telescope observations, sets a new record for the smallest Kuiper Belt object found. Previously, the smallest known Pluto sibling was a 30-mile-wide Kuiper Belt object.
January 25, 2010: This discovery story hit the internet today when a Mercury ruled Gemini Moon is square Jupiter for excess and considering how quickly we are finding these NEO asteroids this makes sense particularly with Mercury now in earth sign Capricorn in a positive sextile to innovative Uranus.
WISE uncovers its first near-Earth asteroid! The Wide-field Infrared Satellite Explorer has detected its first near-Earth asteroid! Named 2010 AB78, it was discovered in mid-January by the orbiting observatory
AB78 is about a kilometer (0.6 miles) or so across, making it one of the bigger asteroids that can buzz the Earth. The orbital information on it isn’t perfect yet, but we already know its orbit doesn’t actually cross the Earth’s so it can’t hit us. At closest approach it’s still many million of kilometers away from us, and poses no threat.
However, I’ll be honest and say this discovery is mildly alarming (stressing the word mildly). One of the missions of WISE is to find such asteroids; some rocks are dark and therefore hard to detect using telescopes which search in visible light. However, AB78 is warm, so it glows in the infrared, making it an easy target for WISE. That’s why searching for such asteroids is one of WISE’s main goals.
January 23, 2010: "In case you haven't guessed Jan. 29, 2010 is a Full Moon in Leo with Moon-Mars in a powerful opposition to Sun-Venus-Chiron-Neptune in Aquarius. We also see Saturn ancient ruler of Aquarius ready to perfect another square with Pluto - the destroyer on Jan. 31st."
CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH MARS: Earth and Mars are converging for a close encounter. On Jan. 27th, the Red Planet will be only 99 million kilometers (0.66 AU) away--the least distance in almost two years. Look for it rising in the east at sunset, pumpkin-colored and nearly as bright as Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.
January 22, 2010: Today's Aries Moon (the Sun is exalted in Aries ) is a great time to look at this $808 million spacecraft The SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory ) is slated to launch Feb. 9 at 10:36 a.m. EST when Mars in Leo will be in Quincunx to Pluto-Moon
which is about making adjustments when 1 degree Taurus will be rising with this Sabian Symbol: An electrical storm.
New Space Telescope to Target Sun Storms While astronomers gaze at stars farther and farther out in the heavens, some scientists want to take a closer look at the star closest to us: the sun.
NASA plans to launch a new spacecraft, the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), to take the most detailed observations ever of the sun to understand its complex weather and storms.
"The sun changes every time we look at it, [it] is never the same," said Dean Pesnell, SDO project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in a Thursday briefing.
January 22, 2010: yesterday's Aries Moon along with Juno in fiery Aries was trine Mars now retrograde in Leo
reflects this incident.
Lorton Meteorite, The Fourth Observed To Fall In Virginia - Video Inside LORTON, Va. (WUSA) -- A meteorite, the size of a mango, punched through the ceiling of the Williamsburg Square Family Practice Office in Lorton.
Dr. Marc Gullani says, "Literally an explosion went off."
Dr. Frank Ciampi tells 9NEWS NOW he thought the book shelves fell down.
He says, "It came from the roof, through the fire wall through the ceiling and hit the ground right here."
January 21, 2010: Video capturing many angles of this meteor on January 18, reflected the Pisces Moon and recent ingress of Jupiter into the sign of Pisces ruling video Juno in fiery Aries was trine Mars now retrograde in Leo.
Meteor over Montana caught on tape
January 22, 2010: Fiery Aries Moon passed Juno in the sign of the Ram with a trine to Mars in Hot Leo now retrograde
along with a Grand Trine that includes Ceres in Sagittarius
VAPORIZED! ONE LESS COMET: As expected, yesterday's sungrazing comet discovered by STEREO did not survive its close encounter with the sun. One cosmic snowball went in--none came out. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) made this movie of the death plunge.
January 21, 2010: The Moon in fiery Aries is trine Mars in solar Leo which astrologically invites such a collision especially with
cardinal Aries Moon in a TSQ with the Nodes Another bit of synchronicity is that 3200 Phaethon, the small asteroid or comet responsible for the Geminids meteor shower is in parallel declination with N Node in Capricorn. Phaethon in Greek Mythology was the son of Helios, the sun god; or son of Eos, the Dawn Goddess Phaethon almost crashed his father's chariot into the Earth and was killed by a thunderbolt from Zeus to prevent further disaster.
INCOMING COMET: NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft has discovered another comet plunging toward the sun. The last time this happened on Jan. 4th, the comet was destroyed, and history could repeat itself later today. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has a good view of the comet's death plunge: movie
January 20, 2010: Jupiter's astrological ingress into Pisces will magnify more space mysteries especially with a conjunction to Uranus bringing more surprises this spring.
Notice: Jim Scotti correctly points out that several other weird comet/asteroid hybrids have been reported over the years. Now we are really detailing observations of these main belt comets.
Mystery Object Behaves Both Like a Comet and Asteroid Something awfully curious is happening 250 million miles away in the asteroid belt.
Astronomers think they may be witnessing a never-before-seen collision between two asteroids.
The puzzle centers on a newly discovered object that superficially looks like a comet but lives among the asteroids.
The strange object was discovered on January 6 by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) sky survey. The object appears to be in an orbit inside the main asteroid belt -- not a place where comets usually dwell.
January 19, 2010: Astrologically the Sun enters Aquarius today to join Venus in two upcoming oppositions to Mars now in solar Leo tremendous emotional and physical energies will be released! As Above So Below...
M-FLARE ERUPTION: Today, Jan. 19th at 1340 UT, Earth-orbiting satellites detected the strongest solar flare in almost two years. The M2-class eruption came from old sunspot 1039, currently located behind the sun's eastern limb. This strong solar flare and triggered a solar tsunami. Considering the fact that the sunspot is not even visible from Earth, the flare was probably much stronger than its M2 classification would suggest. Click on the image below to set the scene in motion.
FARSIDE SOLAR ACTIVITY: Over the past two days, NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft has detected two eruptions from an active region just behind the sun's eastern limb. The source of the blasts appears to be old sunspot 1039. The sun's rotation will begin turning the spot toward Earth this week, so there could be some Earth-directed solar activity in the offing.
January 17, 2010: From a tropical astrological point of view Jupiter has just moved into Pisces @ 6:11 PM a few hours before the Moon joins in at 10:17 PM Usually all Moon-Jupiter conjunctions mean more generosity, benevolence, along with a little luck associated with this transit. From an astronomical stand point it will be quite stunning.
Jupiter and the Moon meet in an awesome Sunset Conjunction
When the sun goes down tonight (Sunday, Jan. 17th), go outside and look southwest. Jupiter and the 6% crescent Moon are having an eye-catching close encounter. Catch them if you can before the sky fades completely black. A bright conjunction framed by twilight blue is an especially beautiful sight. [sky map]
January 15, 2010: I am not so sure the mystery is solved but this galactic magnetic field is interaled with the current Sun's new activities. Mars is retrograde in solar Leo till March 15th
Giant Ribbon at the Edge of the Solar System: Mystery Solved? January 15, 2010: Last year, when NASA's IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) spacecraft discovered a giant ribbon at the edge of the solar system, researchers were mystified. They called it a "shocking result" and puzzled over its origin. Now the mystery may have been solved.
"We believe the ribbon is a reflection," says Jacob Heerikhuisen, a NASA Heliophysics Guest Investigator from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. "It is where solar wind particles heading out into interstellar space are reflected back into the solar system by a galactic magnetic field."
January 12, 2010: The current earthy Capricorn alignment of Pluto-Mercury-Sun-Venus-N Node offers an interesting astrological signature especially with Saturn (ruler of Capricorn) in hard aspect to Pluto in Capricorn (Pluto is the destroyer)
Even though this 10m-class asteroid, 2010 AL30 will probably not hit th earth it sets up a precendence for the future as more NEO
come ever closer to our planet.
The Closest Fly-by Asteroid Ever Recorded Comes on January 13th. A curious object is about to fly past Earth only 130,000 km (0.3 lunar distances) away. Catalogued as a 10m-class asteroid, 2010 AL30 has an orbital period of almost exactly 1 year. This raises the possibility that it might not be a natural object, but rather a piece of some spacecraft from our own planet. At closest approach on Jan. 13th, 2010 AL30 will streak through Orion, Taurus, and Pisces glowing like a 14th magnitude star. Experienced amateur astronomers are encouraged to monitor the flyby: ephemeris.
January 11, 2010: We have a conjunction of the Moon with the star called "the Heart of the Scorpion". Antares, one of the Royal Stars of Persia aka one of the archangel stars - Oriel (Antares) Watcher of the West.
Event of the Week: A New England Occultation of Antares. On January 11, 2010, Antares experiences the last occultation of the current series that's practical to observe from any populated place on Earth. This one won't be easy, either, but it should be visible through a telescope if the atmospheric conditions are good.
The 13% illuminated waning crescent Moon will occult magnitude +1.1 Antares in Scorpius for northeastern Canadians shortly before dawn on 2010 JAN 11. For northern New England it will be a daytime event with a graze through the Boston area. Observers on the southern graze path will be able to witness the star winking on and off as lunar hills and valleys pass by. Those located north of that graze path will see a full occultation. There will be no northern graze path since it would be in outer space above the arctic.
January 8, 2010: Maybe it is a reflection of Mars retrograde in Leo (sign of the Sun) or just Mercury retrograde but
Current sunspots like 1035 are renewing, revitalized and far from disappearing.
SUNSPOT 1035 RESURRECTED: Old and decaying sunspot 1035, declared to be "a corpse" just yesterday, is showing signs of renewed life. Pete Lawrence sends this picture from his backyard observatory in Selsey, UK:
"A welcome view of the sun on a cold January day reveals the remains of AR11035 still alive and kicking," says Lawrence.
Beneath the waving filaments and bright magnetic froth ("plage"), a dark core is coelescing in the heart of the active region. That makes it a genuine sunspot again. NOAA has re-numbered the region "1040," but we will continue to refer to it by its original name, "1035."
January 6, 2010: With our current Capricorn alignment TSQ Saturn-Uranus we might be just a bit paranoid about Pyxis. Just chalk this up to just another potential threat: "Gamma radiation emitted by the supernova could threaten the Earth with an energy equivalent to 1,000 simultaneous solar flares. "
It is interesting to note that Pyxis was originally Pyxis Nautica, the Nautical Box, or Mariner's Compass This brings up the idea of a moral compass not just a compass for navigation.
Re: Box - Latin malum, means apple. 'Adam's Apple' is the 'voice box' or larynx from Greek larunx, the box containing the vocal cords (vocal cords might be Delphinus?). [The larnax (plural larnakes) may be a relative, it is a type of closed box or coffin often used as a container for human remains in ancient Greece.] Folklore has it that the 'forbidden fruit' offered by Eve got stuck in Adam's throat, hence the prominent voice box in men.
Explosive Nearby Star Could Threaten Earth WASHINGTON — A massive, eruptive white dwarf star in the Milky Way — long overdue for its next periodic eruption — is closer to our solar system than previously thought and could threaten the Earth if it fully explodes millions of years from now.
New observations of the white dwarf and its sun-like stellar companion are giving scientists a better understanding of the star's precarious position as a possible supernova, astronomers said here today at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
The two stars are in a close binary system called T Pyxidis, located in the Southern Hemisphere constellation Pyxis ("The Compass Box"). Researchers found that the system is only 3,260 light-years from our solar system – far closer than anyone previously thought. (A light-year is the distance that light travels in one Earth year, or about 6 trillion miles.)
January 6, 2010: From an earth centered astrological view the Sun now conjunct Mercury-Venus is in an adjustment aspect called a Quincunx to Mars in fiery, solar Leo...
FIRST AURORAS OF 2010: Last night (Jan. 5th), for the first time this year, the clouds parted over Pangnirtung, an Inuit village on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, and the auroras came out to play:
"Mild temperatures at this time of year created a heavy ice fog which blanketed the community, while the Northern Lights danced over head," reports photographer Claus Vogel. "A couple of kids came over to investigate what I was doing, and within a few minutes they were trying their hands at aurora photography. We even played with the flashlight to write 2010."
The lights were sparked by a knot of solar magnetism that wafted past Earth in the solar wind. The south-pointing magnetic field from the sun partially cancelled the north-pointing magnetic field of Earth. Solar wind poured through the breach and fueled the display.
January 5, 2010: Mercury-Sun together in Capricorn with positive sextile to Uranus means more and more discoveries beyond the outer planets. As Uranus makes an ingress into Aries on May 27th. the search for "new" habitable planets will intensify.
Kepler Space Telescope Discovers Five Exoplanets NASA's Kepler space telescope, designed to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars, has discovered its first five new exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system.
Kepler's high sensitivity to both small and large planets enabled the discovery of the exoplanets, named Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b and 8b. The discoveries were announced Monday, Jan. 4, by members of the Kepler science team during a news briefing at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington.
"These observations contribute to our understanding of how planetary systems form and evolve from the gas and dust disks that give rise to both the stars and their planets," said William Borucki of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. Borucki is the mission's science principal investigator. "The discoveries also show that our science instrument is working well. Indications are that Kepler will meet all its science goals."
January 4, 2010: Approaching today's Sun-Mercury conjunction @ 11:06 AM , it appears that some news will be revealed about new
space discoveries many are speculating whether it will be a second Earth like "Pandora" of Avatar fame. I ma still ruling out anything involving true ET disclosure.
Is NASA About to Announce A 2nd Earth Found? The Kepler Mission is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone and determine how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets.
Kepler Mission scientists will reveal the space telescope's latest discoveries at a news briefing in Washington on Monday, Jan. 4, 2010. The announcement will be made at 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST) at a news conference during the 215th national meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park hotel.
January 4, 2010: Today the Sun and Mercury meet in Capricorn which drew lots of attention to this collision which has been
photographed and covered arond the world a reflection of major news announcements.
Final Update: Sungrazing Comet is Destroyed by the Sun.
The solar system has one less comet. The subtraction occurred yesterday when a bright comet discovered by NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft plunged toward the sun and evaporated. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) had an excellent view of the encounter. Click on the image to set the scene in motion:
One "dirty snowball" went in; none came out. The doomed comet was a member of the Kreutz sungrazer family. Named after a 19th century German astronomer who studied them in detail, Kreutz sungrazers are fragments from the breakup of a giant comet at least 2000 years ago. Several of these fragments pass by the sun and disintegrate every day. Most are too small to see but occasionally a big fragment--like this one--attracts attention.
January 3, 2010: The comet meeting the Sun reflects some of these and other astrological transits: Moon and Mars separating from a meeting in the fixed fiery sign Leo with Moon in Opposition to Jupiter for over the top coverage coming. and Sun-Mercury will meet in Capricorn on January 4, 2010 Earth is also in perhilion to the Sun on January 3, 2010 - a whole convergence of solar events to say the least!
Update on Sungrazing Comet - Now Disintegrating!
A bright comet discovered by NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft is swinging by the sun today and apparently disintegrating. Click on the image to set the scene in motion:
Click Here to view the movie It will be interesting to see if a disembodied tail emerges from behind the coronagraph's occulting disk in the hours ahead.
This kamikaze comet is probably a member of the Kreutz sungrazer family. Named after a 19th century German astronomer who studied them in detail, Kreutz sungrazers are fragments from the breakup of a giant comet at least 2000 years ago. Several of these fragments pass by the sun and disintegrate every day. Most are too small to see. Today's fragment is a big exception.
Credit: The comet was found on Jan. 2nd by Australian amateur astronomer Alan Watson, who was inspecting images obtained by STEREO-A's Heliospheric Imager on Dec. 30, 2009.
January 3, 2010: The meteor showers produce more than 100 meteors per hour from a radiant near the North Star - Polaris and the constellation Bootes.
For more info. about Bootes is the Herdsman, the Ploughman, the Ox Driver, or the Shepherd Bootes is the cultivator or Ploughman who drives the Bears, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor around the Pole Star, Polaris. The bears, tied to the Polar Axis, are pulling a plough behind them, tilling the heavenly fields "in order that the rotations of the heavens should never cease".
January 2, 2010: The comet meeting the Sun reflects some of these and other astrological transits: Moon and Mars are meeting in the fixed fiery sign Leo and Sun-Mercury will meet in Capricorn on January 4, 2010 Earth is also in perhilion to the Sun on January 3, 2010 - a whole convergence of solar events to say the least!
SUNGRAZING COMET ALERT: The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is tracking a comet that is about to make a perilous close approach to the sun: a movie showing potential collison, Will the icy visitor survive? Click here for the latest image. (Note: The comet was discovered by Australian amateur astronomer Alan Watson in images taken by NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft.)
Addendum, if we learn from recent past comets hitting the sun during a solar flare/CME cycle we could be expecting some serious meterological
conditions in the next two weeks.
AV 2009-11-01 Sungrazing Comet 1029, Storm Forecast for Cyclone Ida
Previous video from 1997 Sunspots and CME's
December 2009 - A Month of Increasing Solar Activity, Near Earth Asteroids, Northern Lights (view gallery) , Incredible Sky Phenomena, Solar Eruptions, Auroras, Deep Space Discoveries, Crazy Planetary Weather, Comets and Geo-Magnetic Changes
December 31, 2009: Full Moon on Dec. 31st @ 11:16 AM PST or 2:16 PM EST hosts a Lunar Eclipse @ 10 Cancer 20
Powerful cardinal aspects mean lots of action as the dark becomes light with Pluto-Venus-Sun-Mercury all in the earth sign Capricorn
opposing Cancer with TSQ to Saturn-Juno - EARTHQUAKES are just on possibility a sthe skys will be lit and wild.
BLUE MOON ECLIPSE ON NEW YEARS EVE!
Blue Moons are rare (once every 2.5 years). Blue Moons on New Year's Eve are rarer still (once every 19 years). How rare is a lunar eclipse of a Blue Moon on New Year's Eve?
A search of NASA's Five Millennium Catalogue of Lunar Eclipses provides an approximate answer. In the next 1000 years, Blue Moons on New Year's Eve will be eclipsed only 11 times (once every 91 years). A year of special note is 2848 when there will be two lunar eclipses in December--on Dec. 1st and Dec. 31st. Such a double-Blue Moon-lunar eclipse ending on New Year's Eve appears to be a millennium-level event. That's rare.
December 29, 2009: Just as the current Pluto-Venus-Sun merger in TSQ to Juno-Saturn is creating powerful streams of energies of us humans The merger between a white dwarf and neutron star or black hole may be one source of these rays, and such mergers may occur often enough
An Exotic Source for Cosmic Rays: 'Baby' Black Holes Cosmic rays – particles that have been accelerated to near the speed of light – stream out from our Sun all of the time, though they are positively sluggish compared to what are called Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs). These types of cosmic rays originate from sources outside of the Solar System, and are much more energetic than those from our Sun, though also much rarer. The merger between a white dwarf and neutron star or black hole may be one source of these rays, and such mergers may occur often enough to be the most significant source of these energetic particles.
The Sloan White dwArf Radial velocity data Mining Survey (SWARMS) – which is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey – recently uncovered a binary system of exotic objects only 50 parsecs away from the Solar System. This system, named SDSS 1257+5428, appears to be a white dwarf star that is orbiting a neutron star or low-mass black hole. Details about the system and its initial discovery can be found in a paper by Carles Badenes, et al. here.
December 28, 2009: Venus in a hard aspect to Saturn is about things cooling down and the binary star system QS Virginis will erupt in the future with a cool red dwarf and a hot dense white dwarf
Giant Planet Set for Cataclysmic Show ScienceDaily (Dec. 28, 2009) — A team of Chinese astronomers have discovered a giant planet close to the exotic binary star system QS Virginis. Although dormant now, in the future the two stars will one day erupt in a violent nova outburst. Professor Shengbang Qian of Yunnan Observatory leads the team of scientists who report their work in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
QS Virginis lies in the direction of the constellation of Virgo and is about 157 light years from the Sun. The system is made up of a cool red dwarf and a hot dense white dwarf (an object similar to the remnant that will be left behind by the Sun at the end of its life). The two stars are just 840000 km (525000 miles) apart or about twice the distance from the Earth to the Moon. Being so close together they race around each other, taking just 3 hours and 37 minutes to complete each orbit. No Earth-based telescope can see them as separate stars, but as they move around the two stars successively eclipse one another, leading to a characteristic periodic dip in the brightness of the system.
December 27, 2009: The sunspot 1039 formed on Dec. 26th with Moon finishing a transit thru Aries and with Juno also in fiery Aries in TSQ to Saturn-Pluto.
SOLAR ACTIVITY FOR SUNSPOT 1039 INTENSIFIES: 2009 is ending with a flurry of sunspots. The latest is sunspot 1039, which formed yesterday and is now crackling with low-level solar flares. Cai-Uso Wohler sends this picture of a B-class eruption from his backyard observatory in Bispingen, Germany: So far, 65% of the days in December have brought sunspots--a sharp increase in percentages compared to earlier months of 2009 when sunspots were surpassingly rare. All six of December's sunspot groups have been members of new Solar Cycle 24. These numbers could herald the sun's awakening from the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century and a livelier sun in 2010. Stay tuned.
December 26, 2009: Mars is now retrograde in Leo and still opposing Neptune-Chiron and Jupiter all in Aquarius
and also Sesquiquadrate both Sun and Pluto for some major adjustments.
CLOUDS ON MARS: Earth and Mars are converging for a close encounter at the end of January 2010. At closest approach on Jan. 27th, the two planets will be 99 million km (0.66 AU) apart and Mars will shine like a bright orange star high in the midnight sky. Although the best views are more than a month away, it is already possible to see beautiful details through backyard telescopes. Emil Kraaikamp sends this image from Ruinerwold, The Netherlands: "I took the picture using a 10-inch Meade Starfinder," says Kraaikamp. The planet's most eye-catching feature is the huge polar ice cap, but Kraaikamp points out something else: "Sometimes, pale blue orographic clouds can be seen hovering above ancient volcanoes on Mars. In this image, the clouds are present over Arsia Mons, Pavonis Mons, Ascraeus Mons, and the biggest volcano of all, Olympus Mons." They are particularly conspicuous in this animation of Mars rotating.
December 24, 2009: NASA of course has explanations for why the Voyager, has discovered a strong magnetic field just outside the solar system
Perhaps with Moon-Uranus in a square to Venus now VOC our imaginations will conjure up a Photon Belt. With Mercury sextile Uranus for while due to Mercury's retrograde motion we should have more discoveries like this
They are calling this cloud we're running into hte Local Interstellar Cloud or "Local Fluff" for short. It is about 30 light years wide.
INTERSTELLAR DISCOVERY OR PHOTON BELT? The solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist. In the Dec. 24th issue of Nature, a team of scientists reveal how NASA's Voyager spacecraft have solved the mystery.
The fact that the Fluff is strongly magnetized means that other clouds in the galactic neighborhood could be, too. Eventually, the solar system will run into some of them, and their strong magnetic fields could compress the heliosphere even more than it is compressed now. Additional compression could allow more cosmic rays to reach the inner solar system, possibly affecting terrestrial climate and the ability of astronauts to travel safely through space.
December 22, 2009: From an astrological standpoint on Dec. 24th @ 9:30 AM both the Sun and Pluto will be exactily conjunct in Capricorn which will add tremendous power to the day to day "solar" activities of our leaders and authoritiy figures who will want to keep
the current rise in activity of the true cause of weather - THE SUN
SOLAR ACTIVITY: The sun is showing signs of life. There are no fewer than five active regions on the sun's surface, shown here in an extreme ultraviolet photo taken this morning by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):
Each circle contains a sunspot or proto-sunspot belonging to new Solar Cycle 24. After two years of record-low sunspot numbers and many month-long stretches of utter quiet, this is a notable outbreak.
December 21, 2009: Winter Solstice occurs today @ 5:47 PM UT or 9:47 AM PT
As I mentioned from an astrological point of view big things are happening as Jupiter-Neptune separate from an historic conjunction
and Saturn-Pluto and of course the Sun take center stage as Sun enters Capricorn @ 5:47 PM UT to join Pluto and square Saturn making
this a more serious solstice filled with power and magic.
Happy Solstice: Today at 12:47 pm EST (1747 UT), the sun dips to its lowest celestial latitude of the year. The event, called "the December solstice," marks the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the southern hemisphere.
Winter Solstice Sun at Stonhenge
Taken at Stonehenge on the 19th/12/09 using a Lumix TZ7 camera. As the snow started to fall the sun set through the stones just like it has for 1000's of years.
December 19, 2009: This meteor sighting occured on Dec. 16th the same day as the illuminating Sagittarius New Moon
when other fireballs were spotted like the one in Nebraska Note too that Juno (asteroid dealing with climate ) entered fiery Aries.
Meteor Streaks Over Beijing China A fireball exploded in the sky over a suburb of Beijing China during the mid evening hours of December 16th, 2009. The meteor came in at around 10:23 PM.
The object was witnessed by a large number of people, and even captured on film by the Beijing Planetarium. Eye witness reports, along with the camera footage indicate that debris from the object fell about 40 km west of central Beijing. There is an ongoing search for any debris that may have reached the ground.
December 18, 2009: Today Moon sextiles Uranus for more excitement around the Sagittarian New Moon Events
when the reported fireball in Nebraska which coincide with the rare 3.5 Quake.
CURIOUS EVENTS IN NEBRASKA: Earthquakes don't rock Nebraska very often. In fact, seismically speaking, it is one of the quietest places in North America. Nevertheless, on Dec. 16th at 8:54 pm CST, USGS seismographs detected a magnitude 3.5 temblor centered near Auburn, Nebraska:
Minutes after the quake, around 9 pm CST, lightning-like flashes lit up the skies around the area of the quake. Telephones in police departments and TV stations rang with reports of bright lights, loud rumbles and shaking ground. Sky watchers, not only in southeastern Nebraska, but also in neighboring Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas, saw a "bright fireball" with "green streamers" moving from northwest to southeast.
Could these events be connected? Nebraska State Trooper Jerry Chab, an experienced amateur astronomer who witnessed the lights and was one of the first to report them, says no. "I think we have the most cosmic of coincidences: A bright [meteoritic] fireball around the same time as an earthquake." Indeed, eyewitness descriptions of the fireball are consistent with a meteoroid disintegrating in the atmosphere.
December 18, 2009: The results from all these sky camera are a first time event (Venus square Uranus) and are providing
some amazing visuals.
WHEN AURORAS COLLIDE: A continent-wide network of all-sky cameras has photographed a never before seen phenomenon: colliding auroras that produce explosions of light. The must-see images have solved a long-standing mystery of Northern Lights.
December 17, 2009: When the fireball hit in Nebraska Moon-Pluto were conjunct and square Saturn for some real impact during
yesterday's New Moon phase.
NEBRASKA FIREBALL "At 9 p.m. Central Time on Dec. 16th, a very bright meteor lit up the completely overcast sky like lightning in southeast Nebraska," reports Trooper Jerry Chab of the Nebraska State Patrol. "It flashed for approximately 2 seconds and was followed by sonic booms and ground shaking, which prompted many calls by the public to law enforcement in a three county wide area." The USGS says there was a magnitude 3.5 earthquake near Auburn, Nebraska, at 8:53 pm Wednesday night, about the same time and place as the fireball. Coincidence?
Readers in Nebraska with photos or eyewitness accounts are encouraged to submit a report. - Pictures will follow...
December 17, 2009: Mercury is in a positive trine to Uranus which highlights incredible discoveries augmented by yesterday's
New Moon in Sagittarius (sign of deep space).
Scientists spot nearby 'super-Earth' filled with water. CNN) -- Astronomers announced this week they found a water-rich and relatively nearby planet that's similar in size to Earth.
The planet is named GJ 1214b, is 2.7 times as large as Earth and orbits a star much smaller and less luminous than our sun
While the planet probably has too thick of an atmosphere and is too hot to support life similar to that found on Earth, the discovery is being heralded as a major breakthrough in humanity's search for life on other planets.
"The big excitement is that we have found a watery world orbiting a very nearby and very small star," said David Charbonneau, a Harvard professor of astronomy and lead author of an article on the discovery, which appeared this week in the journal Nature.
December 16, 2009: New Moon in Sagittarius with trine to Mars in Leo and square to Uranus for unexpected powerful
CME heading toward earth which will create auroras. The visual features of these auroras will be awesome with Venus square Uranus.
INCOMING CME: This morning at 0120 UT, an eruption of magnetic fields around sunspot 1035 produced a long-duration C4-class solar flare and hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) in the general direction of Earth. Details of the blast will become clear when more data are downloaded from the SOHO and STEREO spacecraft. Meanwhile, high-latitude sky watchers should prepare for auroras when the CME arrives on or about Dec. 18th.
December 15, 2009: Sun-Moon in Sagittarius with a trine to Mars in super heated Leo (sun is exalted in Leo) as sunspot 1035 emerges.
BIG NEW SUNSPOT EMERGES: New sunspot 1035 is growing rapidly and it is now seven times wider than Earth itself: movie. The magnetic polarity of the spot identifies it as a member of new Solar Cycle 24. Readers with solar telescopes, train your optics on the sun to witness sunspot genesis in action.
View this photograph of sunspot 1035 taken by Rogerio Marcon of Campinas
MONSTER GEMINID: On Monday morning, Dec. 14th, at 3:59 am Pacific Standard Time, a piece of extinct comet 3200 Phaethon hit Earth's atmosphere over the Mojave desert in California. This was the result:
"It was a monster fireball," says photographer Wally Pacholka. "I caught it exploding over the Hercules Finger rock formation near Victorville, California, using a Canon 35 mm camera. This was one of 1522 photographs I took "
December 14, 2009: As Moon enters Sagittarius @ 4:25 AM to join Venus and Sun for an incredible New Moon in the sign of deep space journeys. plus Venus is also square Uranus to add to incredible beauty.
GEMINID METEOR UPDATE/GALLERY
On Dec. 13th, Earth passed through a stream of debris from extinct comet 3200 Phaethon. The encounter produced a surge of more than 160 Geminid meteors per hour. The timing of the peak favored observers in Europe and the Middle East, many of whom said it was the finest display of Geminids they had ever seen.
2009 Geminid Meteor Gallery
December 11, 2009: Deep space oriented Sagittarius Sun is both trine Mars in Leo and sextile the Moon while Mercury is sextile Uranus for more dramatic discoveries in outer space.
In Hindu mythology the seven stars of Ursa Major, the seven Richis or Seven Wise Men, were wedded to the seven sisters of the Pleiades. After rumors of their infidelity the Richis banished their wives. Only Arundhati (or Arundha), an exemplary wife remained with her husband, Sage Vashishta as the star Alcor; Vashishta is Mizar. In the course of Hindu marriage rituals, both the bride and groom are taken outside the marriage mandap and shown the Star Alcor, better known as Arundhati Nakshatram. This ritual symbolizes the urge of the newly weds to remain true to each other. And Alcor is pointed out as a paradigm of marital virtue to the bride.
December 11, 2009:Faint Star Orbiting the Big Dipper's Alcor Discovered ScienceDaily (Dec. 10, 2009) — Next time you spy the Big Dipper, keep in mind that there is another star, invisible to the unaided eye, contributing to this constellation. According to a new paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, one of the stars that makes the bend in the ladle's handle, Alcor, has a smaller red dwarf companion.
December 10, 2009: After Moon in Libra squared Mercury in Capricorn many of the misunderstandings and questions about the Spiral Lights over Norway where layed to rest. The chart set for Dec. 9th @ 7:50 AM CET - 1:00 had Scorpio rising with ruler Mars at MidHeaven indicating military prescence in during these weird lights.
CONFIRMED: The Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed the launch and subsequent failure of a submarine-based missile: BBC Report.
December 9, 2009: Wow this last Virgo Moon with ruler Mercury near Pluto in Capricorn has been inspiring some major disruptions
and weird phenomena The Moon's opposition to Uranus was a definite trigger along with the other mutable square to Sun-Venus in Sagittarius
which relates to sky phenomena.
STRANGE LIGHTS OVER NORWAY: This morning in Norway, people saw a strange and still-unexplained phenomenon. Eye-witness Nick Banbury of Harstad reports: "We are used to seeing lots of auroras here in Arctic Norway, but on my way to work this morning I saw something completely unexpected. Between 7:50 and 8:00 a.m. local time, there was a strange light in the sky," shown here in a picture and video
LESERVIDEO fra Lødingen: Tydelige spiral-bevegelser i lysfenomenet "It consisted initially of a green beam of light similar in colour to the aurora with a mysterious rotating spiral at one end," continues Banbury. "This spiral then got bigger and bigger until it turned into a huge halo in the sky with the green beam extending down to the earth. According to the press, this could be seen all over northern norway and must therefore have been very high up in the atmosphere to be seen hundreds of km apart."
December 8, 2009: Today's Moon in Virgo helps us examine the details of the December 4th solar eruption are helped with the
ERUPTIVE SOLAR PROMINENCE REVISITED
December began with an enormous magnetic filament wrapped around the sun's south pole. On Friday, Dec. 4th, it erupted. NASA's twin STEREO probes, stationed on nearly opposite sides of the sun, photographed the blast from two points of view. Click on the image to set the scene in motion:
"The material is heading from high latitudes toward the solar equator," he notes. The dynamics of these massive events are becoming clear at last.
More eruptions may be found in the STEREO gallery.
December 7, 2009: A fiery time with Sun-Sagittarius trine Mars-Leo we should have an exciting show for the Geminid meteor showers.
GEMINID METEOR SHOWERS PEAK ON DEC. 13TH
Mark your calendar. The Geminid meteor shower peaks on Dec. 13th and 14th when Earth passes through a stream of debris from extinct comet 3200 Phaethon. The Geminids have been intensifying in recent years, and 2009 could be the best year yet. Forecasters expect 140+ meteors per hour under the dark skies of a new Moon. [sky map]
December 7, 2009: Uranus the planet stationed direct on Dec. 1st and even though this portends changes astrologically
it still has relevance with transiting Moon opposing Uranus (Dec. 9th) and more importantly Uranus on track for a major TSQ with Saturn-Pluto next year.
Large Moon Of Uranus May Explain Odd Tilt Please try to resist the childish jokes, but the fact is that the odd tilt of Uranus may be the result of a particularly large moon.
Uranus spins on an axis almost parallel with the plane of the solar system, rather than perpendicular to it – though why it does this nobody knows. One theory is that the tilt is the result of a collision with an Earth-sized object, but this "hasn't succeeded in explaining much of anything", says Ignacio Mosqueira of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. Why, for example, are the orbits of Uranus's 27 known moons not also tilted?
Now Gwenaël Boué and Jacques Laskar at the Paris Observatory in France have come up with another explanation: Uranus may once have had an unusually massive extra moon. If the moon had 1 per cent of the mass of Uranus – and orbited at a certain distance – it would slightly unbalance the planet and increase its wobble about its axis. After about 2 million years, the wobbling could have become exaggerated enough to tip the planet on its side
November 2009 - A Month of Increasing Solar Activity, Sunspots, CME, Incredible Sky Phenomena, Auroras, Deep Space Discoveries, Crazy Planetary Weather, Comets and Geo-Magnetic Changes
November 30, 2009: Full Moon in Gemini on December 2nd is a prelude as a focus on space energies like meteors
come into focus in our daily life. In Greek mythology Phaethon was the son of Helios (Phoebus). The myth tells of how Phaeton was unable to control the fierce horses that drew the chariot owned by his father Helios. With the current transit of Mars in Leo (ruled by the Sun)
stationing around the time of the Geminid meteor showers, all eyes on the skies.
GEMINID METEOR FORECAST: Mark your calendar. The Geminid meteor shower peaks on Dec. 13th and 14th when Earth passes through a stream of debris from extinct comet 3200 Phaethon. The Geminids have been intensifying in recent years, and 2009 could be the best year yet. Forecasters expect 140+ meteors per hour under the dark skies of a new Moon. [sky map]
November 29, 2009: Combinations of visual Mercury in Sagittarius trine Mars in Leo and square Uranus in Pisces (unexpected sights) makes this an incredible and unusual appearance.
UPSIDE-DOWN RAINBOWS: 'tis the season for upside-down rainbows. Just yesterday, one appeared over Dothan, Alabama:
"I've never seen anything like it before," says photographer Maria Doty. "It was a very unusual sight and the colors were bright."
The technical name for this phenomenon is circumzenithal arc or "CZA" for short--and it's no rainbow. CZAs are formed by sunlight shining through plate-shaped ice crystals in high clouds. Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley calls it "the most beautiful of all ice haloes." First timers often describe the CZA as an 'upside down rainbow' and "someone has also likened it to 'a grin in the sky,'" he adds.
November 25, 2009: As things are heating up astrologically with Sun/Sagittarius to trine Mars/Leo (Dec. 10th) and Mercury also in Sagittarius also to trine Mars in Leo (Nov. 26th) the idea of a "Solar Tsunami" is verified and all too real!
Monster Waves on the Sun are Real November 24, 2009: Sometimes you really can believe your eyes. That's what NASA's STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) spacecraft are telling researchers about a controversial phenomenon on the sun known as the "solar tsunami."
Years ago, when solar physicists first witnessed a towering wave of hot plasma racing along the sun's surface, they doubted their senses. The scale of the thing was staggering. It rose up higher than Earth itself and rippled out from a central point in a circular pattern millions of kilometers in circumference. Skeptical observers suggested it might be a shadow of some kind—a trick of the eye—but surely not a real wave.
"Now we know," says Joe Gurman of the Solar Physics Lab at the Goddard Space Flight Center. "Solar tsunamis are real."
November 25, 2009: Yesterday when this video of Saturn's Northern Lights was revealed, astrological Saturn was in a positive sextile with Saturn now in Libra
Cassini Captures Ghostly Dance Of Saturn's Northern Lights PASADENA, Calif. – In the first video showing the auroras above the northern latitudes of Saturn, Cassini has spotted the tallest known "northern lights" in the solar system, flickering in shape and brightness high above the ringed planet.
The new video reveals changes in Saturn's aurora every few minutes, in high resolution, with three dimensions. The images show a previously unseen vertical profile to the auroras, which ripple in the video like tall curtains. These curtains reach more than 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) above the edge of the planet's northern hemisphere.
The new video and still images are online at: Here .
November 24, 2009: Yesterday evening with Jupiter separating from the Moon and meeting Neptune added a special aura this vision.
JUPITER-MOON NIGHT LIGHTS: Last night, sky watchers around the world witnessed a beautiful conjunction of Jupiter and the Moon. Together, the two heavenly bodies were so bright they could be seen through clouds and city lights. In Hong Kong, astrophotographer Wah! opened the shutter of his Canon 450D and watched the pair blaze a trail above the tropical urban landscape:
If you missed it, there is a second chance. Jupiter and the Moon will gather again on Dec. 20th and 21st for a conjunction even more beautiful than last night's. It's a solstice sky show that must not be missed. Mark your calendar and, meanwhile, browse the images below.
November 20, 2009: The Sun's powerful forces are even reflected in the language of astrology with Mars transiting in Leo opposing the immensity of Jupiter in Aquarius
SOLAR ACTIVITY BURSTING FORTH: The sun is coming to life. New sunspots 1032 and 1033 are members of new Solar Cycle 24. There are several new-cycle active regions scattered across the solar disk and the limb of the sun has some very photogenic prominences. Readers with solar telescopes should dust off their optics and take a look.
November 19, 2009: Ever since the Scorpio New Moon (Nov. 16th) thre has been more and more news about dark energy.
for example: Mystery 'dark flow' extends towards edge of universe Today's Capricorn Moon meeting Pluto and square Saturn will keep the discoveries going.
"Vampire Star" May Unlock Clues to Secret of Dark Energy ESO’s Very Large Telescope has captured the first time-lapse movie of a rare shell ejected by a “vampire star." The gas-sucking star is part of a double star system known as V445 in the constellation of Puppis ("the Stern") that is devouring part of a companion star looks to be a ticking time bomb. It appears that this double star system is a prime candidate to be one of the long-sought progenitors of the exploding stars known as Type Ia supernovae, critical for studies of dark energy. In November 2000, this system underwent a nova outburst, becoming 250 times brighter than before and ejecting a large quantity of matter into space.
“One of the major problems in modern astrophysics is the fact that we still do not know exactly what kinds of stellar system explode as a Type Ia supernova,” says Patrick Woudt, from the University of Cape Town and lead author of the paper reporting the results. “As these supernovae play a crucial role in showing that the Universe’s expansion is currently accelerating, pushed by a mysterious dark energy, it is rather embarrassing.”
Monday's New Moon @ 25 Scorpio has the Sabian image of "An x-ray". That lunation also had Mercury in Sagittarius trine Mars in Solar Leo It turns that "EIT waves" are detected and explained as propagating density enhancements compressed by the successive stretching of magnetic field lines during coronal mass ejections (CMEs),
EIT waves and coronal magnetic field diagnosis Department of Astronomy, Nanjing University in Nanjing, China – Solar coronal seismology based on magnetic field-line stretching model of "EIT waves" is proposed, which is demonstrated to be potentially able to probe the mysterious magnetic field in the solar corona. The study, which was led by Dr. Chen, is reported in Issue 52 of Science in China (G) because of its significant research value.
Many explosive phenomena on the Sun, such as solar flares, involve the energy conversion from the magnetic energy to thermal and kinetic energies in the corona, which is the outer atmosphere of the Sun. Therefore, the coronal magnetic field is extremely crucial in the understanding of these eruptive phenomena. However, at present, only the magnetic field along the solar surface can be measured directly, whereas the magnetic field in the solar corona can hardly be measured
November 18, 2009: Last night's fireball streaked across the sky as Sagittarius Moon was trine Mars in Leo lighting up the western skies.
EXPLODING METEOR: A remarkable fireball that "turned night into day" over parts of the western United States last night was likely an Earthgrazing Leonid associated with the tail-end of the outburst described below
Bright flash turns night into day in Utah Meteor lit up night sky, caught on video in Idaho
November 16, 2009: Scorpio New Moon moviing into deep space oriented Sagittarius this evening @ 9:22 PM is perfect for
viewing the climax of the Leonid Showers.
LEONID METEOR SHOWERS PEAK: The Leonid meteor shower peaks this year on Nov. 17th. The shower begins on Tuesday morning around 0900 UT (4 a.m. EST; 1 a.m. PST) with a sprinkling of 20 to 30 meteors per hour over North America. The new Moon provides ideally dark conditions for viewing this initial flurry. The best place to be, however, is Asia, where forecasters expect as many as 300 Leonids per hour. The predicted outburst occurs between 2100 - 2200 UT, just before local dawn in that part of the world:
November 13, 2009: NASA's announcement comes while Sun-Mercury-Scorpio is trine Uranus in Pisces in water signs. The announcemt is anti-climactic since India made the discovery first. Note that this is a month after the Lunar Impact on Oct. 9th when transiting Mars was conjunct SNode in Cancer (more water).
Splash! NASA moon strikes found significant water LOS ANGELES – It turns out there's plenty of water on the moon — at least near the lunar south pole, scientists said Friday.
"Indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn't find just a little bit, we found a significant amount," said Anthony Colaprete, a principal project investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center.
The discovery came from an analysis of data from a spacecraft NASA intentionally crashed into the moon last month.
November 13, 2009: Increased solar activity is reflected in today's Libra Moon sextile Mars in Leo and Sun's trine to Uranus
for the unexpected and surprising...
Increased Solar Activity: Friday the 13th could be a lucky day for astrophotographers. A photogenic scene is developing on the sun's northeastern limb, where a magnetic thicket of hot plasma is rising into view. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) made this movie of the action on Nov. 12th and 13th:
The swelling limb-glow heralds the approach of sunspot 1029, the biggest and most active sunspot of the year. Sunspot 1029 spent the past two weeks transiting the farside of the sun, invisible from Earth, but now it is about to reappear. Friday the 13th kicks off a 2- to 3-day photo-op as the sun's rotation slowly turns the active region back toward Earth.
November 12, 2009: Taurid Meteors peak during a spectacular Moon sextile fiery Mars and while Moon is square Pluto.
FIREBALLS TONIGHT: The northern branch of the annual Taurid meteor shower peaks on Nov. 12th. Sky watchers should be alert for fireballs. The Taurids, caused by debris from Comet 2P/Encke, tend to be slow and very bright. Forecasters expect as many as 5 Taurids per hour during the hours around midnight.
Check out the photo gallery for fireballs during November 2009.
November 12, 2009: The discovery hit the internet on November 6th but reflects current Mars in Leo moving in opposition to Jupiter - the God of LIghtening
Signature of antimatter detected in lightning WASHINGTON — Designed to scan the heavens thousands to billions of light-years beyond the solar system for gamma rays, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has also picked up a shocking vibe from Earth. During its first 14 months of operation, the flying observatory has detected 17 gamma-ray flashes associated with terrestrial storms — and some of those flashes have contained a surprising signature of antimatter.
During two recent lightning storms, Fermi recorded gamma-ray emissions of a particular energy that could have been produced only by the decay of energetic positrons, the antimatter equivalent of electrons. The observations are the first of their kind for lightning storms. Michael Briggs of the University of Alabama in Huntsville announced the puzzling findings November 5 at the 2009 Fermi Symposium.
It’s a surprise to have found the signature of positrons during a lightning storm, Briggs said.
November 5, 2009:Taurids meteor showers rock with fire in the skies as Mars in Leo continues to apply with an opposition to Jupiter in air sign Aquarius
Great balls of fire in the Bay Area skies (11-07) 19:07 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- The annual Taurids meteor showers put on a show in the Bay Area Saturday evening, with one especially spectacular fireball wowing residents from around the region.
April Orcutt caught a glimpse of the slow-moving meteor in the western sky from her home in San Anselmo at 5:10 p.m., moments after the sun had gone down.
"I was astonished - it was still light out," she said. "It was a big white fireball, tinged in green, and disappeared behind Mount Tam."
November 5, 2009: Moon SQ Uranus in mutables along with fall out from Neptune stationing all set the stage for the effects
of a coronal mass ejection
CME to Glance Earth's Magnetic Field
Arctic sky watchers should be alert for Northern Lights on Nov. 5th. NOAA forecasters say there is a chance that a coronal mass ejection (CME) will hit Earth's magnetic field, and the impact could spark a high-latitude geomagnetic storm. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded this movie of the CME:
The billon-ton cloud was blown into space by departing sunspot 1029 on Oct. 31st. Normally, CMEs take only two or three days to reach Earth, but during the deep solar minimum of 2008-2009, the clouds have slowed to a veritable crawl. Crossing the sun-Earth divide now requires about five days, so an Oct. 31st CME should arrive on Nov. 5th. Because the blast was not squarely Earth-directed, the sluggish CME will deliver at most a glancing blow. NOAA forecasters estimate a 5% chance of strong geomagnetic storms around Earth's poles.
November 3, 2009: Taurus Moon today and still a major factor in the Full Moon Phase as we enter debris from Comet 2P/Encke.
TAURID METEOR SHOWER: Earth is entering a stream of debris from periodic Comet 2P/Encke, and this is causing the annual Taurid meteor shower. The shower has a broad maximum lasting from Nov. 5th through 12th. At most, only about 5 Taurids per hour streak across the sky, but what they lack in number they make up for in dazzle. Taurid meteors tend to be fireballs, very bright and slow. Look for them falling out of the constellation Taurus during the hours around midnight. [sky map]
November 2, 2009: On a Full Moon in Taurus forming an out of orb Grand Cross in Fixed Signs, the image of a Rainbow at Night is
fitting.
RAINBOW AT NIGHT: Have you ever seen a rainbow after dark? It happened last night in Yorkshire, UK, where Christopher Walker photographed a multi-colored band arcing over the countryside:
Rainbows appear when sunlight is reflected from raindrops. But in this case, the sun was not required; the Frosty Moon was bright enough to do the job on its own. "The moonlight was so bright I could see red in the rainbow with my unaided eye," says Walker. "
October 2009 - A Month of Increasing Solar Activity even Sunspots, Incredible Sky Phenomena, Auroras, Deep Space Discoveries, Crazy Planetary Weather, Comets and Geo-Magnetic Changes
October 28, 2009: This past even is relevant with today's Sun-Mercury TSQ Mars-Jupiter for large explosions plus the
upcoming Saturn SQ to Pluto
This happened on Oct. 8th around 11 am local time in the coastal town of Bone, Indonesia The chart set for this event has Pluto on the ascendant in Capricorn along with Mars/SNode-Cancer Opposing N Node in Capricorn from 7th to 1st houses.
MORE ON THE INDONESIAN ASTEROID: Picture this: A 10-meter wide asteroid hits Earth and explodes in the atmosphere with the energy of a small atomic bomb. Frightened by thunderous sounds and shaking walls, people rush out of their homes, thinking that an earthquake is in progress. All they see is a twisting trail of debris in the mid-day sky:
This really happened on Oct. 8th around 11 am local time in the coastal town of Bone, Indonesia. The Earth-shaking blast received remarkably little coverage in Western press, but meteor scientists have given it their full attention. "The explosion triggered infrasound sensors of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) more than 10,000 km away," report researchers Elizabeth Silber and Peter Brown of the Univ. of Western Ontario in an Oct. 19th press release. Their analysis of the infrasound data revealed an explosion at coordinates 4.5S, 120E (close to Bone) with a yield of about 50 kton of TNT. That's two to three times more powerful than World War II-era atomic bombs.
The asteroid that caused the blast was not known before it hit and took astronomers completely by surprise. According to statistical studies of the near-Earth asteroid population, such objects are expected to collide with Earth on average every 2 to 12 years. "Follow-on observations from other instruments or ground recovery efforts would be very valuable in further refining this unique event," say Silber and Brown.
October 27, 2009: On a day filled with mystery as Moon meets Neptune in Aquarius in mutual reception to far-out Uranus in Pisces - a new asteroid or small planet discovered also holds interest for astrologers.
MYSTERY OBJECT: Yesterday, astronomers in Arizona, New Mexico and Spain, all hunting for near-Earth asteroids, discovered a "mystery object" orbiting Earth. Temporarily named "9U01FF6," it is small and in an elongated, 31-day orbit. Experts say it is probably a piece of an Apollo-era Moon mission. We'll get a closer look on Oct. 29th when it zips past Earth about 82,000 km (0.2 lunar distances) away. Advanced amateur astronomers can find it using this ephemeris.
October 27, 2009: Mars in Leo adds to the explosive nature of this massive sunspot adding to Vesta already in opposition
to Neptune-Jupiter in Aquarius.
BIG SUNSPOT ERUPTS: By unleashing six C-class solar flares in the past 48 hours, sunspot 1029 has become the most active sunspot of the year so far. This morning, Paul Haese photographed the maelstrom from his backyard observatory in Blackwood, South Australia:
October 26, 2009: Powerful fiery force of Mars in Leo moving toward an exact Square with Sun in Scorpio (Oct. 29th)
expect more fiery objects from the sky to fall earthward
Meteorite-like object falls in Latvia RIGA, Latvia — A meteorite-like object crashed into a meadow in northern Latvia, creating a crater 27 feet (9 meters) wide and 9 feet (3 meters) deep, a geologist who visited the site said Monday.
Uldis Nulle, a scientist at the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Center, said there was smoke coming out of the crater when he arrived at the crash site late Sunday in the Mazsalaca region near the Estonian border.
"My first impression is that, yes, it was a meteorite," he said. "All the evidence suggests this when compared to pictures of real meteorite craters.
October 26, 2009: The exact conjunction of Jupiter-Moon using tropical astrology has both @ 17 Aquarius 30 which
has the Sabian Symbol: "A man unmasked."
MONDAY NIGHT SKY SHOW: When the sun sets on Monday, Oct. 26th, go outside and look south. Jupiter and the Moon are converging for a beautiful conjunction. The bright pair can been seen even through thinly-clouded skies and city lights. View: sky map.
October 23, 2009: Turmoil and conflict is evidenced by an applying Sun (Scorpio) square Mars (Leo) exact on October 29th. even though this astrological aspect has other means relating to leaders and danger with Mars in Leo we should see more sunspot activity...
GROWING SUNSPOT: Sunspot 1029 is growing rapidly (movie) and crackling with C-class solar flares. The spot's magnetic polarity indicates membership in new Solar Cycle 24, a sign that the sunspot cycle is unfolding as it should--albeit slowly. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor develops.
Sunspot Image from Mike Borman of Evansville, Indiana
October 23, 2009: Astrological language also talks about the power of solar winds and CME's with Mars in Leo moving toward an opposition to Jupiter in air sign Aquarius (magnification)
GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY: High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for Northern Lights. A sharp gust of solar wind hit Earth on Oct. 21st, and the Arctic Circle is still ringing with geomagnetic activity. "[We had a] stunning display of active auroras last night," reports Thomas Hagen, who sends this picture from Tromsø, Norway
"The entire sky turned green and stayed green for much of the night," adds Fredrik Broms of Kvaløya, Norway.
October 20, 2009: Moon enters fiery Sagittarius and starts with trine to Mars now in Leo for a dramatic show of
Auroras stimulated by the New Moon solar coronal mass ejection (CME) relating well to Leo since Mars made ingress into Leo on 10-16-09.
AURORA WATCH generated from CME: Polar sky watchers should be alert for Northern Lights tonight. That's when a solar coronal mass ejection (CME) hurled toward Earth by an Oct. 17th explosion on the sun is expected to arrive. The incoming CME is not a big one, and its impact might have little or no visible effect. NOAA forecasters estimate a 5% chance of geomagnetic activity.
October 19, 2009: Jupiter (planet of exploration) is direct and trine Mercury for more discoveries including those extasolar all aided by mutual reception to far out Uranus.
Europeans find 32 new planets outside solar system WASHINGTON — European astronomers have found 32 new planets outside our solar system, adding evidence to the theory that the universe has many places where life could develop. Scientists using the European Southern Observatory telescope didn't find any planets quite the size of Earth or any that seemed habitable or even unusual. But their announcement increased the number of planets discovered outside the solar system to more than 400.
Six of the newly found planets are several times bigger than Earth, increasing the population of so-called super-Earths by more than 30 percent. Most planets discovered so far are far bigger, Jupiter-sized or even larger.
Two of the newly discovered planets were as small as five times the size of Earth and one was up to five times larger than Jupiter.
October 19, 2009: Mars in powerful Leo is applying to an opposition with Jupiter which offers dramatic views in space.
METEORS FROM HALLEY'S COMET: The Orionid meteor shower, caused by debris from Halley's comet, peaks this week. Forecasters expect dozens of meteors per hour during the dark hours before sunrise on Wednesday, Oct. 21st. Science@NASA has the full story
October 17, 2009: Another example of the Saturn-Uranus opposition as Venus and Mercury translate the light
Meteorite Crashed Into an SUV Near Hamilton, Canada Astronomers say they have found a meteorite fragment the size of a golf ball near Hamilton, which they believe streaked across the night sky above Southern Ontario in late September.
The small space rock came to rest in an SUV in Grimsby, Ont., after smashing through the vehicle's windshield.
October 15, 2009: Protected by the Sun as Mars moves from Cancer (defensive) into assertive Leo where the Sun is exalted this discovery is described as: "heliosphere," it springs from the sun and extends far beyond the orbit of Pluto,
GIANT RIBBON DISCOVERED AT THE EDGE OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM: For years, researchers have known that the solar system is surrounded by a vast bubble of magnetism. Called the "heliosphere," it springs from the sun and extends far beyond the orbit of Pluto, providing a first line of defense against cosmic rays and interstellar clouds that try to enter our local space. Although the heliosphere is huge and literally fills the sky, it emits no light and no one has actually seen it. Until now.
NASA's IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) spacecraft has made the first all-sky map of the heliosphere and the results have taken researchers by surprise. The map is bisected by a bright, winding ribbon of unknown origin:
October 14, 2009: Yesterday's Leo Moon hosted a sextile to the Sun and opposition to Neptune adding to the spectacular nature of the meteor...
Huge fireball over Netherlands
A fireball as bright as the full Moon startled observers in the Netherlands yesterday when it raced across the evening twilight sky.
"It was spectacular," says eyewitness Dominic Doyle of the European Space Agency in Noordwijk. "I estimate its magnitude to be about -12," adds amateur astronomer Koen Miskotte, who saw it from the small village of Ermelo. Various observers report it breaking apart into as many as a half-dozen pieces, followed by sonic booms, low rumbles and shaking windows. A Royal Dutch Meteorology Institute listening post detected strong infrasound (low-frequency sound) waves, apparently confirming a high-altitude breakup event: data.
October 12, 2009: Leo Moon (ruler the SUN) is opposing Jupiter stationing direct which can indicate expansion of solar activity.
SOLAR ACTIVITY: NASA's STEREO spacecraft and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) are monitoring an active region about to emerge over the sun's southeastern limb: image. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to keep an eye on the region for signs of a possible sunspot.
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on or about Oct. 15th.
October 8, 2009: Tomorrow's lunar bombing which we can watch live has so many glaring astrological signatures from Mars (military) meeting S Node (Karma) both in Cancer and opposing N Node in Capricorn along with Mercury ruler of the Gemini Moon being void of course that we have to suspect something more is up then just searching for water. ?!
Watch Live NASA Bombing Moon - LCROSS Lunar Impact NASA is bombing the Moon saying they are searching for water. But the surprise here is that may not be the only intention of this mission - they have known about traces of water on the Moon since 1971. India beat NASA to the punch, by being 'first' in disclosing the discovery of water on the Moon and TRY TO SAVE MOON. So there is no reason really to detonate the 'alleged kinetic bomb' on the surface of the moon seeking traces of water anymore as India discovered this already.
October 7, 2009: Today Mercury meets Saturn to communicate this latest discovery of the ring planet also a time when Mars is sextile Saturn to set guidelines for cooperation as more space discoveries are coming.
Gigantic ring around Saturn discovered PASADENA, Calif. - The Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered the biggest but never-before-seen ring around the planet Saturn, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced late Tuesday.
The thin array of ice and dust particles lies at the far reaches of the Saturnian system and its orbit is tilted 27 degrees from the planet's main ring plane, the laboratory said.
October 6, 2009: The charts set for lunar impact on October 9th for the actual impacts which commence at 4:30 am PDT (11:30 UT) have the Moon @ 21 degrees 42 minutes Gemini TSQ Venus-Mercury-Saturn/Virgo and Uranus in Pisces. Of course the interesting bit of synchronicity is that Mars will be applying to a conjunction with S Node opposing N Node of the Moon @ 12:23 PM PDT.
The Centaur rocket will strike first, transforming 2200 kg of mass and 10 billion joules of kinetic energy into a blinding flash of heat and light. Researchers expect the impact to throw up a plume of debris as high as 10 km.
LUNAR IMPACT - On Friday morning, Oct. 9th, you can watch a pair of spacecraft crash into the Moon with your own eyes. The purposeful impacts are the climax of NASA's LCROSS mission to unearth signs of water in lunar soil. Today's story from Science@NASA tells how and where to look. The Centaur rocket will strike first, transforming 2200 kg of mass and 10 billion joules of kinetic energy into a blinding flash of heat and light. Researchers expect the impact to throw up a plume of debris as high as 10 km.
Target for Oct. 9th impact There will be two plumes, one from the booster rocket (4:30 am PDT) and another from the LCROSS mothership (4:34 am PDT). Each is expected to linger in sunlight for 60 to 90 seconds before falling back into the shadowy depths of Cabeus. The surface brightness of the plumes should be similar to that of surrounding sunlit terrain.
October 5, 2009: Synchronistically on Friday October 9th Mars now in Cancer (ruled by the Moon) meets the S Node of past karma and opposes N Node of future destiny transiting in Capricorn.
NASA will Bomb the Moon on Friday - On Friday morning, Oct. 9th, you can watch a pair of spacecraft crash into the Moon with your own eyes. The purposeful impacts are the climax of NASA's LCROSS mission to unearth signs of water in lunar soil.
Even though India has already discovered water, here is NASA's agenda for October 9th.
October 5, 2009: Last weekend's Full Moon in Aries had a Venus-Mercury-Saturn in Virgo opposition to Uranus in Pisces ruled by Neptune, the progenitor of FOG creating interesting optical effects.
HARVEST MOONBOWS: This weekend's Harvest Moon mesmerized onlookers with its luminous beauty. In Missouri Valley, Iowa, photographer Mike Hollingshead managed to tear his eyes away for a moment and he discovered an even better show behind his back
"It was a lunar fogbow," says Hollingshead. "The bright light of the Harvest Moon was shining into a fogbank rising over a recently-harvested field. The resulting fogbow was surprisingly vivid and well-defined." (At the base of the photo, the dark homunculus is the photographer's own moon-shadow pointing east toward the dawn sky where Venus can be seen shining through the mist.)
September 2009 - A Month of Increasing Solar Activity even Sunspots, Incredible Sky Phenomena, Deep Space Discoveries, Crazy Planetary Weather, Comets and Geo-Magnetic Changes
September 30, 2009: Moving towards an Aries Full Moon on Oct. 3rd and 4th. we find new pioneering efforts along with
new discoveries as Mars ruler of Aries is trine Uranus.
COSMIC RAYS HIT SPACE AGE HIGH: NASA spacecraft are measuring record-high levels of cosmic rays--a side-effect of the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century. This development could have implications for the amount of shielding astronauts need to take when they explore deep space.
September 29, 2009: Mercury moved direct today @ 6:14 AM for positive sextile with Mars (Sept. 30th) Mercury is a barometer for weather here on earth but what about weather on Mercury?
SPACE WEATHER ON MERCURY: Today, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is going to fly by Mercury only 142 miles from the planet's surface. Naturally, much attention will be given to pictures of new craters and previously unseen terrain, but there is another, equally sensational reason for the flyby--namely, to investigate Mercury's hyperactive space weather:
Mercury's magnetic field is buffeted by solar wind as much as fifteen times stronger than the solar wind we experience at Earth. During an earlier flyby of Mercury in Oct. 2008, MESSENGER encountered magnetic "tornadoes" – twisted bundles of magnetic fields connecting Mercury to interplanetary space. The twisters are formed by explosive magnetic reconnection events at the solar wind-magnetic field boundary. Solar wind can actually flow down the throats of these tornadoes to strike and erode the surface of Mercury, giving Mercury a comet-like tail.
September 26, 2009: Besides the influence of Mars, the most important being in this drama, The Sun is moving toward aTrine Jupiter - Big, expansive energies are reflected in sunspots and on earth it is an opportune time for proposals, launchings, generosity, increases, travel, seeking help, legalities, and educational matters.
Solar Updates: There's more to the solar activity than sunspots. While sunspots have been absent 80% of the time so far in 2009, almost every day has brought a prominence or two. Today's is spectacular:
Sunspot 1026 is super active. New-cycle sunspot 1026 is crackling with magnetic activity, and this morning it produced a C-class solar flare. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory's (SOHO's) extreme UV telescope recorded the action around 0100 UT on Sept. 25th: View the Action Here. Another view of Sunspot 1026
September 26, 2009: Mars ruler of Aries associated with the Sun God (Apollo/RA) is on a Solstice Line in Cardinal Cancer opposing Moon in Capricorn while Sun is appling to a TSQ and much more...
SOLAR ACTIVITY PROGRESSES: Around the world, amateur astronomers are watching an impressive display of solar prominence activity. "Wow and then some!" exclaims from Steve Riegel who sends this picture from Santa Maria, California:
"This is by far the biggest prominence I've seen since I got my Personal Solar Telescope in 2005," he says. "I hope this is a taste of things to come as we start climbing out of solar minimum."
Signature of antimatter detected in lightning 
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