A lot of folks across the country have noticed an especially reddish moon and some very red sunrises or sunsets this week. This phenomenon is due to dozens of wildfires burning in the western U.S. and Canada. Have you noticed any extra redness in the moon or sun?

 

Red Moon over Michigan on Sept. 4 :

 

 

Red Sunrise over Seattle on Sept. 2:

 

Look real close.... See any sunspots???

Edited September 7, 20179 yr by Science Friction

I think I'll designate Bluegrasscard as our official space weather guy to keep us alerted to solar storms & CME's , near-Earth asteroids, etc..... Where the hell is NWO when you need him?

 

I will hope this is relatively slow position. I mainly get the scoop from Ben Davidson's page and youtube channel. He does a 5 minute daily update and review.

 

Space Weather News

BTW, Another x-class flare flashed this morning and the CME from yesterday's amazing X - 9.3 flare has arrived much earlier than projected.

 

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

 

"A CME has just hit Earth's magnetic field (Sept.7th at ~2300 UT). This is the debris from Wednesday's decade-class X9 solar flare. It arrived earlier than expected, confirming that the storm cloud is both fast and potent. "

 

 

 

Currently in a level 8 KP-index geomagnetic storm. That is unusually high.

 

Edited September 8, 20179 yr by Bluegrasscard
Confirmed CME from X9 flare - added link

You'll recognize the beautiful ringed planet, Saturn, in this photo, captured from a small backyard telescope. But what about the mysterious orange world in the image??? I'm captivated by this world. Stay tuned this weekend for more about this orange dot that has long captured my imagination .

 

I will hope this is relatively slow position. I mainly get the scoop from Ben Davidson's page and youtube channel. He does a 5 minute daily update and review.

 

Space Weather News

 

Btw, I really appreciate you reading the thread and adding your input as well.

Shown below is the orange world I mentioned in a previous post as it approaches the giant ringed planet, Saturn. Until Cassini and Huygens, very little was known about this hazy orange ball the size of Mercury, other than it had a dense nitrogen-rich atmosphere, the only other known body besides Earth that has such an atmosphere. We've now been able to peer through the haze and view a world with a surface that is remarkably Earth-like. What's it like beneath the haze and perpetual cloud layers??? Stay tuned...

 

Of course, many of you know I have been talking about Titan, the largest moon of Saturn and the second largest moon in our solar system. Titan was discovered in 1655 by the Dutch astronomer, Christiaan Huygens.

 

As I said above, prior to 2004, very little was known about Titan other than it's dense nitrogen-rich atmosphere. But NASA's Cassini spacecraft completed more than 100 flybys of Titan. What it discovered has been pretty amazing. In fact, the ESA's Huygens probe landed on the surface of Titan in 2005. The duo of Cassini and Huygens gathered information that revealed a "Titanic" mountain of details about the intriguing moon where it likely rains liquid methane.

 

We now know that Titan is a world with lakes and seas composed of liquid methane and ethane near its poles, with vast, arid regions of hydrocarbon-rich dunes girdling its equator. And deep below the surface, Titan harbors a large internal ocean. Sounds like a lot of potential for life to form, doesn't it?

 

Not only is Titan the only place besides Earth with a dense, nitrogen-rich atmosphere, it is the only other place in the solar system known to have an Earth-like cycle of liquids flowing across its surface as the planet cycles through its seasons. Each Titan season lasts about 7.5 Earth years. Scientists have been monitoring Titan's weather for years and watching for those predicted methane rainstorms at the north pole.

 

Rippling sand dunes, like those in Earth's Arabian desert, can be seen in the dark equatorial regions of Titan, not made of silicates like on Earth but of solid water ice coated with hydrocarbons that fall from the atmosphere. Hydrocarbon rivers, lakes and seas, equatorial dunes, and liquid methane playing the role that water plays on the pale blue dot that we call home. I doubt many of us would have ever imagined a world in our outer solar system with such Earth-like features. But it's true.

 

Huygens directly sampled aerosols in the atmosphere and confirmed that carbon and nitrogen are their major constituents. From space, Cassini followed up on Huygens' findings and detected other chemicals , including propylene and poisonous hydrogen cyanide, in Titan's atmosphere. The variety of chemicals observed indicates a rich and complex chemistry originating from methane and nitrogen and evolving into complex molecules, eventually forming the smog that surrounds the icy moon. And let's not forget the likely methane and ethane rain that falls from the clouds in Titan's atmosphere.

 

If that wasn't enough -and it's darn sure a lot- there's more. Cassini's measurements have revealed that Titan is hiding an internal, liquid water and ammonia ocean about 35 to 50 beneath its surface, only adding to the possibility that Titan could potentially offer a habitable environment.

 

Folks, in a few billion years our Sun is gonna become an angry, red monster in the sky. It will scorch the Earth. If humans exist at that time, they will have to find refuge somewhere else(probably well before the Sun goes Red Giant). Titan is a frozen world now. But when the Sun grows big and red, Titan may very well thaw. And when Titan thaws out, all of those necessary components for life(nitrogen , carbon, liquid water) may make for a habitable environment. That little orange dot that was captured by a small telescope in the backyard may one day take the place of our own beloved pale blue dot. Our forefathers may one day call Titan.... HOME .

 

****************************************************************

1,000,002,017 A.D. ---- Home sweet home???

 

Edited September 8, 20179 yr by Science Friction

As I said, the Huygens probe landed on the surface of Titan in 2005. Here is a very interesting 4 minutes or so of what it saw as it descended through Titan's atmosphere. I think you'll enjoy.

 

I have Venus on my mind now. I'm working on a post that I'll hopefully get before you sometime next week. I love Venus but I'm also sad for what has become her fate.

 

Venus in crescent form... This image was captured from Malaysia earlier this year. Anyone know why we see phases of Venus , much like the phases of our own Moon? Why would we not see phasing of say, Jupiter or Saturn?

 

Edited September 10, 20179 yr by Science Friction

First-ever close-up image of Venus, taken by Mariner 10 in 1974. The image was taken with ultraviolet filter and color-enhanced to accentuate Venus' cloudy atmosphere as the human eye would see it. "Earth's Twin, " some have said ... I'll detail next week how very wrong that description is .... for the time being, at least.

 

Edited September 10, 20179 yr by Science Friction

Sometimes solar flares and CME's do considerable damage to satellites and electrical transmission lines on Earth. But they can also allow for some of the most beautiful images our eyes can ever see.

 

Our friend, and my space weather guy, Bluegrasscard , was talking earlier this week about the severe geomagnetic storm and the earth-directed coronal mass ejection generated by AR2673 on the Sun.

 

Some very recognizable stars of the northern sky are a backdrop for calm waters in this moonlit sea and skyscape off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Taken on September 7, the photo also records a colorful display of northern lights or aurora borealis triggered by the severe geomagnetic storm mentioned above. Visible crossing the Sun, the giant solar active region responsible, AR 2673, is much larger than planet Earth. It has produced the strongest flare of the current solar cycle and and the Earth-directed coronal mass ejection in the last few days.

 

Edited September 10, 20179 yr by Science Friction

If you had the chance to be the first human to set foot on say, Mars or Titan, would you consider it??? I wouldn't think twice about it. Knowing full well that the trip could very well turn into a one-way affair, I'd still pack my boxers and head out. What an adventure that would be!!! Worst-case scenario... my ashes would be scattered out in space somewhere. My atoms began their journey from deep space. What could be more appropriate than for the journey conclude in space?

 

How many of you would risk it all to be the first human on Mars?

Sun setting on Mars in April of 2015. Image taken by Curiosity from the Gale crater. Would you risk it all to be the first human to view the blue Martian sunset from the red planet? I would.

 

As I alluded to in a previous post, our Sun threw out two large solar flares on the morning of September 6, one at 5:10 A.M. and another at 8:02 A.M. The latter one is the strongest flare that has been observed in nearly 11 years!!! You can see it in the image below.When viewed in ultraviolet light, hot material on the Sun appears brighter than its surroundings, as you see below. The material from these flares is pretty hot--- about 18,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit!!!

 

AR2673 gave a parting shot today as it rotates to the back side of the Sun. An X 8.3 came out at 16:06 UTC (12:06 EDT). Since this one was directly overhead it impacted Western Hemisphere communications with strong atmospheric ionization.

 

 

Though facing almost 90 degrees from Earth. The massive CME generated from this flare is expected to give Earth a glancing blow in a few days. This according to NASA's emerald spiral simulator.

 

https://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=2038-01-23+00%3A44%3A00&window=-1&cygnetId=261

 

 

 

More at these links

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

 

X8.2 solar flare | SpaceWeatherLive.com