November's Lunar Eclipse

November's Lunar Eclipse



The Moon slides through the Earth's shadowthis Saturday night / Sunday morning (November 8/9) givingskygazers in the Americas, Europe,Africa, and western Asia a chance t enjoy a total lunar eclipse.A lunar eclipses go,this will be a brief onethough, with the total phase lasting only about 25 minutes.The orientation and relative size of th Earth's shadowand the Moon's trajectory are illustrated in this thoughtfulanimation showing the full Moon moving up from the lower right,entering the penumbra or outer portion of the shadow region,and then passing well below the center of the darker inner shadow regionor umbra.The tota eclipse phase beginsat 1:06 Universal Time, November 9(8:06pm EST Nov. 8 whenthe Moon is completely within the umbra.While the off-center passage guarantees a short total phase, italso makes it likely that this November's eclipsed Moon will bedramatically visible and colorfulwith a brighter rim along thesouthern edge.

Flare Well AR 10486

Flare Well AR 10486



Almost out of view fro our fair planet,rotating around theSun's western edge, giant sunspot regio AR 10486lashed outwith another intense solar flare followed bya larg coronalmass ejection (CME) on Tuesday, November 4that about 1950 Universal Time.The flare itself is seen here at the lower right in an extremeultraviolet image from th sun-staring SOHO spacecraft's EITcamera.Saturating the EIT camera pixels and detectors onother satellites, this giant X-classflare was among themost powerful ever recorde sincethe 1970s, the third such historicblast from AR 10486 within the last two weeks.While energetic particle radiation from the flare did causesubstantial radio interference, the associated CME is notexpected to trigger extremely widespread aurorae as it glances offthe magnetosphere, unlike th direct hits from last week's CMEs.Say farewell to the mighty AR 10486, for now.For the next two weeks, the sunspot region will be on the Sun' far side.

The Lynx Arc

The Lynx Arc



While chasing the spectrum of a mysterious arc in a cluster ofgalaxies within the obscure northerl constellationLynx, astronomers havestumbled upon the most massive and distant star-forming regio ever discovered.The notably red "Lynx arc" lies right of center i thiscolor image of the galaxy cluster, a composite ofHubble Space Telescope and ground-based data.While the galaxy cluster lies about 5 billionlight-years distant spectroscopic studiesshow that the arc itself is actually a distortedimage of an even more distant but enormous star-forming region.The image is formed as the closer galaxy cluster' gravitybends lightlike a magnifying lens, an effect explained by Einstein'stheory of gravity In fact, the monster star-forming region is nearly12 billio light-years awayand about a million times brighter than themore familiar stellar nursery, th Orion Nebula.Estimates are that the star-forming region seen as theLynx arc contains about a million massive, hot stars, comparedto the four stars which power theOrion Nebula's glow. Stars within the Lynx arc are more than twice as hotas the Orion Nebula's central starsand were formed whenthe Universe was a mere 2 billion years old.Still, astronomers believe that th first stars wereformed at even earlier times.

Aurora Over Edmonton

Aurora Over Edmonton



Northern and southern locales saw many a beautiful aurora over the last week, as particles from severa large solar flares impacted the Earth. Many reported unusually red auroras, although colors across the spectrum were also seen. Power grids and orbiting satellites braced for the onslaught, but little lasting damage was reported. Pictured above, the Clover Bar Power Plant was photographed from the banks of the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. A small pond in the foreground reflects predominantly green aurora light far in the distance. Two days ago, again unexpectedly, another large solar flare occurred from sunspot group 10486, the site ofother recent major flares. This unusually active solar region is now rotating to the far side of the Sun.