Sun Points to the Right


Scientists at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center spotted on the sun an unusual pattern. A pair of giant filaments on the face of the sun have formed what appears to be an enormous arrow pointing to...

Solar Flare to lash out due to Sun Storm


A sunspot burst out with incredible force on Wednesday leading to a lot of radioactive energy. And this punch from the sun’s direction is aimed right in earth’s direction. The charged particles...

Comet Ison may have survived its kiss with the sun

We humans can form curious attachments to non-living things, so when Comet Ison veered recklessly toward the sun, naturally we rooted for the plucky iceball. Unfortunately, scientists feared the worst after seeing it mostly vanish when it brushed past the sun's corona. Cue the heroic music, though, as new footage released early today (after the break) shows that at least part of the 1.4 mile-wide comet has emerged from the brutal encounter. It's looking a bit ragged after all that, so astronomers will have to wait a bit more to make a final call on its health. Hopefully it'll still be classed as "comet" rather than "scorched hunk of rock."

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Source: BBC

Visualized: Telescope aboard suborbital NASA rocket takes clearest ever images of sun (video)

DNP Visualized Telescope aboard NASA sounding rocket quickly takes clearest ever images of sun

NASA has shown just what it can do with the short window of science allowed by its "sounding" or sensor-equipped suborbital rockets -- having taken the sharpest pictures ever of the sun's corona. A 460-pound telescope called the High Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) was lofted for about 10 minutes into space, ample time for its mirrors to capture over 150 images of the solar fringe at 16-megapixels each, before parachuting back to earth. The scope shot exclusively in a sun-friendly high ultraviolet range and used innovative new optics consisting of an array of mirrors, allowing it to resolve the sun down to 135 miles. That bested the previous champ, NASA's own Solar Dynamics Observatory, with almost five times the magnification. For maximum effect, the space agency took advantage of an unusually high amount of solar activity to focus on a large, active sunspot. To see the results in glorious multihued HD, check the video after the break.

Continue reading Visualized: Telescope aboard suborbital NASA rocket takes clearest ever images of sun (video)

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Visualized: Telescope aboard suborbital NASA rocket takes clearest ever images of sun (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 09:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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