In case you weren't looking at the sun yesterday....

... I thought you might like to know and "see" what happened. It's called an X-class sun flare.

Yesterday, an active region on the sun – basically, a collection of magnetically

active sunspots – popped off a series of flares that were actually fairly energetic.

There's a video available from NASA that I watched more than once. The thing was gi-normous! Mother Nature is so cool.

 

I like scientific minds capable of reducing things down to my level of comprehension

For example...

Have you ever wondered about planets spinning around the sun and never bumping into each other? (a good thing) One of NASA's space telescopes pulled in some information and...

"UCLA astronomers looked at data from NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space

telescope and found that more than 85 percent of alien planets have inclinations 

of less than 3 degrees. This means they orbit around a star near the same axis as

other planets in their system." 

Not readily understood by the masses. (us regular folks) Talk in pancakes. Folks know pancakes. I know I can relate to pancakes. (with real butter and genuine maple syrup, please) 

Enter the pancakes...

"The best mental image for the geometry of planetary systems is somewhere between a crepe

and a pancake," UCLA professor Jean-Luc Margot explained in a statement today (Oct. 15).

"I made pancakes this weekend to verify our analogy. I measured a mean thickness of 7.3 mm

(a little under one-fourth of an inch) and a mean radius of 65 mm (about 2.5 inches).

This corresponds to inclinations of six degrees," Margot said. "So most planetary systems are

flatter than pancakes, by about a factor of two."

Ok, the words are still a little scientificy, but I've got a better idea now of what they're talking about. So, I went hunting for a picture. Voila!

Our Solar System

 And that's today's science lesson. I hope you've been enlightened.

 

Whilst going about your usual business today, don't be concerned about that tractor-trailer-sized meteor in Earth's neighborhood

Got your attention, huh? Sure got mine. It should be available for naked eyeballing tonight. If the sky's clear. (Based on current conditions and the latest forecast, I think that leaves me out.)

Keeping track of things.

 
The thing is described as "small." Lord luv a duck! How big is "Big!" The NASA Asteroid Watch folks are watching 2012 TC4 (everything in space is numbered or named) closely and tell us "Do Not Worry." I like NASA. I trust NASA.

"...will safely pass Earth Oct 12 at just .25 the distance to our moon's orbit," scientists with NASA's Asteroid Watch program wrote in a Twitter update this week. On average, the moon's orbit is about 238,000 miles."

"The asteroid is large enough to be seen by backyard astronomers using a small telescope, the night sky events website Spaceweather.com has reported."

The nice space.com folks have a neat video they made a few days ago, of the little boogger boogety-boogetyin' along. (Note: You may have to sit through a short commercial. Sorry. Worth the wait though.)

If you're interested in keeping up with meteor and meteorite news, I highly recommend this website for enlightenment. You'll also find "Earthquake News, Fireballs, Bolides, Comets, Asteroid Impact, Meteorite Quest, Recent Meteorite Falls & Related News."

And, since you're evidently still with me (How do I know? You're reading, aren't you? duh) As I was clicking around, gathering information for you (just part of the service), I ran across a couple of geeky, spacey sites. I'm not offering descriptions. If you like this stuff you'll click and learn.

• Orbiter Space News
• NASA's JPL Asteroid Watch
  

Mars rover Curiosity Plinking update

Last week I told you about NASA's plans to bust'a Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer on a Mars rock. They hit it. Studied it. Results are available. 

"This rock is a close match in chemical composition to an unusual but well-known type of igneous rock found in many volcanic provinces on Earth," said Edward Stolper of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, who is a Curiosity co-investigator. "With only one Martian rock of this type, it is difficult to know whether the same processes were involved, but it is a reasonable place to start thinking about its origin."

"This image shows where NASA's Curiosity rover aimed two different instruments to study a rock known as "Jake Matijevic." The red dots are where the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument zapped it with its laser on Sept. 21, 2012, and Sept. 24, 2012, which were the 45th and 48th sol, or Martian day of operations. The circular black and white images were taken by ChemCam to look for the pits produced by the laser. The purple circles indicate where the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer trained its view"

Are there "Diamonds in the Sky" after all?

And I'm not referring to the songs that include that phrase.This is the article that sparked the question. Here's an excerpt...

"Move over, Hope Diamond. The most famous gems on Earth have new competition in the form of a planet made largely of diamond, astronomers say.

The alien planet, a so-called "super-Earth," is called 55 Cancri and was discovered in 2004 around a nearby star in our Milky Way galaxy. After estimating the planet's mass and radius, and studying its host star's composition, scientists now say the rocky world is composed mainly of carbon (in the form of diamond and graphite), as well as iron, silicon carbide, and potentially silicates.

At least a third of the planet's mass is likely pure diamond."

Worth a NASA trip for a look-see?

Too bad we no longer have a Space Program. That puppy, if real, could finance one helluva lot of "free stuff." Of course we'd have to control the diamond market and prices, instead of those folks over in Europe. Might be worth it though. Hate to think of a couple of Commie countries I won't name getting there first. Just sayin'.

I can haz sauer kraut?

The guys at NASA are getting excited about hot DOG's in space.

psssst! Hey, wanna buy a rocket?

NASA may have one for sale one for sale. Maybe as a fundraiser for their next project?

Buyer Beware:  It's been sitting "Beneath a large metal shed, a 150-foot deep silo housed the largest solid-fuel rocket motor ever built. The rocket was tested three times between 1965 and 1967."

I doubt they've been doing much maintenance on it, so it'll be a fixer-upper. I think we've got enough gear heads around here to put together a neat community project. Think of the possibilities.

 

We could get it ready to launch, painted up with some cool paint work, and hold one helluva PR event. I think folks would come from hundreds of miles to watch. You just know all the TV networks would send broadcasting crews and on-air personalities to cover the launch.

I'm thinking we could also get a lot of mileage from a pre-launch contest for suggested targets. I've got a few ideas already.

10-9-8-7-6.....

Kirk to Scotty -- Full Warp Speed Ahead

If you understand scientific terms like: Quantum Vacuum Plasma Thruster and ring of exotic matter or have an interest in sci-fi, you might enjoy this. NASA (I thought "somebody" killed this agency) is actually working on a space ship drive capable of Warp 10! (That would out-drag a Chevy)

But, getting your space ship moving at 10 times the speed of light seems to be a tad dangerous. There just might be the possibility of an explosion that "...would explode with a force of some 17,000 megatons, equivalent to several global nuclear wars all in one..." Yeah, sounds like something that could really mess up your day.

Meanwhile, back here in my little piece of the world, I'll stick to movies, TV shows and books for my space travel.