Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Comet’s close encounter
The BBC picked up on this fascinating time-lapse footage of Comet Encke buffeted by a solar storm as it nears the Sun - the images are part of a study of Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) and come from NASA’s STEREO satellites. [Footage credit: Rutherford Appleton Laboratory/Naval Research Laboratory/University of Birmingham]
Previously STEREO captured images of Comet Encke taking a direct hit from a CME. [Video credit: NASA]
And here’s a short animation on CME’s and the interaction they have with the Earth’s magnetic field [Video credit: NASA]
Pete Baker @ 05:37 PM
Pete....keep this stuff coming.
My astronomy may only extend to Brian May’s Bang! and ownership of a Celestron Powerseeker, but you pick up the stuff I’d miss.
It’s appreciated.
Posted by on Apr 16, 2008 @ 10:41 PMI find these threads to be both fascinating and terrifying.
I trust that if the Big One ever hits then Pete will post a “The End is Nigh” thread and correct the inaccuracies in the comments section to the very end ;)
Posted by on Apr 17, 2008 @ 02:43 PMWhat has this to do with Northern Ireland?
Just filling in for those asleep.
Posted by on Apr 17, 2008 @ 07:58 PMJC,
‘What has this to do with Northern Ireland?’
Eh? I suspect that without the Earth having a magnetic field to deflect those rays we might resemble melted pizza hanging off skeletons :(
Perhaps Pete can enlighten us on what would happen if these Coronal mass ejections were not deflected by our magnet field ?
Thanks as usual Pete :)
Posted by on Apr 17, 2008 @ 09:18 PMPete might tell you, GF.
Posted by on Apr 17, 2008 @ 09:29 PM“Perhaps Pete can enlighten us on what would happen if these Coronal mass ejections were not deflected by our magnet field ?”
If I could hazard a guess, might there be eternal peace and tranquility between green and orange?
And if it does mean everyone would be a deep fried mars bar how are space ships meant to go through the galaxy without special magnetic shielding?
Posted by on Apr 18, 2008 @ 01:32 AMwilde rover
‘how are space ships meant to go through the galaxy without special magnetic shielding?
They are’nt well not with human beings aboard .
It’s believed that the prohibitive 400 billion dollar cost was the main reason why Bush 1/Bush 11 did not pursue the Mars landing strategy and instead focused on a Baghdad takeover as the main foreign policy goal of their administrations.
The other reason as you hint at is that any astronauts would of course be ‘microwaved ‘ by deep space radiation outside the protection of Earth’s magnetic field. Looks like we are ‘prisoners’ in our corner of the solar system until this ‘barrier’ is overcome .
Posted by on Apr 18, 2008 @ 02:04 PM
