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Alan Friedman / Averted Imagination
The sunspot region known as AR1429 seethes in a picture of the sun, captured on March 11 in hydrogen-alpha light by photographer Alan Friedman.
A particularly angry region of the sun has been throwing some strong solar storms toward us over the past week, but there's just one more blast to weather. This picture, from astrophotographer Alan Friedman, shows active region 1429 as it rolls toward the edge of the sun's disk.
Friedman specializes in solar photography that keys in on hydrogen-alpha wavelengths, a part of the spectrum that is particularly well-suited to show variations in the sun's seething surface. The sunspots are magnetically disturbed whorls of plasma that are prone to send out flares and eruptions of electrically charged particles.
Friedman's latest solar shot, taken from his backyard in Buffalo, N.Y., is featured today on NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day website. To see more of his work, check out his Averted Imagination gallery.
Last week, AR1429 blasted out a series of coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, that sparked colorful auroral displays. They also sparked worries about the potential disruption to satellite communications, electrical grids and GPS navigation. Fortunately, the direction and magnetic orientation of the CMEs weren't as threatening as they could have been.
AR1429 got off a parting shot on Tuesday, in the form of a medium-size M7.9-class flare and eruption. By now, the sunspot region has migrated to near the edge of the sun's disk and is starting to fade. The CME is taking "a path not toward Earth," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center reported. As a result, the eruption is expected to produce "minor to moderate" geomagnetic storms — which shouldn't pose a huge threat to power grids or electronics.
When the wave of charged particles sweeps over Earth's magnetic field, the extra geomagnetic activity should give a boost to the aurora. That could happen as early as tonight. So it's a good idea to check in with the usual suspects, including the prediction center's Facebook page as well as SpaceWeather.com, the Ovation Auroral Forecast page and the University of Alaska's Aurora Forecast website.
More from the sun:
- Southern exposure for auroral lights
- Sky lights go wild, north and south
- Solar storm lights up northern skies
- Rocket flies into the northern lights
- Aurora extravaganza glows in space
- Planet looks back at the northern lights
- Auroras spark awe across the north
- Slideshow: The best of the northern lights
- More from Alan Friedman on msnbc.com
- Cosmic Log's auroral archive
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
Leave a Comment:
Looks like an angry bird.
Funny. I see a puppy with pointy ears, and an alien standing to the left (with one eye open). The little plume in the back-right is the wagging tail of said puppy.
That was one angry bird indeed.
Nice work from 2 Alan's ....
Looks similar to something from Dr. Suess.
Holy crap, I thought this was a baby's cell forming in the mother's womb or something..
Spectacular.
Now if we can just get 60% of Americans to "believe" in science and understand this is real, just like evolution.
It doesn't bother me that some do not believe GOD and Science can be the same; but why do you think we need 60% of Americans to believe in just Science?
A common misunderstanding that if you have faith in GOD all science in junk. I accept both. Also evolution isn't hard for me to grasp, yet I think GOD is our creator. Nothing is absolute, that is why are are learning and changing our "known sciences" over time. Keep learning, Yes. Keep faith, yes.
Science is humanity's attempt to understand God's creation. There is no conflict. Sometimes we misunderstand / misrepresent God's will. Other times we do the same with scientific data. The flaw is in our imperfect understanding. It is a growth process.
Well, if we could just get some really beautiful photos, like this, of evolution, it would be a lot easier to believe. This here is easy to believe.
1. 60% of Americans don't accept evolution, thats the 60% I am talking about
2. God is mans creation to explain science when we don't have an answer, yet...
3. No one tries to explain god, its impossible to explain something that doesn't exist, science explains natural phenomena like evolution and sun spots (suppose god created those too?)
4. As for pictures, any picture of any living thing is a picture of evolution, start here: http://www.eoearth.org/article/Biodiversity
5. Thanks for all proving my point.
Well, if we could just get some beautiful photos like this of God it would be easier to believe to.
Thats awesome...
@ hardin:
"Well, if we could just get some really beautiful photos, like this, of evolution, it would be a lot easier to believe. This here is easy to believe."
'Evolution,' by definition means 'a slow change. (as opposed to 'revolution,' a rapid change, often applied to governments)
The (God-given, if you wish) Universe is not required to operate on time-scales slow enough or fast enough for convenient human perception. Check any collection of high-speed or time-lapse photography of 'real' stuff as example...then realize that, like detectives and crime scene investigators, we aren't there to see some things, anyway. So, we use the evidence we have, the rules of the Universe as we currently understand them (and always subject to change, with new information) and logic to infer what has happened...
So, until and unless we have time-travel (and I suspect some people would be quite disappointed at some of the things it might show us, if we did), things like this are the best we have.
Sorry, I did not mean to hit the Field Owl with my kickball. Awesome picture
I don't have a problem with people who believe in God. I my self use to believe in Santa Clause, and the Tooth Fairy, but in all seriousness, religion and science have no business together, let the religious people go one way and let science continue to prove worthy, because all there is going to be is arguments and the religious people will try to persuade the scientists not to reveal certain information fearing it will further contaminate their belief that "god made everything." Most religious people that I know are nutcases, but then again so are a alot of scientists, so I don't know, anyways, wow I got off track.... Oil good......
Of course without the sun there wouldn't be any life on earth ... but at the same time looking at this picture reminds me of our fragility.
Looks like a big butthole below a little one.
prrrt
It looks like Lorax.
The hand of god.. NOT!!
Has any1 looked at the sun through a telescope ?? It was the last thing I ever saw
We got off easy with this storm but the solar maximum is still building. Folks, don't take this as an indication that you can now ignore the matter. The peak is supposed to be in 2013 so odds are with things continuing to build we will see much worse.
o < O
Anyone else see that face?
well,, wee bit,sort of solar "anthropomorphic",, isnt this??..I wonder,, why, whenever media goes ex planet,,, do we get these same discussions over and over,,,sorry to say, but everything in the galaxy does not!! have "to do" with humans,,, sorry to burst that bubble, but the truth is, we are just not that important on a solar,galaxy/universe scale,,,thats ok with me,,,Who wants to be "important" anyways??.. pain in the old gluteus maximus in my view,,,kewl pics,,,it is the emissions we cant see, dont know about and in some cases? are just learning about,, that interest me,,,that huge blazing ball of hydrogen and plasma has a lot more going on than we are aware of, so far,,,in some ways, it is! the "stuff of life" at a certain level,, and I wonder,, is this where the "god" questions come from??.. some sort of primal link to the basic particles of our existance??..I for one would not be surprised if this was so,,,take note,, people react, and next thing "god" is in the conversation,, every time,,,an interesting phenomena, no??..and, if there is!! "intelligent design" in play?[doubtfull], then what is the deal with all those other!! galaxies etc??.. hmm??..trillions!! of them,..and we!! are "important",,, uh-huh,,, weeel,,, lets keep an open mind shall we??. ha ha..ya never know, right?..
i didn't know parkinsons and stuttering could be exposed in type. what the?! hell is/,, wrong with? your keyboar]d??
The big dark area in the center is heart shaped. Or it could be a skeletal nose.
This picture is a fake!!!! The sun is yellow. I can see it with my eye, right now, through my window.
Great humor sholtdvm. I agree with you that it looks yellow.
@Jackmoto and PJ-697731, First to Jackmoto I agree with you with religion and science I too keep both hand in hand it's just a matter of how you deal with it to me..this being one of the reasons I want to go in the science field since I love studying everything. And to PJ-697731 I like how you said in an earlier comment that how our learning capability is flawed on both sides, very true..Religious followers and Scientist both should understand that and understand where the others perspective is coming from I know only a few that actually try and talk to someone who has a completely opposite sense of the world and one of those is me. It's amazing what you can learn when you just try and out reach your box.