Sunspot 1041 has almost completely faded away. In January 2009, the sun was blank for 25 days. In January 2010, the sun has been blank only 2 days. Despite the fading of 1041, solar activity is clearly on the rise.

Image credit and copyright: Anthony Ayiomamitis: details.

Johannes Kepler explained the phenomenon 400 years ago. The Moon's orbit around Earth is not a circle; it is an ellipse, with one side 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other. Astronomers call the point of closest approach "perigee," and that is where the Moon will be Friday night: diagram.

Look around sunset when the Moon is near the eastern horizon. At that time, illusion mixes with reality to produce a truly stunning view. For reasons not fully understood by psychologists, low-hanging Moons look unnaturally large when they beam through foreground objects such as buildings and trees. Why not let the "Moon illusion" amplify a full Moon that's extra-big to begin with? The swollen orb rising in the east may seem close enough to touch.

And what's that bright orange star right beside the Moon? Read on...

IT'S MARS! In a coincidence of celestial proportions, the Moon and Mars are having close encounters with Earth at the same time. Moreover, the two will spend Friday night gliding across the sky side-by-side. It's a must-see event: sky map.

On Jan. 27th, Tamas Ladanyi of Tes, Hungary, caught this view of the Red Planet, pre-conjunction:

"I used a Canon 500D (ISO 1600, 6 sec) to photograph the winter landscape on the plateau of Tes with its famous windmills in bright moonlight," says Ladanyi. "Mars shone beautifully above it all."

Readers with backyard telescopes should train their optics on Mars. The planet looks bigger through a telescope now than at any time between 2008 and 2014. Browse the links for views through the eyepiece: from John Nassr of Baguio, Philippines; from Alan Friedman of Buffalo, New York; from Mike Hood of Kathleen, Georgia; from John Nassr of Baguio, Philippines; from Jacob Bassøe of Copenhegen, Denmark; from Sadegh Ghomizadeh of Tehran, Iran;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8POHkMQg0Dw

Image:Huge spheres by sun

From PESWiki

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• UFOs >
  Earth-sized spheres in vicinity of Sun? - A YouTuber has posted a video showing some images he pulled from NASA's website that show several Earth-sized spheres next to the Sun. What are they? "Nasa removed the photos. I saw the photos on their site yesterday.  Very strange!" -- aurayon (YouTube; user critiquekat; Jan. 21, 2010)
   

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

	Date/Time	User	Dimensions	File size	Comment
(current)	17:51, 27 January 2010	SilverThunder (Talk | contribs)	95×95	2 KB	UFOs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8POHkMQg0Dw  Earth-sized spheres in vicinity of Sun?]''' - A YouTuber has posted a video showing some images he pulled from NASA's website that show several Earth-sized

Earth-sized spheres in vicinity of Sun?

January 27, 12:02 PM

 

 

A YouTuber has posted a video showing some images he pulled from NASA's website from their recent SOHO images that show several Earth-sized spheres near the Sun's corona. What are they? Why are the images now gone from NASA's website?

According to the video description, "these huge spherical [objects] started appearing around January 18, 2010. They are on both the forward and rear images taken by NASA's Stereo Spacecraft in space. They appear to be moving as they are in different positions on many photos. ...If they were planets or some type of huge asteroid comets, they would already have been pulled into the sun by the strong gravity the sun produces as in the case of the recent comet."

Adding to the mystery, the images became inaccessible today.  "Nasa removed the photos. I saw the photos on their site yesterday. ? Very strange!" -- aurayon 

Some speculate that the images seem to be a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy in Luke 21:5 "And there shall be signs in the sun."

In a spirit of humor, we might speculate that perhaps they could be solar-energy-harvesting modules by some advanced extraterrestrial civilizations unseen (surely with cloaking capability to hide their presence from backward humans) -- or perhaps a breed of ET's that need that much heat to thrive.   Matt Imber speculates: "Maybe they are here to help and prevent the mass coronal ejections or gravimetric energy from being so bad during the alignment."

YouTube; Jan. 21, 2010

However, with further investigation, the mystery is solved.

EDITORS NOTE:  Remember when all UFOs were swamp gas or the Planet Venus?

NASA spokesman, Bernhard Fleck, Ph.D., ESA and SOHO Project Scientist, gives a much less titillating explanation.  In phone interview with Linda Moulton Howe of Earthfiles.com on January 26, 2010 he said:

"Cosmic rays leave white dots or short trails in our SOHO images all the time, even though we have software that is supposed to help clean up the images. Cosmic rays are high energy particles from the solar wind, and from the galaxy as a whole, that whip around the SOHO spacecraft and interact with the detectors. These produce spots and streaks on the detector ranging from a single pixel, to large streaks that span a large fraction of the image. These are most evident during a solar storm, but are always present at some level. The software which puts the images up on the web will fill in these blocks from the last good image, and if there's a cosmic ray in that block from the previous image, it will appear in this image as well. The way to check for this is to look at the raw data files, which are also available on the web through the SOHO catalog interface."

As I poked around, it became apparent that the SOHO portion of the NASA website is presently down and is likely to be recovered soon; and these particular images have not been targeted.  No suppression going on here, just a technical glitch -- like the spheres on the images.  It's safe to take the tin foil hats off now. 

Other Coverage

• Spheres seen near Sun.  Colin Andrews asked NASA "What are they?" (CollinAndrews.net)
• Sphere spotted near the sun on new NASA SOHO images (RealUFOs; Jan. 23, 2010)
• NASA Images Large Spherical Objects Inside Corona of SUN (AboveTopSecret forum; Jan. 21, 2010)

Giant UFOs around the Sun? NASA claims malfunction, physicist says giant ET UFOs use Sun’s star gate

January 27, 10:55 PMSeattle Exopolitics ExaminerAlfred Lambremont Webre

 

FIG. A- NASA: Stereo solar image, Jan. 23, 2010

NASA’s Stereo spacecraft monitoring the Sun began registering huge spherical UFO’s in the vicinity of the Sun around January 18, 2010.  According to one observer, the UFOs “appear to be moving as they are in different positions on many [of the NASA Stereo] photos, and are huge possibly at least the size of Earth. If the UFOs were planets or some type of huge asteroid comets, they would already have been pulled into the Sun by the strong gravity the Sun produces as in the case of the recent comet."

Dr. Joe Gurman, NASA Stereo Project scientist states the giant solar UFOs are compression artifacts.  Moreover, he states, the "’central data recorder’ at DSN, that stores all the playback data from all the missions DSN supports, failed' on January 18, 2010, the date the solar UFO wave began, thus accounting for the images of giant UFOs (see full statement in the article below).

In a quantum physics solution to the mystery of the giant solar UFOs, physicist Nassim Haramein, whom this reporter knows,  states in a video-taped analysis (below) that Earth-sized UFOs are in fact giant extraterrestrial or interdimensional spacecraft, which are accessing our solar system, using the Sun as a black-hole singularity, or star gate.  Mr. Haramein contends that NASA Stereo data of giant solar UFOs prove that extraterrestrial civilizations access our solar system via a star gate on the Sun when using large (Earth-size) vehicle spacecraft.

Continues at:   http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2912-Seattle-Exopolitics-Examiner~y2010m1d27-Giant-UFOs-around-the-Sun-NASA-claims-malfunction-physicist-says-giant-ET-UFOs-use-Suns-star-gate
 

This image shows a sky map of meteor trails recorded by the video network that night:

Image courtesy Esko Lyytinen and Peter Jenniskens

The gamma Ursae Minorids are traced in blue. "Note how the blue lines converge near a single radiant point," says Jenniskens. Inset is an actual meteor recorded by one of the cameras.

This isn't the first time the gamma Ursae Minorids have attracted attention. Peter Brown and coworkers at the University of Ontario have recorded their echoes for the past five years using the Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar (CMOR). But until now, the meteors were invisibly faint. According to Jenniskens, 2010 marks the first bright outburst that could be seen with the unaided eye.

"The source of this shower has not been identified," says Jenniskens. "It is probably a short-period comet passing not far from Jupiter. The 11-day duration of the gamma Ursae Minorids [in radar records] suggests that some significant breakup occurred not too long ago and the comet may now be hiding among the high inclination (i = 48.5 deg.) near-Earth asteroid population."

Will this brightening shower make an even bigger splash next year? No one knows, but Jenniskens plans to mark his calendar for Jan. 20, 2011: Don't forget the gamma Ursae Minorids.

Rogerio Marcon of Campinas, Brasil, took this picture of sunspot 1041 on Jan. 24th. It's a beautiful sight--quiet or not.

"Sunspot 1041 is huge, influencing a vast region of the sun's atmosphere," adds Pete Lawrence of Selsey, UK, who sends his own snapshot. "It has lots of lovely dark filaments and fibrils to view as well." Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to take a look.

more images: from Eric Roel of Valle de Bravo, Estado de México; from John Minnerath of Crowheart Wyoming; from Pavol Rapavy of Observatory Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia; from Matt Wastell of Brisbane, Australia

NASA's WISE Eye Spies Near-Earth Asteroid

The red dot at the center of this image is the first near-Earth asteroid discovered by NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has spotted its first never-before-seen near-Earth asteroid, the first of hundreds it is expected to find during its mission to map the whole sky in infrared light. There is no danger of the newly discovered asteroid hitting Earth.

The near-Earth object, designated 2010 AB78, was discovered by WISE Jan. 12. The mission's sophisticated software picked out the moving object against a background of stationary stars. As WISE circled Earth, scanning the sky above, it observed the asteroid several times during a period of one-and-a-half days before the object moved beyond its view. Researchers then used the University of Hawaii's 2.2-meter (88-inch) visible-light telescope near the summit of Mauna Kea to follow up and confirm the discovery.

The asteroid is currently about 158 million kilometers (98 million miles) from Earth. It is estimated to be roughly 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) in diameter and circles the sun in an elliptical orbit tilted to the plane of our solar system. The object comes as close to the sun as Earth, but because of its tilted orbit, it will not pass very close to Earth for many centuries. This asteroid does not pose any foreseeable impact threat to Earth, but scientists will continue to monitor it.

Near-Earth objects are asteroids and comets with orbits that pass relatively close to Earth's path around the sun. In extremely rare cases of an impact, the objects may cause damage to Earth's surface. An asteroid about 10 kilometers (6 miles) wide is thought to have plunged into our planet 65 million years ago, triggering a global disaster and killing off the dinosaurs.

Additional asteroid and comet detections will continue to come from WISE. The observations will be automatically sent to the clearinghouse for solar system bodies, the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., for comparison against the known catalog of solar system objects. A community of professional and amateur astronomers will provide follow-up observations, establishing firm orbits for the previously unseen objects.

"This is just the beginning," said Ned Wright, the mission's principal investigator from UCLA. "We've got a fire hose of data pouring down from space."

On Jan. 14, the WISE mission began its official survey of the entire sky in infrared light, one month after it rocketed into a polar orbit around Earth from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. By casting a wide net, the mission will catch all sorts of cosmic objects, from asteroids in our own solar system to galaxies billions of light-years away. Its data will serve as a cosmic treasure map, pointing astronomers and telescopes, such as NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, to the most interesting finds.

WISE is expected to find about 100,000 previously unknown asteroids in our main asteroid belt, a rocky ring of debris between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It will also spot hundreds of previously unseen near-Earth objects.

By observing infrared light, WISE will reveal the darkest members of the near-Earth object population -- those that don't reflect much visible light. The mission will contribute important information about asteroid and comet sizes. Visible-light estimates of an asteroid's size can be deceiving, because a small, light-colored space rock can look the same as a big, dark one. In infrared, however, a big dark rock will give off more of a thermal, or infrared glow, and reveal its true size. This size information will give researchers a better estimate of how often Earth can expect potentially devastating impacts.

"We are thrilled to have found our first new near-Earth object," said Amy Mainzer of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Mainzer is the principal investigator of NEOWISE, a program to mine the collected WISE data for new solar system objects. "Many programs are searching for near-Earth objects using visible light, but some asteroids are dark, like pavement, and don't reflect a lot of sunlight. But like a parking lot, the dark objects heat up and emit infrared light that WISE can see."

"It is great to receive the first of many anticipated near-Earth object discoveries by the WISE system," said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL. "Analysis of the WISE data will go a long way toward understanding the true nature of this population."

JPL manages the WISE mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The principal investigator, Edward Wright, is at UCLA. The mission was competitively selected under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory, Logan, Utah, and the spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. The ground-based observations are partly supported by the National Science Foundation. ?

More information is online at http://www.nasa.gov/wise, http://wise.astro.ucla.edu and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/wise .

Last week, the sunspot's magnetic field erupted five times, producing a string of M-class solar flares that marked the strongest spate of solar activity in nearly two years. Although it has since calmed, the maelstrom could erupt again at any time. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.

more images: from James Kevin Ty of Manila, the Philippines; from Pavol Rapavy of Observatory Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia; from Keith Davies of Swansea, South Wales, United Kingdom; from Peter Paice of Belfast, Northern Ireland; from Fabio Mariuzza of Biauzzo, Italy; from Steve Wainwright of Gower Peninsula, South Wales, UK

Amateur astronomer Dennis Simmons took the picture this morning from his backyard observatory in Brisbane, Australia.

Although it's been a calm day, the magnetic field of sunspot 1041 still harbors energy for strong eruptions. NOAA forecasters estimate a 75% chance of more M-flares during the next 24 hours. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.

more images: from Sylvain Weiller of Saint Rémy lès Chevreuse, France; from Athanasios Georgiou of Filyro, Thessaloniki, Greece; from Francisco A. Rodriguez of Cabreja Mountain Observatory, Gran Canaria Island, Canary Islands;

Current conditions

INCOMING COMET: NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft has discovered another comet plunging toward the sun. The last time this happened on Jan. 4th, the comet was destroyed, and history could repeat itself later today. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has a good view of the comet's death plunge

The ongoing sequence of flares signals a sharp upturn in solar activity. Before this week, the last time the sun produced even a single M-class solar flare was in March 2008--almost two years ago. M-class solar flares have a moderate effect on Earth. Mainly, they boost the usual ionization of Earth's upper atmosphere, causing short-lived radio blackouts at some frequencies and radio enhancements at others. For an example, scroll down and read the section "Ionospheric Disturbance."

Today, the active region responsible for these fireworks is emerging over the sun's eastern limb where it can be seen from Earth: finder chart. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.

IONOSPHERIC DISTURBANCE: An M2-class solar flare on Jan. 19th bathed Earth's upper atmosphere in X-rays and caused a wave of ionization to sweep over Europe. This improved the propagation of low-frequency radio signals, which use the ionosphere as a reflector to skip over the horizon. A SID monitor operated by Rudolf Slosiar in Bojnice, Slovakia, recorded a surge in signal strength:

"SID" stands for Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance, and a "SID monitor" is a radio receiver that monitors ~20 kHz signals from distant transmitters. "My system clearly detected the effects of the solar flare," says Slosiar. "The decay of the signal shows that it took about 72 minutes for the ionosphere to recombine [and relax to its pre-flare state]."

With solar activity on the rise, sudden ionospheric disturbances will become more common. Interested? Stanford University tells you how to build your own SID monitor.

more SIDS: from Roberto Battaiola of Pantigliate, Milano, Italy;

Stereo sunspot 1039 - M class flare

Considering the fact that the sunspot is not even visible from Earth, the flare was probably much stronger than its M2 classification would suggest. This active region has produced at least three significant eruptions since Jan. 17th (including this notable flare) and it is showing no signs of cooling off.

At the moment only STEREO-B, stationed over the east limb, can monitor the active region directly. Soon, this will change. The sun's rotation is turning sunspot 1039 toward Earth and it should emerge for direct viewing within the next 48 hours. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor the east limb for developments.

Current conditions

Stereo Solar Flare

The eruption, which took place on the far side of the sun, was invisible from EarthNevertheless, NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft had a great view. STEREO-B is stationed over the sun's eastern limb where it can see things that we cannot. Solar rotation is slowly turning sunspot 1039 back toward our planet and STEREO-B will keep an eye on it as it approaches. Stay tuned for updates

Current conditions

"I took this picture from the shore of Weishan Lake in the Shandong Province of China," says Xiang Zhan. "We had some clouds, but fortunately the sun was able to shine through the veil. The golden ring was very beautiful over the frozen lake below."

The Moon was so small because it was near the far point of its elliptical orbit around Earth. It was, in other words, an "apogee Moon" about 10% too small for totality. The diminished diameter did not, however, diminish the beauty of the event. Browse the gallery for proof:

UPDATED: Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery
[World Map of Eclipse Sightings]

A BURST OF NORTHERN LIGHTS: On Jan. 15th, a burst of Northern Lights startled observers around the Arctic Circle. "The sky exploded over my head!" reports Øystein Lunde Ingvaldsen, who sends this picture from Bø in Vesterålen, Norway:

"The Northern Lights were insane," he says. "To record them, I used a Nikon D300 set at ISO1600 (f/3.5) for a 10 second exposure."

Arctic photographers may wish to take note of those settings, because more auroras are on the way. A solar wind stream is heading toward Earth and it could spark polar geomagnetic storms when it arrives on Jan. 18th or 19th. Be alert for auroras!

The display could intensify even more on Jan. 18th and 19th. That's when a solar wind stream flowing from a coronal hole is expected to reach Earth. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for Northern Lights.
 

ANNULAR SOLAR ECLIPSE: Yesterday, the Moon passed in front of the sun, producing a spectacular "ring of fire" eclipse visible from the Indian Ocean and surrounding lands. In Manila, James Kevin Ty caught the eclipse in its partial phase:

"The low-hanging sun was dim and I didn't need any special filter to photograph it using my Canon 350D," says Ty. "In the foreground, a young couple sat together in a boat enjoying the romantic view."

Indeed, it was a lovely eclipse. Browse the just-updated gallery for more examples:

Current conditions

larger image:

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/13jan10/Dennis-Simmons1.jpg?PHPSESSID=pgrk2ev0ikfbpp3r1h3eteduc2

Dennis Simmons sends the image from Brisbane, Australia, where a short spell of exceptionally steady air allowed him to capture the sunspot with superb clarity. "After the software had processed my data, I was left gasping, astonished by what the seeing had allowed me to witness. This is far and away my best-ever high-resolution image of a sunspot."

This sunspot is a fantastic target for backyard solar telescopes. If you have one, take a look!

more images: from Francois Rouviere of Mougins, Alpes Maritimes, France; from Paul Haese of Blackwood, South Australia; from Pavol Rapavy of Observatory Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia; from Paul Maxson of Surprise, Arizona; from M. Jennings, K. Ritchie, J. Stetson of South Portland, Maine

ASTEROID FLYBY: Is it an asteroid or a derelict spacecraft? Mystery object 2010 AL30 is flew past Earth last night only 1/3rd the distance to the Moon, and telescopes around the world were watching. In Colombia, amateur astronomer Alberto Quijano Vodniza used a 14-inch Meade LX200 to record the close approach:

"2010 AL30 is the faint streak moving among the stars," says Vodniza. "The full-length animation reveals a second much brighter object. That's a satellite that happened to be passing by at the same time." Space is a busy place, it seems.

Discovered barely three days ago, 2010 AL30 is catalogued as a 10m-class asteroid. Curiously, however, its elliptical orbit has a period of almost exactly one year, the same as Earth. This raises the possibility that it might be a piece of some spacecraft from our own planet. NASA's Goldstone radar in the Mojave desert was scheduled to ping 2010 AL30 between 2:20 and 4:40 UTC on Jan. 13th. The echoes should reveal the nature of this interesting passerby.

"Sweltering under the Australian sun at over 31^o C, I had to wipe the perspiration from my eyes while attempting to obtain sharp focus through Earth's shimmering atmosphere," says Simmons. "It didn’t help that I had my head under a blanket to block out the bright sunlight that was washing out the display on my Notebook computer! In the end, technology and software allowed me to obtain some reasonable results. It is an impressive sunspot."

Sunspot 1040 is a member of new Solar Cycle 24, and its appearance continues a recent trend of intensifying solar activity. NOAA forecasters say there is a 15% chance of an isolated M-class solar flare during the next 24 hours. Readers with solar telescopes should be alert for eruptions.

more images: from Michael Wilk of Augsburg, Germany; from Bob van Slooten of Amersfoort, Netherlands; from Andy Yeung of Hong Kong

Sunspot 1040 (a.k.a. old sunspot 1035) is a member of new Solar Cycle 24. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

"On Sunday, the clouds opened up for some fantastic viewing," says Riegel. "I photographed the active region using a Lunt 60 solar telescope."

Sunspot 1040 is a member of new Solar Cycle 24, and its appearance continues a recent trend of intensifying solar activity. NOAA forecasters estimate a 10% chance of M-class solar flares during the next 24 hours. Stay tuned.

more images: from Mike Borman of Evansville, Indiana; from James Kevin Ty of Manila, Philippines; from Matt Wastell of Brisbane, Australia; from Alcaria Rego of Almada, Portugal; from Monty Leventhal OAM of Sydney, Australia; from Karzaman Ahmad of Langkawi National Observatory, Malaysia; from Robert Arnold of Isle of Skye, Scotland; from Paul Schneider of Wilton, Connecticut; from J. Maciaszek, C. Cusack, J. Stetson of South Portland, Maine; from Gianfranco Meregalli of Milano, Italy; from Javad Tasooji of Tehran, Iran; from Brian Colville of Cambray, ON, Canada.

CURIOUS ASTEROID FLYBY: A curious object is about to fly past Earth only one-third the distance to the Moon. Catalogued as a 10m-class asteroid, 2010 AL30 has an orbital period of almost exactly 1 year. This raises the possibility that it might not be a natural object, but rather a piece of some spacecraft from our own planet. At closest approach on Jan. 13th, 2010 AL30 will streak through Orion, Taurus, and Pisces glowing like a 14th magnitude star. Experienced amateur astronomers are encouraged to monitor the flyby.  Orbital elements, images, and more information are available on http://spaceweather.com .

 

Backyard astronomers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.

more images: from Mike Borman of Evansville, Indiana; from Matt Wastell of Brisbane, Australia; from Alcaria Rego of Almada, Portugal; from Monty Leventhal OAM of Sydney, Australia; from Karzaman Ahmad of Langkawi National Observatory, Malaysia; from Robert Arnold of Isle of Skye, Scotland; from Paul Schneider of Wilton, Connecticut; from J. Maciaszek, C. Cusack, J. Stetson of South Portland, Maine; from Gianfranco Meregalli of Milano, Italy

Current conditions

Backyard astronomers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.

a movie: "The plasma crawling around inside AR1040 made me think of the head of Medusa. It was exciting to watch!" says amateur astronomer Michael Buxton of Ocean Beach, California. "I made this time-lapse movie at 1 minute intervals from 2045-2215 UT on 8 Jan. 2010."

more images: from Alcaria Rego of Almada, Portugal; from Brian Woosnam of North Wales, UK; from Emiel Veldhuis of Zwolle, the Netherlands; from Robert Arnold of Isle of Skye, Scotland;

"A welcome view of the sun on a cold January day reveals the remains of AR11035 still alive and kicking," says Lawrence.

Beneath the waving filaments and bright magnetic froth ("plage"), a dark core is coelescing in the heart of the active region. That makes it a genuine sunspot again. NOAA has re-numbered the region "1040," but we will continue to refer to it by its original name, "1035." It is, after all, an old friend.

more images: from Emiel Veldhuis of Zwolle, the Netherlands; from Robert Arnold of Isle of Skye, Scotland; from Howard Eskildsen of Ocala, Florida; from Fabio Mariuzza of Biauzzo - Italy

A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on Jan. 12th or 13th. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope

"The golden sunrise turned these colorless spikes of ice into something resembling the fiery trails we occasional see from here when NASA launches a space shuttle," says Staples. "The warmth of the sun quickly reduced these Florida-cicles, but it was a rare a beautiful sight while it lasted."

This is, however, just the tip of the icicle. The remarkable cold, which has struck not only the United States, but also England and China, is creating widespread displays of atmospheric optics. The sun shining through ice in the air produces sundogs, sun pillars, and a variety of luminous rings and arcs. Browse the links below for examples.

more images: from Evan Ludes of Omaha, Nebraska; from Tyler Burg of Omaha, Nebraska; from Dan Bush of Albany, Missouri; from Doug Zubenel of De Soto, Kansas; from Julia Ponce of Papillion, Nebraska; from Kyle George of Omaha, Nebraska

Current conditions

Image credit: Solar and Heliospheric Observatory/MDI

Because corpses do not count, today's sunspot number is zero. This is the first blank (spotless) sun of 2010. So far this year, the sun has been blank about 17% of the time--a sharp reversal from the 71% rate of blank suns in 2009. Is solar activity really increasing? If recent trends continue, a new sunspot should appear soon. Stay tuned.

more images: from Howard Eskildsen of Ocala, Florida; from Gianfranco Meregalli of Milano, Italy; from C. Swiger and J. Stetson of South Portland, Maine; from Ron Cottrell of Oro Valley, Arizona

FIRST AURORAS OF 2010: Last night, for the first time this year, the clouds parted over Pangnirtung, an Inuit village on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, and the auroras came out to play:

"Mild temperatures at this time of year created a heavy ice fog which blanketed the community, while the Northern Lights danced over head," reports photographer Claus Vogel. "A couple of kids came over to investigate what I was doing, and within a few minutes they were trying their hands at aurora photography. We even played with the flashlight to write 2010."

The lights were sparked by a knot of solar magnetism that wafted past Earth in the solar wind. The south-pointing magnetic field from the sun partially cancelled the north-pointing magnetic field of Earth. Solar wind poured through the breach and fueled the display.

Says Vogel, "here's to more astronomical wonders in the year ahead!"

NEW: January Northern Lights Gallery
[previous Januarys: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2005, 2004, 2001]

SOLAR ACTIVITY: Yesterday, January 5th, something exploded on the back side of the sun and hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. Click on the SOHO image to see the billion-ton cloud in motion:

The source of the blast was probably one of several regions currently located behind the sun's eastern limb. NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft is monitoring three old sunspots there--AR1035, AR1036 and AR1038. The emergent latitude of the CME best matches that of AR1036, which will turn to face Earth in a few days.

more images: from Howard Eskildsen of Ocala, Florida

EASY COME, EASY GO: Sunspot 1039 is about to disappear over the sun's western limb, but the sun won't remain blank for long. Another active region is approaching from the east, shown here in a Jan. 5th image from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory:

The approaching region is old sunspot 1035. It has been transiting the far side of the sun since Dec. 20th. After all this time, is it still a dark-cored behemoth or just a decaying tangle of magnetic fields? Monitoring is encouraged: solar telescopes.

Latest movies: gif, mpeg-4, m4v

One "dirty snowball" went in; none came out. The doomed comet was a member of the Kreutz sungrazer family. Named after a 19th century German astronomer who studied them in detail, Kreutz sungrazers are fragments from the breakup of a giant comet at least 2000 years ago. Several of these fragments pass by the sun and disintegrate every day. Most are too small to see but occasionally a big fragment--like this one--attracts attention.

Credit: The comet was found on Jan. 2nd by Australian amateur astronomer Alan Watson, who was inspecting images obtained by STEREO-A's Heliospheric Imager on Dec. 30, 2009.

Current conditions

Latest movies: gif, mpeg-4, m4v

It will be interesting to see if a disembodied tail emerges from behind the coronagraph's occulting disk in the hours ahead.

This kamikaze comet is probably a member of the Kreutz sungrazer family. Named after a 19th century German astronomer who studied them in detail, Kreutz sungrazers are fragments from the breakup of a giant comet at least 2000 years ago. Several of these fragments pass by the sun and disintegrate every day. Most are too small to see. Today's fragment is a big exception.

Credit: The comet was found on Jan. 2nd by Australian amateur astronomer Alan Watson, who was inspecting images obtained by STEREO-A's Heliospheric Imager on Dec. 30, 2009.

Current conditions

1-1-2010 - sunspot 1039 

SNAP, CRACKLE, POP: Sunspot 1039 is putting on a good show for amateur astronomers. "The active region sizzled and popped as I photographed it on Dec. 31st," reports Michael Buxton of Ocean Beach, California.

"It is quite interesting to watch as energy surges and swirls around the sunspot's dark cores," he says.

2010 appears to be picking up where 2009 left off--with sunspot activity on the rise. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.

more images: from Eric Roel of Valle de Bravo, México; from Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from Matt Wastell of Brisbane, Australia; from Michael Borman of Evansville, Indiana; from Chris Schur of Payson, Arizona;