#X-ray #SolarFlares
6-hr max: M6 1443 UT Sep12
24-hr: X1 0943 UT Sep12
NEW #SUNSPOT EMITS #X-FLARE: Earth-orbiting satellites detected a strong X1.3-class solar flare today (Sept. 12th @ 0943 UTC). It came from a new and apparently large sunspot emerging over the sun's southeastern limb. The sunspot is not facing Earth now, but it will be early next week,
The number of #sunspots has been increasing at an exponential rate for the past couple of months.
sorry for the delay in posting this... distractions
Welcome To Solar Cycle 25; Our Sun Enters A New 11-Year Period | Hackaday
to know what we’re in store for over the next couple of decades. Welcome to your primer on Solar Cycle 25.
#astronomy #science
#coronalmassejections #cme #magneticpole #solarcycle #solarcycle25 #sunspots #spaceweather ">TAGS
#SUNSPOTS MAKE #CLOUDS ON #NEPTUNE:
A new paper published Aug. 17th in the #research journal Icarus offers dramatic proof that solar activity can affect #planetary #weather. The big surprise: That planet is Neptune, 2.5 billion miles from the sun. Twenty-six years of images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope show bright clouds forming in sync with the 11-year solar cycle:
The connection between Neptune and solar activity is surprising to planetary scientists because Neptune is our solar system's farthest major planet and receives only 0.1% of the sunlight Earth receives. Yet Neptune's cloudy weather seems to be driven by solar activity, and not the planet's four seasons, which each last approximately 40 years.
"This is extremely exciting and unexpected," says Erandi Chavez, a graduate student at Harvard-Smithsonian's Center for Astrophysics, who led the study when she was a student at UC Berkeley.
The research team confirmed Hubble's results using data from the Webb Space Telescope, the Keck Observatory, and the Lick Observatory. The link between sunspots and Neptune's clouds appears to be solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation, which peaks when sunspot counts are high.
"Our findings support the theory that the #sun's #UV rays, when strong enough, may be triggering a photochemical reaction that produces Neptune's clouds," says Imke de Pater, emeritus professor of #astronomy at UC Berkeley and a senior co-author of the study.
Based on the data so far, it seems to take about two years for Neptune's clouds to fully form once the solar cycle reaches its peak. Solar Cycle 25 is rising now with a peak expected in 2024. This means Neptune's cloudy season is about to begin--a development amateur astronomers may be able to observe.
