Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Phoenix Descending and Solar Flare Cartwheels

This from Spaceweather.com for all you space geeks.

THE DESCENT OF PHOENIX: When NASA's Phoenix probe parachuted to Mars last Sunday, a pair of other spacecraft were orbiting high overhead, watching and listening. While NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped some jaw-dropping photos of Phoenix's plunge to the surface, Europe's Mars Express orbiter recorded Phoenix's radio transmissions. The eerie-sounding tones have just been beamed back to Earth and you can listen to them by following the links at today's edition of http://spaceweather.com.

CARTWHEEL CME: Imagine a billion-ton cloud of gas launching itself off the surface of the sun and then ... doing a cartwheel. That's exactly what happened on April 9, 2008, when a coronal mass ejection pirouetted over the sun's limb in full view of an international fleet of spacecraft. The cartwheel set off a chain of events that amazed even veteran solar physicists. The full story, and a spectacular movie of a second cartwheel recorded just last week, may be found at http://spaceweather.com

No comments: