DOUBLE CORONAL HOLE: A double-barreled hole has opened up in the sun’s atmosphere and it is spewing a split-stream of solar wind toward Earth. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this composite UV image of the double coronal hole on August 20th:
Sky watchers should be alert for auroras when the solar wind arrives on August 22-24. NOAA forecasters estimate a 35% to 50% chance of high-latitude geomagnetic activity
fr/spaceweather.com
| Posted by: JeffMasters, 4:16 PM GMT on August 20, 2011 | +21 |
Figure 1. Radar image of Harvey taken at 11:30am EDT on Saturday, August 20, 2011, a few hours before landfall in Belize. A small closed eye is visible just south of the offshore islands of Belize. Image credit: Belize National Meteorological Service
August 2011
I found this curious, the white in the flames:
And the most recent full moon seemed to be dancing in the sky:
Then there was that sunset, and what is going on with the light:
and on and on…
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 The moon rises over Los Angeles City Hall. The new analysis could leave scientists who model the moon’s formation “scratching their heads,” said an isotope geochemist who was not involved in the study. (Scott Harrison / Los Angeles Times)
By Amina Khan, Los Angeles TimesAugust 18, 2011
The moon may be 200 million years younger than widely believed, according to a new analysis of a rock brought back to Earth in 1972 by Apollo 16 astronauts. Or, if not, the moon may never have had the magma ocean that scientists think covered its surface soon after it formed.
Either way, the findings published online Wednesday by the journal Nature could send lunar scientists back to the drawing board to reconsider the moon’s evolution. The moon is thought to have formed from debris ejected into space after a Mars-sized body collided with the still-molten Earth about 4.5 billion years ago. The young moon would have been hot and blanketed by magma. But without a thick atmosphere to trap its heat, the molten rock cooled relatively quickly, while minerals that were less dense than the magma floated to the top first, forming the moon’s crust. These rocks give the white highlands of the moon’s near side their pale hue, and have been used to determine the point at which the moon solidified into the body we know today. to read more, go to: http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-moon-age-20110818,0,4380476.story
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Vegans on Mars? PETA Says Yes, Please
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| Future astronauts may grow some of their meals inside greenhouses, such as this Martian growth chamber, where fruits and vegetables could be grown hydroponically, without soil. CREDIT: Pat Rawlings/NASA |
Most space fans hope that humans will eventually reach Mars. As for cows and chickens, that’s another question.
Animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treaent a letter to spaceentrepreneur Elon Musk, founder of rocket company SpaceX, urging him to make any Space X missions to Mars vegan.
“We can get off on the right foot on our new biosphere by ensuring that Space X crafts traveling to Mars are stocked only with vegan food and that Mars’ colonists commit to enjoying an animal-free diet once they’ve arrived,” the group wrote in the Aug. 8 letter. [Space Food Photos: What Astronauts Eat]
to read more, go to: http://www.space.com/12679-vegans-mars-peta-campaign-space-food.html
Posted: August 18, 2011 by Storm Central in Uncategorized
I pin-pointed it for you so it is easier to see the exact location. Please note: That is the location via lat and long at 3:00AM CDT and those estimates at long and lat are just estimates. Using Google earth, I estimated the location being about 1,400 Miles from Barbados Island. (Lat and Long are there on the graphic)
Below is the Current Observations on the projected cyclone:
to read more and see the images, go to: http://centralstorm.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/potential-major-hurricane-hitting-the-united-states/
August 18, 2011: For the first time, a spacecraft far from Earth has turned and watched a solar storm engulf our planet. The movie, released today during a NASA press conference, has galvanized solar physicists, who say it could lead to important advances in space weather forecasting.
“The movie sent chills down my spine,” says Craig DeForest of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “It shows a CME swelling into an enormous wall of plasma and then washing over the tiny blue speck of Earth where we live. I felt very small.”
You decide. Anyhow, curious.
to read the rest, go to: http://www.calleman.com/content/articles/5thNight_9thWave.htm
Huge Sand Formation Reported Southwest of Xining, China
© 2011 by Linda Moulton Howe
“… very quite regular, straight lines form the perfect circle
and the diameter of a rough estimate of 1 to 2 kilometers (.62 to 1.24 miles).”
– Chinese traveler on Qinghai Highway southwest of Xining, China
One of several images posted August 17, 2011, at Chinese website, Awaker.net.
Xining, Qinghai, China (upper right red circle). Red road is the Qinghai Highway.
The Awaker.net news story says the huge lines and circles pressed into
sand is at a remote location about three hours from Xining towards Tibet on the
Qinghai Highway. Madoi (middle red circle) is about 200 miles southwest of
Xining and might be the region of the sand formation.
The Tibet border is the orange/red boundary line south of Madoi.
Lhasa, Tibet, is the bottom left red circle.
to read more, go to: http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1882&category=Environment
Potent Atlantic tropical wave could be big trouble for the United States
| Published on August 17, 2011 1:05 pm PT – By Kevin Martin – Senior Meteorologist – Article Editor and Approved – Ron Jackson |
Click for large image of tracking map
(TheWeatherSpace.com) — A disturbance in the middle of the Atlantic is moving westward and has promising features to develop into something of concern down the line.
Latest satellite images show a very broad circulation in the area. This area must be watched as the broad area has both stacked surface and mid/upper level features.
Thunderstorms should continue to form around the center of it as it moves toward the Lee and Windward Islands and strength as it does.
This was a very potent wave and was already spinning when leaving Africa so chances for a Hurricane are high with it.
As for tracking, usually I do tracking maps for these larger systems and this one looks like a United States threat, likely the Southeastern Coast.
Right now I have the tracking map (view it here) moving westward and just South (but impacting) Puerto Rico. It then moves across the Dominican Republic and enters the warm waters of the Bahamas.
to read more, go to: http://www.theweatherspace.com/news/TWS-08_17_2011_tropicalwave.html