Worms falling from the sky…

No, you did not read this wrong. Worms were reported to fall from the sky today in Scotland. The worms fell during a rain storm, it appears, at Galashiels Academy. Here is the article
This is the first time I have heard about this but if you do a quick search you get a couple of other reports, however this is the only other report I could find quickly:
Louisiana reports worms falling from the sky, July 12, 2007

In addition to this, here is another site with 8 strange things that fell from the sky.
Just something different for a moment. More updates regarding solar flares and the effects on Earth coming soon.
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Mini Project 2: Storm Edge finder, X marks the spots

The science bit- By looking at the changing shape we can study how elliptical or deformed the storms become and how fast this rate of change is. By looking at where they start disappearing, it may give us some insight into the practical limitations of investigating the full structure of these storms- or perhaps, into the sensitivity and resolution of the camera.
So, I have a question for all you Stormwatchers- What is the farthest away from the Sun you can trace the full shape of a Storm?

So to clarify, if you look at a single frame from a movie of a storm, what is the last point in time (which is the same as the furthest point in space) when you think you can accurately place an x at four positions: the front, the back, the top and bottom of the storm?
This is a slight modification and extension to an earlier mini project of finding circular storms. Here the idea is no longer emphasising a simple circle shape- so we can accommodate more awkward/bent/distorted shapes. But what is important is that you can draw an ‘x’ at a minimum of four crucial positions.
I reckon there are quite a few examples of these, so can you find any more storms where the centre of the four points can reach at least the centre of the camera? Below is an example highlighted in the circular storm thread by fellow Stormwatcher lolinda and marked as her favourite 2125. On the left, are unedited screenshots of the storm; on the right, I have drawn the four points and its rough shape on top of the screenshots. I reckon I can do this until 12.90, but then I loose the position of the top left of the storm. When do you think you last see the full shape?

If you have other storms that can be investigated in this way and want to replicate what i did; then I simply took a few screenshots and pasted them quickly into PowerPoint (paint or any other simple picture editor would also work). I then roughly placed ‘x’ where I thought they were most appropriate and put an elliptical shape that roughly followed what I think the shape may be. If an ellipse is not the most ideal you can use a freeform line.
What is the last time you think you can both see and trace the shape?
Which part of the storm disappears first?
Happy hunting,
Neel

Categories: Neel Savani
Trackbacks: http://blogs.zooniverse.org/solarstormwatch/2011/03/storm-edge-finder-x-marks-the-spots/trackback/

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Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2011 – the solar selection

Last month I attended the Astronomy Photographer of the Year awards, held at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, with fellow Solar Stormwatch forum moderator ElisabethB (Els) and fellow Moon Zoo forum moderator Geoff. We were treated to a preview of the shortlisted photos in the planetarium. Huge images were projected onto the planetarium dome as Olivia Johnson from the ROG told us about each one to a background of spacey soothing music. No chance of falling asleep though as the images were so stunning!
The overall winner was an amazing photo of Jupiter, Io and Ganymede by Damian Peach showing detail on the two moons  – well worth pouring over in high resolution. We were pleased to see some great solar astrophotos make the final list this year. In particular Dani Caxete’s photo of the ISS crossing the Sun was one of our favourites as this required nerves of steel to click the shutter at the precise moment.
Here’s Geoff, Els and me getting into the swing.

Here are the solar related photos that made it through to the finals. While not strictly images of the Sun the aurora photos couldn’t have been taken without it – and are beautiful to look at – so I’ve included them!
“Earth and Space” category runners up:
“Our Solar System” category runners up:
And here are some that didn’t make the final:
More photos and information on the APOTY website and the Flickr APOTY pool.

Categories: Jules, Royal Observatory, Uncategorized
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How Big Are The Spots On The Sun?

Another great question, answered by Ms. Irina Marinova from University of Texas, Astronomy PhD program:
Sunspots are regions on the surface of the sun that are cooler and darker than the surrounding area (the photosphere). Sunspots change in size as they move across the surface of the sun, however some sun spots have been observed to be as large as 80,000km. This is about six times the size of the Earth! NASA and the European Space Agency have a satellite in orbit around the sun (called SOHO) that takes pictures of the sun every day. You can see what the sun looks like right now (including sun spots) at this website: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/sunspots/

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How Do Solar Storms Happen?

Answer provided by Ms. Dawn Myers:
A solar storm happens when a coronal mass ejection leaves the Sun headed towards Earth. The CME will slam into the Earth’s magnetosphere and interact with it causing what we call space weather. Depending on how large a storm is it could cause satellite interruptions, power black outs and auroras.

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How long was the longest solar flare measured?

Answer provided by Mitzi Adams:
”I’m not really sure how long the longest flare might have been.  That is a difficult question to answer, since it depends on how you are measuring the flare.  I can tell you that a flare that happened 21 Mar, 2011  (a C-class flare) lasted about fifteen hours.  That is, the X-ray flux from the flare in one energy band took that long to return to its pre-flare level, as measured by an instrument in orbit around Earth on the GOES satellite.  The first X-class flare of solar cycle 24 lasted only about an hour, however.  If you would like to see the graphs yourself, go here:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/xray_5m.html

For information about flare classes, visit this website:
http://spaceweather.com/glossary/flareclasses.html‘
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