The last total lunar eclipse until 2014

The Moon… Unknown author.

A lunar eclipse happens when the Earth slips between the sun and the moon, casting a long shadow on the lunar surface and darkening it. But sunlight filters in through the edges of the Earth’s atmosphere, casting a reddish-orange glow on the moon. This light is a projection of all the sunrises and sunsets happening on Earth at this time, creating a spectacular cosmic show.

Tonight the last total lunar eclipse until 2014. The main event will start at 9:05 a.m. EST and last almost an hour.

Sabrina

Carl Sagan… Pale Blue Dot

Decade

From 220 miles above Earth, the Expedition 25 crew aboard the International Space Station shot this night time image of the northern Gulf coast. Mobile Bay and the city of Mobile, New Orleans and Houston are visible as the view moves southeastward. The Interstate Highway 20 cities of Jackson, Shreveport, Dallas and Fort Worth are also visible further inland. The view extends northward (left) to Little Rock and Oklahoma City.
Since Nov. 2, 2000, humans have lived and worked in space continuously on board the station.

Image Credit: NASA

Sabrina

X6.9 X-ray Flare (2011 Aug 09 at 0805 UTC)

The largest X-ray flare yet of Sunspot Cycle 24, this magnitude X6.9 X-ray flare peaked at 0805 UTC on August 9, 2011. This was a large flare–but not the largest on record which was an X28 on November 4, 2003. This flare caused an R3-level radio blackout (a sudden ionospheric disturbance, or SID), shutting off radio communications on shortwave frequencies on the sunlit side of the Earth at that time. Additionally, the event was associated with a Type II burst (1550km/s).

Credit: NASA SDO / Goddard Space Flight Center.
A Guide to X-ray Flare classifications; what is an X-class, M-class or other-class flare: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h1_QI8EboA .

 

Up to…

Backdropped by the blackness of space and Earth’s horizon, the International Space Station is featured in this image photographed by an STS-134 crew member on the space shuttle Endeavour after the station and shuttle began their post-undocking relative separation. Undocking of the two spacecraft occurred at 11:55 p.m. (EDT) on May 29, 2011. Endeavour spent 11 days, 17 hours and 41 minutes attached to the orbiting laboratory.

Getting Ready for the Next Big Solar Storm

Getting Ready for the Next Big Solar Storm

Modern power grids are vulnerable to solar storms.
Credit: NASA/Martin Stojanovski

June 21, 2011: In Sept. 1859, on the eve of a below-average solar cycle, the sun unleashed one of the most powerful storms in centuries. The underlying flare was so unusual, researchers still aren’t sure how to categorize it. The blast peppered Earth with the most energetic protons in half-a-millennium, induced electrical currents that set telegraph offices on fire, and sparked Northern Lights over Cuba and Hawaii.

Dawn from above

At the dawn of the day.

From ISS. Credits: NASA.

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