Sunday, December 23, 2007

Solar Stuff and Mars Attack!!!!


Got a cool pic of the Sun a couple days ago. it was shinning behind some wispy clouds and looked huge, grabbed my palmcorder and took the pic. The thing I like about the images is that they are in 16:9 Anamorphic widescreen, looks classy, and I love to say Anamorphic. Another Anamorphic Widescreen image I took is below, it is our lovely Sun in all it's Solar Minimum glory. Just missed an actual sunspot, #0978 had just rotated out of view a few hours before this image was taken. I took this image of the Sun with my Anamorphic Widescreen Plamcorder, stuck my white light telescopic Solar filter in front of it with one hand and snapped the image with the other, in this image you can see solar granules on the surface of the Sun, gives it a grainy appearance, basically they are caused by bubbling plasma, the same way when you boil fudge on the stove it bubbles, or boling water.



I put on the image for comparisons sake circles representing the sizes of Jupiter and Earth, the ratio is 1, 10, 100, that is the Sun is roughly 10 x the diameter of Jupiter, Jupiter is 10x the diameter of Earth, therefore the Sun is 100x the diameter of the Earth. Haven't posted many pictures of the Sun since I started my blog mostly because it is at Solar Minimum. The Sun goes through this 11 year cycle of high and low activity, right now and up until March of next year we are at the low spot , after March the Sun will start it's 5 and a half year climb to Solar max and we will slowly see increases in the amount and frequency of items such as solar flares, sunspots and prominences, nothing like a good ole solar flare to raise my spirits! Below is an image I took of the Sun a couple years ago while it still had some cool activity.





An asteroid, which by the way has been tracked by NASA since November 20, has a 1 in 75 chance of hitting little Mars on January 30th, 2008. Asteroid 2007 WD5 is around 160 feet across, is also supposed to be similar to the asteroid that broke up in midair before it flattened a Siberian forest back in 1908. If it does hit Mars the rovers may or may not get an image of the event, they figure it will hit somewhere north of Opportunity.



The blue arrow in the above image shows the predicted path of the asteroid and the orange line is the predicted impact zone. Scientists say the asteroid is behind the Moon right now, they will have a better idea if and when it will hit Mars in January when the glow of the Moon dies down and they can fine tune it's trajectory. NASA is pretty excited about the prospect of an asteroid hitting Mars, no one has ever witnessed an asteroid hitting anything, I'm all excited it's not gonna hit us!!

Since this will be my last post till after Christmas, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE !!

34 comments:

p said...

i dont know what anamorphic means so i'll go look it up. I LOVE this photo you took of the sun. it is so eery...sad...still.
merry christmas bob johnson. thanks for being out there!!!!

Bob Johnson said...

Hi Paula, thanks for being out there too, Merry Christmas to you and yours!!

Swubird said...

Bob:

Do you think that if an asteroid 160 feet across, and traveling at 8 miles per second, hits Mars, terrestrial debris will be knocked into Martian orbit?

As always, a great post.

Bob Johnson said...

Hi swubird, they are saying it will knock up a lot of dust but most of it is supposed to settle around the 1km crater it creates. Merry Christmas!

Anonymous said...

I immediately thought of you when I read about the asteroid hitting Mars. Would be something if it happens and also if one a rover can photo it and survive!

Bob Johnson said...

Merry Christmas Danny!, that would be too cool if they could get a picture of it happening.

Nature Nut /JJ Loch said...

Merry Christmas, Bob and family!!!

What a cool sun photo. I found a sun spot that has to be removed from my face. Can you tell the sun it's too frisky. :D

I knew you'd keep an eye on that asteroid heading toward Mars. I'll stay tuned to this blog for updates.

Hugs, JJ

Bob Johnson said...

Lol JJ, that darn Sun, Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Anonymous said...

Neat images, Bob! I wonder if they will revise their 1:75 chance 75 times between now and then? There is still a month to go. It will be interesting to "track" this story.

I knew you would have an "astrostuff" take on my latest post. For sure we will be long gone before the sun plays out it's final act.

Merry Christmas to all!

-Will

Bob Johnson said...

Hi and thanks Will, I'm sure it will be adjusted when they get a better line on it, I'm hoping not 75 times though,lol. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Peter said...

Hi! Great story and going by the Christmas tree widget it must be Christmas tomorrow. So I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I was here the other day and visited one of your links. Thanks to you I joined up at NASA. It was well worth the effort.

As for the sun and earth size comparisons, I just wonder how many people we could fit on the sun if it was a habitable planet. Yes, I have a odd sort of imagination.

All the best
Peter

Bob Johnson said...

Lol, we could fit lots of people on the Sun to bad it would melt us all. Thanks Peter, joining NASA is well worth it, especially since they have made their site more user friendly.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to you and yours as well!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful beautiful shots Bob.
I promise I'll be using the word anamorphic in my prose in the near future - just for you. :-)

I read about the possible asteroid impact on Mars in the Globe and Mail and immediately thought about your site and lo and behold it was there! Wonderful. BTW if I may add, yours was better.

I can't remember if I've wished you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. If I have then hey, I do it again. If I haven't then hey, there it is! :-)
~JD

Bob Johnson said...

Hi and Thanks JD, you are too kind! I can't remember about the Merry Christmas,lol, thanks and Merry Christmas to you and yours as well!

myonlyphoto said...

Hey Bob I am with you I am glad that it is not hitting the Earth also, just too many things to be accomplished on my part, lol. Thanks for more info on the asteroid, enjoy your holidays! Anna :)

said...

Merry X mas from Universe !

Bob Johnson said...

Merry Christmas Anna, I'm waiting for the UFO behind the asteroid to take me home,lol.

Bob Johnson said...

Merry Christmas Alex!

myonlyphoto said...

No comment Bob, just laughing, lol. Anna :)

Bob Johnson said...

Hi again Anna, forgot to wish you a Happy New Year,lol!

Anonymous said...

My present was finding this blog Bob! Merry, Merry Christmas...

Bob Johnson said...

Hi Hope, what a nice thing to say, Merry Christmas to you and yours too!!

Anonymous said...

Merry Christmas Bob!.May your nights be clear and dark for 2008!.
Andrew

Bob Johnson said...

Hi Andrew, Merry Christmas to you as well!!

Anonymous said...

Hi Bob, thank you for your comment! would be interesting to see a video of the asteroid hitting Mars, if it will happen. I'm also excited the earth will not be affected :D
Merry Christmas and happy holidays! Come get your xmas greeting tag from my blog:)

Bob Johnson said...

Hi Omega, that would be too cool if it hit , not the rovers, just Mars and they got the pic, Merry Christmas to you as well!

franx said...

Take time for a while Bob...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Bob Johnson said...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you as well Franx Budi!!

MYM said...

I like your merry christmas msg! Merry Christmas to you & your family as well!

Great shot of the sun. And I like the one where you can see the difference in size! wow!

Now, I know I've said this before...but I'm convinced solar flares effect human behaviour. I'm going to have to track this. I volunteer on a crisis line and it seems like we get more calls when solar flares are acting up. Others say it's the full moon. Maybe it's the volunteers who are crazy!

Bob Johnson said...

Merry Christmas to you and yours as well drowseymonkey!,lol I've never heard of solar activity having any effect on people, we have had a bunch of crazy people over the Christmas season at the mall, and no solar activity, but I think it is a good idea to do that study, when your finished I will publish your results on my blog!!

kml said...

Wow, Bob - those little flary things on the bottom of the sun are really neat - you did a great job capturing them!

Hope you and your family had a great Christmas!!

Kathy

Bob Johnson said...

Hi and thanks Kathy, they are prominences, hot plasma trying to leave the Sun, but the Sun's gravity pulling it back down again, we had an awesome Christmas, thanks for asking, how was yours?

Oswegan said...

Nice shots.

~Oswegan

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks oswegan!!