The active region that could has again given us an X flare! That makes 4! DETAILS »
C. Alex Young highlights many interesting aspects of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) images and points out several of the single-frame events that appear in it. WATCH NOW »
Our viewing guide to the first solar eclipse of 2013 is Australia’s 2nd in 6 months. LEARN MORE »
The next Transit of Venus happens on June 5 – 6, 2012. It is the rarest predictable astronomical event, occurs 4 times every 234 years! LEARN MORE »
This event had everything: a solar flare, a coronal wave, a filament eruption, coronal rain and a coronal mass ejection, and more! LEARN MORE »
Current Observations

CME may impact the Earth and Spitzer 5/19/2013
May 17, 2013 By C. Alex Young, Ph.D. Leave a Comment
16:16 UT - NASA SWRC simulations indicate that the leading edge of the CME will reach Spitzer at 2:56 UT 5/19/2013 and Earth at 11:59 UT 5/19/2013 (+- 7 hrs). Roughly estimated expected maximum Kp index is 5-6 (minor to moderate). 14:30 UT – Initial estimates for the CME speed are ~1200 km/s. A detailed computer [...]

Wiggling Loops from 4 Flares – May 13 – 16, 2013
May 17, 2013 By C. Alex Young, Ph.D. Leave a Comment
Wiggly Jiggly Loops by 4 flares from an evolving sunspot AR11748 showed us some exciting yet basically benign activity. A little image processing helps us really see certain aspects of the activity. Keep an eye out for wiggling loops set in motion by the eruptions (from the X flares – all 4 are in the [...]

AR11748 Releases Yet Another X Flare – X1.2
May 14, 2013 By C. Alex Young, Ph.D. 1 Comment
The active region that could, has again given us an X flare! That makes 4! 12:15 UT – The NASA GSFC Space Weather Research Center has estimated that the CME may give a glancing blow to Epoxi (~5/18/2013 06:00 UT) and hit Spitzer (~5/17/2013 00:30 UT plus minus 7 hours). There is also a small chance [...]














