It's filled with unique items that have flown to the edge of space onboard cosmic ray research balloons. Are you looking for a far-out gift? Check out the Earth to Sky Store. GIFTS FROM THE EDGE OF SPACE: Christmas is coming. In the twilight glow of sunset, however, optics are required. If it were in the midnight sky, the comet would be easy to see with the naked eye.
"The comet has a huge coma and a twisted tail."Ĭurrent estimates of the comet's brightness put it at magnitude +4, a little dimmer than it was yesterday. Inset is a photo taken with a Newtonian 130 mm telescope and an ASI 2600MC camera (21x30 seconds)," explains Gasparri. "The wide field view is a 2 second exposure with a 100 mm lens. The comet is barely visible to the naked eye (it may have been my imagination), but it is easy to spot with small binoculars." "At last Comet Leonard has appeared in the southern sky," says Gasparri. Daniele Gasparri photographed the pair on Dec. It's the closest comet-Venus encounter in recorded history. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.ĬOMET LEONARD IS APPROACHING VENUS: Later today, Comet Leonard (C/2021 A1) will pass by Venus only 4.2 million km away. There are now at least three sunspots on the solar disk capable of producing flares of this magnitude.
A pulse of extreme UV radiation and X-rays ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere, causing a shortwave radio blackout over the South Pacific.
M-CLASS SOLAR FLARE: New sunspot AR2911 unleashed an M1-class solar flare during the early hours of Dec. Neutron counts from the University of Oulu's Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory show that cosmic rays reaching Earth are slowly declining-a result of the yin-yang relationship between the solar cycle and cosmic rays. Credit: SDO/HMIĬosmic Rays Solar Cycle 25 is beginning, and this is reflected in the number of cosmic rays entering Earth's atmosphere. New sunspot AR2911 is very active and capable of M-class solar flares.