Saturn's Great 'Dragon Storm' Has Returned
"The storm was so bright, I was even able to see it visually [through the eyepiece]," says Go. In years past, the storm was located in Saturn's southern hemisphere, "but images taken by me and other amateur astronomers show that it is now in the northern hemisphere." The shift is consistent with findings that the Dragon Storm is a long-lived disturbance deep within the gas giant's atmosphere that moves around and periodically flares-up to produce large, visible storm regions.
Stay tuned for updates and more images.
UPWARD BLAST: Magnetic filaments have been erupting on the sun with uncommon frequency these past two weeks. The latest event occurred On Dec. 16th around 0800 UT when a filament lifted off the stellar surface and propelled a coronal mass ejection into space. Coronagraphs onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) recorded the expanding cloud:
Click to view a 6.7 MB gif movie
Earth was not in the line of fire; no planets were. The cloud is heading up and away from the plane of the solar system where it will dissipate with little effect a week or two hence. Like all the recent eruptions, this one missed our planet, but it is only a matter of time before a scattershot CME reaches Earth. When it does, you'll want to be alert for auroras.
Dec. 17, 2010