ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAYâ„¢

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ORIONID METEOR SHOWER: The

ORIONID METEOR SHOWER: The Orionid meteor shower is underway. According to the International Meteor Organization, observers are counting 25 Orionids per hour--a rate which should increase when the shower peaks on Wednesday, Oct. 21st. To see the show, set your alarm for 3 am, wake up and watch the sky during the dark hours before dawn.

The shower is caused by dusty debris from Halley's Comet, which litters the October portion of Earth's orbit.

Meanwhile at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Alabama, NASA astronomers have been monitoring Orionid activity using a two-station observatory with cameras separated by more than 100 miles. When a meteor is captured by both cameras, triangulation yields the meteor's height, direction and speed. "We find that most Orionids are hitting the atmosphere at about 140,000 mph," says lead researcher Bill Cooke.

This high speed accounts for the rapidity with which Orionids flit across the sky. "They are very fast meteors," he says.

For the past three years, Orionid rates have been unusually high, with reports of 60 or more meteors per hour. Researchers believe this is a result of some very old and rich debris from Comet Halley drifting across Earth's orbit. Computer models suggest that this debris is still nearby, so the trend of "good Orionids" should continue in 2009.

There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold

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NORTHERN LIGHTS: A solar wind

NORTHERN LIGHTS: A solar wind stream hit Earth on Oct. 24th and sparked geomagnetic storms around the Arctic Circle. "The auroras were extremely active with fast moving curtains of green, blue and red," reports Niels Giroud of Mo i Rana, Norway, who recorded the scene using a Nikon D200:

There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold

Rod
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MONDAY NIGHT SKY SHOW: Last

MONDAY NIGHT SKY SHOW: Last night, people around the world witnessed a bright and beautiful alignment of Jupiter and the Moon. "Here they are with some tasteful Halloween decorations in Los Angeles," says California photographer Bob Northup:


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I have been neglecting in stating the site that I am finding the words and pictures It's Space Weather

There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold

Rod
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Avalanche on Mars

Avalanche on Mars

There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold

Rod
Rod
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Wise

Wise Shots

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Wide Infrared Survey Explorer

There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold

Rod
Rod
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Hubble for the

Hubble for the Sun

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Solar Dynamics Observatory.. Money well spent:-)

There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold

Rod
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Tree of Avatar Included..

Tree of Avatar

Included.. a write up from Space Weather

THE TREE OF AVATAR: NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is doing more than just taking crisp pictures of the sun. It is revealing our star as a place of intense and sometimes even alien beauty. In today's image, we see "The Tree of Avatar."

The trunk of the tree is a twisted, gnarly pillar of magnetism containing hundreds of millions of tons of relatively cool plasma. The canopy is a cloud of million-degree gas. As solar physicists watched this tree on April 19th, it exploded, producing one of the biggest eruptions in years:

The colors in the movie trace different temperatures. Reds are relatively cool (60,000 K - 80,000 K); blues and greens are hot (1,000,000 K - 2,200,000 K). The tree's cool trunk rapidly heats up as it rises into the blast, and the canopy cools down as it falls in pieces back to the sun. Go ahead and watch the movie again. Once is not enough!

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More from the Solar Dynamics Observatory.. It takes about a minuter to download over a high speed link, but its worth it..

There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold

Rod
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Solar Transit

Solar Transit

There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold

Rod
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Another Shot from the Solar

Another Shot from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. It will take a moment to download

Coronal Mass Ejection ...

There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold

Rod
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Earth & Moon from 183 Million

Earth & Moon from 183 Million Km out[/u]

There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold

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