A Merry Christmas Sun Light

The sun emitted a significant solar flare, peaking at 7:24 p.m. EST on Dec. 19, 2014. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

To see how this event may affect Earth, please visit NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center at http://spaceweather.gov, the U.S. government's official source for space weather forecasts, alerts, watches and warnings.

This flare is classified as an X1.8-class flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc.

This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?11721

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See Also:

• IRIS(Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph) and the Latest

Catching Black Holes on the Fly

Black Holes Shine for NuSTAR Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's black-hole-hunter spacecraft, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has "bagged" its first 10 supermassive black holes. The mission, which has a mast the length of a school bus, is the first telescope capable of focusing the highest-energy X-ray light into detailed pictures. See: Catching Black Holes on the Fly

See:

• NuSTAR: the Nuclear Spectroscopic Array(PDF)
• The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array Mission - NuSTAR

NuStar: Blackhole Hunter

NuSTAR is opening a new window on the Universe by being the first satellite to focus high-energy X-rays into sharp images. NuSTAR’s high-energy X-rays eyes see with more than 100 times the sensitivity of previous missions that have operated in this part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and with 10 times better resolution. NuSTAR sheds light on some of the hottest, densest, and most energetic objects in the universe.Education & Outreach

Black Hole Websites

• http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/teachers/blackholes/blackholes.html
• http://einstein.stanford.edu/
• http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations/blackholes/lesson/index.html
• http://glast.sonoma.edu/teachers/teachers.html#agn
• http://swift.sonoma.edu/education/index.html#grb
• http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/education/resources/gravity/index.shtml
• http://cgwp.gravity.psu.edu/outreach/activities/

See Also:

• The Black Hole Hunt is On

The Blackhole Hunt is On

Published on May 30, 2012

 See: NuSTAR to Hunt for Black Holes

NuSTAR

NASA contracted with Orbital Sciences Corporation to launch NuSTAR (mass 772 pounds (350 kg))^[11] on a Pegasus XL rocket for 21 March 2012.^[5] It had earlier been planned for 15 August 2011, 3 February 2012, 16 March 2012, and 14 March 2012.^[12] After a launch meeting on 15 March 2012, the launch was pushed further back to allow time to review flight software used by the launch vehicle's flight computer.^[13] The launch was conducted successfully at 16:00:37 UTC on 13 June 2012^[1] about 117 nautical miles south of Kwajalein Atoll.^[14] The Pegasus rocket was dropped from the L-1011 'Stargazer' aircraft.^[11][15]

On 22 June 2012 it was confirmed that the 10 m mast was fully deployed.^[16]

See Also:

• NuSTAR Home Page
  
• NuSTAR NASA Portal
• NuSTAR at HEASARC
• Xspec
  
• HEASoft