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| SOHO reveals how sunspots take a stranglehold on the Sun |
| A sunspot turns out to be a kind of whirlpool, where hot gas near the Suns surface converges and dives into the interior at speeds of up to 4000 kilometres per hour. This is the latest discovery by the ESA-NASA SOHO spacecraft. |
| Date: 06 Nov 2001 |
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| SOHO's guidebook to the Sun's extreme ultraviolet light |
| The world's astronomers now have access to amazing details about the invisible ultraviolet light from the Sun, thanks to a new 'spectral atlas' prepared with the SUMER instrument on the SOHO spacecraft. It shows bright emissions at more than 1100 distinct wavelengths, more than 150 of which were not recorded or not identified before SOHO. The atlas is being presented today at an international meeting of astronomers, by Werner Curdt of Germany's Max-Planck-Institut f|r Aeronomie, the lead laboratory for the SUMER instrument. |
| Date: 31 Jul 2001 |
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| SOHO's images provide striking contrast to the solar eclipse |
| The first solar eclipse of the new millennium was enjoyed yesterday by thousands of observers in southern Africa. As tourists and residents enjoyed one of Nature's most impressive sights, it was business as usual for SOHO. |
| Date: 22 Jun 2001 |
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| During Africa's solar eclipse, SOHO will still see the whole Sun |
| Scientific teams going to Africa for the total solar eclipse, on 21 June, will rely on the ESA-NASA SOHO spacecraft to show them the Sun's weather during the event. |
| Date: 18 Jun 2001 |
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| SOHO's unique view of a comet that fell to pieces |
| When Spain's Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias reported on 28 July 2000 that an ordinary-looking comet was breaking up, some of the world's top telescopes watched its subsequent disintegration till nothing was left. The French-Finnish SWAN instrument on the SOHO spacecraft had already been observing Comet LINEAR by ultraviolet light for two months, and continued to watch it till the remnants faded from view in mid-August. Today the SWAN team reports, in the journal Science, that their observations showed four major outbursts in June and July. |
| Date: 18 May 2001 |
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| Five years of discoveries with SOHO have made the Sun transparent |
| Anyone troubled by storms on the Sun will now have an extra week's early warning of eruption risks, by courtesy of the SOHO spacecraft. Teams in France and the USA have found two different ways of detecting activity on the Sun's far side, before it swings into view from the Earth. SOHO's SWAN instrument sees ultraviolet rays sweeping like a lighthouse beam across interplanetary gas beyond the Sun, while the MDI instrument peers right through the Sun to locate hidden sunspots and their active regions. From today, both teams are making their observations available routinely to everyone, including the forecasters of space weather. |
| Date: 27 Apr 2001 |
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| Coming our way - yet another powerful solar flare |
| An angry Sun fired off another powerful X-class flare on Tuesday, 10
April. X-class flares are the most powerful classification, and
this flare, rated X-2, was the most recent in a series that included
an X-20 flare, one of the most powerful flares in 25 years. An
eruption of electrified gas, called a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME),
was observed shortly after Tuesday's flare and is heading our way.
Depending on the orientation of the magnetic field carried by the CME
cloud, it may cause a magnetic storm when it impacts the Earth's own
magnetic field. |
| Date: 12 Apr 2001 |
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| Biggest solar flare on record is seen by SOHO |
| On Monday 2 April at 23:51 Central European Time (21:51 UT) the Sun unleashed a major solar flare near its northwestern (upper right-hand) side. Originally classified as an X17 flare, it has now been upgraded to X20, and appears to be the biggest flare yet on record. Monday's flare is the strongest flare since 16 August 1989 when the last X20 flare occurred and is certainly more powerful than the famous 6 March 1989 flare which was related to the disruption of the power grids in Canada. The event was well observed by the ESA-NASA SOHO spacecraft. |
| Date: 05 Apr 2001 |
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| SOHO records a giant flare on the Sun |
| Last night at 23:51 Central European Time (21:51 UT, 2 April) the Sun unleashed a major solar flare near its northwestern (upper right-hand) side and the event was well observed by the ESA-NASA SOHO spacecraft. It was classified as an X17 flare, probably the strongest flare since 16 August 1989 when an X20 flare occurred. It was slightly more powerful than the famous 6 March 1989 flare which was related to the disruption of the power grids in Canada. The latest event hurled a coronal mass ejection into space - but apparently not towards the Earth, so the impacts will probably be less severe. |
| Date: 03 Apr 2001 |
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| SOHO analyses a kamikaze comet |
| A comet that fell into the Sun on 7 February was tracked by two
different instruments on the ESA-NASA SOHO spacecraft, enabling
scientists to characterize it quite precisely. This was just one of
nearly 300 comets discovered by SOHO since 1996, thanks mainly to the
privileged view of the sky around the Sun given by the visible-light
coronagraph LASCO. On this occasion SOHO's ultraviolet coronagraph UVCS
also observed the comet repeatedly. It gave valuable additional
information, both about the comet and about the solar wind close to the
Sun. |
| Date: 23 Feb 2001 |
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| Solar fireworks for SOHO's anniversary |
| In celebration of the birthday of its most diligent watcher,
the Sun has let loose an unusual and quick-fire series of eruptions
during the past few days. Saturday will be the 5th anniversary of SOHO's
launch into space, on 2 December 1995. |
| Date: 30 Nov 2000 |
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| Fly me to the Sun! |
| ESA inaugurates the European Project on the Sun
On 8/9 November, at Noordwijk in the Netherlands, the European Space Agency (ESA) will inaugurate
the "European Project on the Sun" (EPOS), a travelling exhibition conceived and built by European
youngsters who have spent the past eight months acting as solar scientists and
communication experts working on various themes relating to the Sun. |
| Date: 03 Nov 2000 |
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| What might the Sun do one day? |
| A programme to monitor large numbers of stars resembling the Sun could
give a new perspective on solar effects on the Earth's climate,
according to Eugene Parker of the University of Chicago. He was summing
up the conference on "The Solar Cycle and Terrestrial Climate" held last
week on the Spanish island of Tenerife (25-29 September). Two hundred
solar and climate scientists from many countries part in the meeting,
which was sponsored by the European Union and the European Space Agency.
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| Date: 02 Oct 2000 |
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| Climate change: new impressions from space |
| Are variations in the Sun's brightness an important cause of climate change? Could changes
in the Sun's magnetism affect the Earth's clouds? Why do temperature trends in the lower
atmosphere give a different impression of global warming from measurements at ground level?
The latest results from spacecraft that observe the Sun and the Earth provoke many such questions.
They will be debated next week on the Spanish island of Tenerife, where scientists who calculate
climate change due to manmade greenhouse gases will meet others who argue that solar effects
have been underestimated. |
| Date: 20 Sep 2000 |
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| SOHO improves space weather forecasting |
| This release is issued today by the press office for the International Astronomical Union's
General Assembly.
Safe operation of the International Space Station depends on timely warnings of eruptions on
the Sun, Dr Paal Brekke will tell a meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Manchester,
UK. On 11 August he will report on the race between the Sun's capacity to harm high-technology
systems, and the ability of space scientists to warn engineers and astronauts of bad weather in space,
due to solar storms. Dr Brekke is a Norwegian solar physicist serving as the European Space Agency's
Deputy Project Scientist for the ESA-NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, SOHO, which is now
the world's chief watchdog for outbursts on the Sun.
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| Date: 03 Aug 2000 |
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| ESA's SOHO and Cluster spacecraft star in new IMAX movie |
| Several of ESA's scientific spacecraft play starring roles in a remarkable new widescreen IMAX movie entitled 'Solarmax', which received its world première at London's Science Museum yesterday. |
| Date: 29 Jun 2000 |
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| SOHO and Cluster Exhibition opens in Norway |
| An exhibition on 'The Sun - our star' opened at the Norwegian Technical Museum in Oslo on 22 June. The exhibits include 1:4 scale models of the SOHO and Cluster II satellites as well as several metres of panels with information on the science from these ESA missions. The ESA SOHO CD-Rom can be viewed interactively by the visitors and SOHO real-time pictures are displayed continuously. |
| Date: 26 Jun 2000 |
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| Venus enhances SOHO's unique picture of planets beyond the Sun |
| Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and the Sun all appear in the same image
sent to Earth yesterday (15 May) by the SOHO spacecraft. The picture
with four planets is another scoop for SOHO. Venus entered the scene
from the right on 15 May, while Mercury was on its way out on the left.
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| Date: 16 May 2000 |
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| Venus enhances SOHO's unique picture of planets beyond the Sun |
| Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and the Sun all appear in the same image
sent to Earth today (15 May) by the SOHO spacecraft. The picture
with four planets is another scoop for SOHO. Venus entered the scene
from the right on 13 May, while Mercury was on its way out on the left. |
| Date: 15 May 2000 |
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| The planets line up -- but don't panic! Watch them with SOHO and answer our quiz! |
| For followers of Nostradamus, this is a chance to relish. What better time than the year 2000 - prelude to the new millennium -- to predict all sorts of catastrophes driven by celestial objects? And the planets, jointly taunting the doomsayers, have chosen to dance together before their eyes. Mars, Jupiter and Saturn clustered for the first time on 6 April, within a circle 9 degrees wide. On 14 April, they gathered again in a 5-degree circle. And last month's dance was just a prelude to this month's fiesta. On 5 May, Mercury, Venus, the Moon and the Sun join in too, grouping in a circle of 26 degrees. |
| Date: 04 May 2000 |
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