Space Weather

[Jherrith]

WHY ARE JUPITER'S AURORAS SO RED?

Many readers have asked why Jupiter's auroras, described in a news item below, are so impressively red.  In fact, they are infra-red. Juno science team member Alberto Adriani explains:

"The colors of auroras are determined by the gas that is present in the atmosphere. On Earth the gas generating the beautiful red or green auroras is oxygen. On Jupiter, the atmospheric gas is hydrogen. Two distinct auroras coexist over the poles of Jupiter: Ultraviolet auroras created by hydrogen in its molecular form (H2) and infrared auroras created by the hydrogen ion H3+."

[Jherrith]

AURORAS ON JUPITER: On Aug. 27th, for the first time ever, NASA's Juno spacecraft swooped over Jupiter's south pole. The flyby revealed an astonishing vortex of infra-red light:




"While we knew that the flyby of Jupiter's south pole might reveal the   planet's southern aurora, we were still amazed to see it for the first   time," says Alberto Adriani from the Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali in Rome. Adriani is a co-investigator on the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM), the instrument that took the picture.
Another instrument on Juno named "Waves" detected low-frequency (<100   kHz) radio signals coming from Jupiter's aurora-zone. To make these signals audible, mission scientists at the University of Iowa shifted the signals into the frequency range of human hearing. The audio begins about 30 seconds into this movie:






If the auroras of Jupiter sound mysterious--that's because they are.
 Unlike Earth, which lights up in response to solar activity, Jupiter   makes its own auroras. The power source is the giant planet's own   rotation. Although Jupiter is ten times wider than Earth, it manages to   spin around 2.5 times as fast as our little planet. As any freshman   engineering student knows, if you spin a magnet you've got an electric generator. And Jupiter is a very big magnet. Induced electric fields   accelerate particles toward Jupiter's poles where the aurora action   takes place. Remarkably, many of the particles that rain down on   Jupiter's poles appear to be ejecta from volcanoes on Io. How this   complicated system actually works is a puzzle.
Stay tuned for more space weather reports from Jupiter as Juno continues its explorations of the giant planet.

[thelufias]

ASTEROID DOUBLE FLYBY:  On Sept. 7th, a newly discovered asteroid about the size of a large grey whale flew over the south pole of Earth only 25,000 miles away. For scale, that's only a few thousand miles above the orbits of typical geosynchronous satellites. After the Earth flyby, the space rock turned and headed in the general direction of the Moon, executing a wider flyby of 179,000 miles on Sept. 8th. Where will this asteroid go next?  Visit Spaceweather.com for answers and photos of today's encounter with Earth.

[thelufias]

LOL...I see that "J" put this up earlier....Oh well....it's a reminder to look at it....

[Aelin]

Yes i heard for the asteroid but with no more informations.Thanks guys for double check 

[Agent0013]

I think this asteroid might make a good candidate for a course alteration experiment. Obviously its course was altered greatly when it passed so closely by Earth. That fly by is how it was able to fly by the Moon too, and likely why it will fly close to Venus.


The experiment would be to send up a mission in which the spacecraft takes up a position near the asteroid. Controlled thrust burns would be performed to change ever so slightly the trajectory of the craft. The gravitational pull of the craft would then affect the asteroid changing its course even more slightly, but enough for Earth based instruments to detect. This craft could be used to perform several controlled burns of that type, and cause overall a significant alteration of the asteroid's trajectory.


But the experiment would not be ended there. The point would be to see if it could be guided into a path of the science team's choosing, perhaps toward a very close fly by of say Jupiter, which would then slingshot it out of the Solar System. Earth based instruments would be used to determine how well the expected results are met.


These are just some of me ideas on what to do with what is known. The time line for implementing such an event is a good one, and the data collected would no doubt be of great value, allowing us to determine how to deflect the much larger Earth crossing asteroids. Cleaning out Earth's path around the Sun should be a priority.

[thelufias]

They have made mention of that also.  But they have some other candidates for this it seems.  Love that site...and all the other links to great places that they have.

[Jherrith]

I think this asteroid might make a good candidate for a course alteration experiment. Obviously its course was altered greatly when it passed so closely by Earth. That fly by is how it was able to fly by the Moon too, and likely why it will fly close to Venus.


The experiment would be to send up a mission in which the spacecraft takes up a position near the asteroid. Controlled thrust burns would be performed to change ever so slightly the trajectory of the craft. The gravitational pull of the craft would then affect the asteroid changing its course even more slightly, but enough for Earth based instruments to detect. This craft could be used to perform several controlled burns of that type, and cause overall a significant alteration of the asteroid's trajectory.


But the experiment would not be ended there. The point would be to see if it could be guided into a path of the science team's choosing, perhaps toward a very close fly by of say Jupiter, which would then slingshot it out of the Solar System. Earth based instruments would be used to determine how well the expected results are met.


These are just some of me ideas on what to do with what is known. The time line for implementing such an event is a good one, and the data collected would no doubt be of great value, allowing us to determine how to deflect the much larger Earth crossing asteroids. Cleaning out Earth's path around the Sun should be a priority.

Exquisite forward thinking there good sir

[Aelin]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/09/09/world/europe/ap-eu-cyprus-meteor.html

Cypriot officials are baffled by reports that a meteor streaking across the nighttime sky may have exploded overhead with a thunderous bang that some said made the ground shake.

Police said eyewitnesses reported seeing a blue glow emanating from the object that raced over the east Mediterranean island's Troodos mountain range shortly before midnight Thursday.

Cyprus Geological Department official Iordanis Demetriades told The Associated Press Friday that there's no indication the object struck the ground and that it probably "exploded in the sky."

A police official who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity in line with police rules said numerous reports spoke of "a loud explosion" followed by "the ground shaking."

Authorities are looking for possible remnants of the object.

*********
Sorry, i haven't photo for this. But i believe it's not the first meteore of the year in the world. Somebody knows how many they are usually for one year? 

[thelufias]

I guess I'll have to venture over to Space Weather and look at their meteor logs......did I ever mention that I LOVE that place