Don’t miss the Southern California Astronomy Expo (SCAE) on Saturday, July 12th and Saturday, July 19th, 2008 at Oceanside Photo & Telescope! The store will be open from 10:00AM until 7:00PM on both Saturdays, and we'll have special sale prices going on all day long! Check out the line-up of events we have planned for SCAE...you gotta come!
The above video is also available in High Definition 720P Windows Media format (wmv). You'll need a high speed internet connection, the latest Windows Media Player (version 11), and a fast machine to view it. You may download the HD 720P Version here (about 150 M-Bytes).
For several decades solar scientists have been hard at work trying to
unravel the mysteries of the solar corona. Thanks to a medical x-ray
technique known as tomography, scientists are able resolve solar
activity in greater detail. By using a new way of processing images,
active regions now take on dimensions never foreseen of by computer
models.
Today Dr. Huw Morgan presented his results to the Royal Astronomical
Society National Meeting in Belfast. Using an adapted medical X-ray
technique, scientists have produced the first detailed map of the
structure of the Sun's outermost layer, the corona. The application
known as tomography uses a series of images taken from many different
angles to reconstruct a 3-dimensional map created from direct solar
observations.
"This is a breakthrough for scientists trying to understand the corona
and the solar wind. We've been attempting to apply tomography to the
solar corona for more than 30 years but it's proved very difficult and
very inaccurate until now. The new technique that I've developed is
only in its infancy but shows great potential for areas of research
like space weather," said Dr Morgan, of the University of Aberystwyth.
Have astronomy related questions? Ask the Astronomy League's Master Observers! Click on the Master Observer Network navigation link located under "Observing Clubs" in the menu at the left. Read about the MO-Net and then click on the link to the MO-Net Form at the bottom of the page. That will bring up a form where you can then fill in your name, contact info, your question, and then click on submit. One or more of the master observers might be able to give you some advice or information.
