[MIham] Fw: Farside Solar Flares

[Frank]

Space Weather News for Nov. 3, 2010
http://spaceweather.com

FARSIDE SOLAR FLARES: An active region just over the sun's eastern horizon 
is crackling with solar flares and hurling material high above the stellar 
surface.  One of today's flares, a C4-class event, created a wave of 
ionization in Earth's upper atmosphere despite the fact that the blast site 
was not directly visible from Earth.  The source of this activity appears to 
be old sunspot 1112, which has spent the last ~12 days transiting the far 
side of the sun, and is now about to turn back toward our planet.  Visit 
http://spaceweather.com for movies of today's activity and updates.

COMET HARTLEY UPDATE:  NASA's Deep Impact (EPOXI) probe is closing in on 
Comet Hartley 2 for a daring flyby on Nov. 4th.  The small but active comet 
is full of surprises, with spinning jets, geysers of cyanide gas, and a 
strangely pickle-shaped core.  Mission scientists expect to reveal first 
images from the flyby during a press conference on Thursday afternoon, 
around 4 pm EDT. Tune into NASA TV to follow events live, and meanwhile read 
this story for a preview:
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/02nov_epoxi2/