SOLAR FLARE TO HIT EARTH ON 8/24/2010

CORONAL HOLE: A coronal hole on the sun is turning to face Earth.

Coronal holes are places in the sun's atmosphere where the magnetic field opens up and allows solar wind to escape.

Here is a magnetic map of the hole from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:
Image credit: Karel Schrijver, Lockheed Martin SAL
In the image, magnetic field lines are color-coded. White field lines are closed; they hold the solar wind in. Golden-brown field lines are open; they allow the solar wind out.
A stream of solar wind flowing from this coronal hole is expected to reach Earth on August 24th or 25th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras when it arrives.

THE PEARL OF ALLAH

The Pearl of Allah
Once there was a Muslim diver who found a pearl with its surface having an image of a turbaned face that he named it “Pearl of Allah”.
Only in the Philippines where at the Brooke’s Point, Palawan of a rumpled government office lies what is said to be, THE LARGEST PEARL IN THE WORLD. The Pearl of Allah or the Pearl of Lao Tzu as it is now called.
Having a length of 9.4 inches and weighing 14 pounds. This heavy treasure has claimed its title in obvious conviction.
Surprisingly having been ignored by casual visitors, it has yet to unfold the treasure that lies and what pride is deemed found in the said Gem, ironically naming this country “The Pearl of the Orient”, the publicity of this treasure has yet to be told.
The Guiness Book of Records had declared the Pearl to have a value of over $40 million dollars.
Barbish who owns 66% of the Pearl had claimed that an offer has been made to buy the Pearl by the top terrorist of the world himself, Osama bin Laden with a whopping $60 million with the main purpose of giving it to Saddam Hussein.
The ownership would be the least of accountability but what seems significant in this matter would be where it was found and where it is now… In the Philippines. Though claims of its origin start showing up from left to right, and mysteries unravel and baffle minds, the facts lies their, the pearl itself at the Brooke’s Point in Palawan… The Pearl of Allah.

NEW MEXICO FIREBALL

NEW MEXICO FIREBALL: Dawn came early to New Mexico on Saturday around 4:54 am local time when a brilliant meteor exploded near Santa Fe. "It turned night into day," says amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft who recorded the fireball using an all-sky video camera: must-see movie. The movie's soundtrack is the signal from a 61 MHz forward-scatter meteor radar also operated by Ashcraft. Ghostly echoes from the meteor's debris continue long after the meteor itself explodes. Listen again.

COMPLEX ERUPTION OF THE SUN

COMPLEX ERUPTION ON THE SUN: This morning around 0855 UT, Earth orbiting satellites detected a C3-class solar flare. The origin of the blast was sunspot 1092. At about the same time, an enormous magnetic filament stretching across the sun's northern hemisphere erupted. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the action:
Click to launch a 304 Å movie
The timing of these events suggest they are connected, and a review of SDO movies strengthens that conclusion. Despite the ~400,000 km distance between them, the sunspot and filament seem to erupt together; they are probably connected by long-range magnetic fields. In this movie (171 Å), a shadowy shock wave (a "solar tsunami") can be seen emerging from the flare site and rippling across the northern hemisphere into the filament's eruption zone. That may have helped propel the filament into space.
In short, we have just witnessed a complex global eruption involving almost the entire Earth-facing side of the sun.
A coronal mass ejection (CME) produced by the event is heading directly for Earth: SOHO movie. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras when it arrives on or about August 3rd.
more images: from Francois Rouviere of Mougins, France; from Rogerio Marcon of Campinas SP Brasil; from Didier Favre of Brétigny-sur-Orge, France; from Cai-Uso Wohler of Bispingen, Germany; from Wouter Verhesen of Sittard, The Netherlands; from Michael Buxton of Ocean Beach, California

GLOBAL ERUPTION: During the early hours of August 1st, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded a complex global disturbance on the Earth-facing side of the sun. Most of the sun's northern hemisphere was involved in the event, which included a long-duration C3-class solar flare, a "solar tsunami," and a massive filament eruption. As a result of these blasts, a coronal mass ejection (CME) is heading toward Earth. High-latitude geomagnetic storms and auroras are possible when the cloud arrives a few days hence. Check http://spaceweather.com for movies and updates.