Comet PanSTARR Is Showing Up On NASA STEREO Images Today

 

   Comet Panstarrs reaches perihelion today when it makes its closet approach to the Sun.

We are now seeing this magnificent comet on STEREO B HI1 as we can see in the latest image from STEREO seen here to the left.

   By the evenings of March 12 and 13, comet Panstarrs will be seen in the western skies of the northern hemisphere just after sunset, where we will see this comet close to the crescent Moon.

Image Credit: Skyandtelescope,com

Here we have now an animation of Comet PanSTARRS in highly processed STEREO HI-1B images

 Image Credit: Sungrazing Comets

New large Region gets numbered as 1692

The animated Image from the SDO shows old sunspot region 1678 as it rotates out of view on the 22rd of February and as it reappears as region 1692 on the 10th of March.

Old Sunspot Region 1678 Returns

   A new active sunspot region is expected to rotate into view during this weekend (March 9-11). This is the well known old sunspot region 1678 making it's return.  In the image to the left we can see also another active region several day's behind it.


   Region 1678 was responsible for the massive CME that occured on the backside of the sun on March 5, 2013 (view that report HERE). Because of the activity sunspot 1678 maintained while on the backside, there has been much anticipation of this sunspot regions return.

Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) Arrives at STEREO

    Maybe you remember the very large solar flare and coronal mass ejection we reported three days ago on March 5. It seems that the Coronal Mass Ejection reached the spacecraft STEREO Behind and the animated image here shows that the Bz component of solar wind remained positive. The time and date can be found in the lower left corner.

That could be one reason why we actually have a time gap on Stereo.

Check Stereo here