Watch an Amazing Solar Flare

SDO captured a splendid example of expanding coronal loops seen in profile at the edge of the Sun (Oct. 14-15, 2014). The bright loops began to form and grow after a long-lasting M-class flare erupted. The arcs of the loops we see in extreme ultraviolet light are actually particles spiraling along magnetic field lines arcing above the active region that was the source of the flare. They are reorganizing the magnetic field after its disruption. To give a sense of scale, these huge loops are reaching out more than 15 times the size of Earth.

(Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory/NASA)

Einstein’s greatest legacy – How demons and angels advanced science

Einstein’s greatest legacy is not General Relativity, it’s not quantum entanglement, and it’s not slices of his brain either.

(Credit: Abstruse Goose, Missed Calling, S. Hossenfelder)

“Einstein, like no other physicist before or after him, demonstrated how the power of human thought alone, used skillfully, can make up for the lack of real experiments. He showed we little humans have the power to deduce equations that govern the natural world by logical conclusion. Thought experiments are common in theoretical physics today. Physicists use them to examine the consequences of a theory beyond that what is measurable with existing technology, but still within the realm of that what is in principle measurable. A thought experiments pushes a theory to its limit and thereby can reveal inconsistencies or novel effects. The rules of the game are that a) relevant is only that what is measurable and b) do not fool yourself. This isn’t as easy as it sounds.” (Credit: Hossenfelder)

via backreaction

Cuore: The Coldest Heart in the Known Universe

For a period of 15 days, a cooled copper mass at -273.144 degrees Celsius may very well have been the coldest object in the Universe.

The CUORE collaboration at the INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratory has set a world record by cooling a copper vessel with the volume of a cubic meter to a temperature of 6 milliKelvins: it is the first experiment ever to cool a mass and a volume of this size to a temperature this close to absolute zero (0 Kelvin). The cooled copper mass, weighing approx. 400 kg, was the coldest cubic meter in the universe for over 15 days. (Credit: IFN)

via io9

Sun’s stroke keeps Kepler online

Space telescope beats mechanical failures to begin a second mission that will trace new celestial targets.

214251main_ssc2008-03a1_full for WEB — The Rho Ophiuchi cloud, a star-forming nebula, is being observed by the Kepler space telescope. ( Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)

The crippled Kepler space telescope is unexpectedly enjoying a second lease of life. The exoplanet-hunting probe will now cast its gaze on star clusters, the centre of the Milky Way and the Solar System’s outer planets as it scans a ribbon of the cosmos for the next three years. This month it has been gazing at gas clouds shrouding infant stars in the constellations Scorpius and Ophiuchus. (Credit: Mark Zastrow)

via Nature