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Tag: the sun

  • Samantha Fox Grieves Passing of Longtime Partner Myra Stratton

    Samantha Fox has confirmed that her longtime partner and manager Myra Stratton has passed away. Stratton died Sunday following a two year battle with cancer.

    Myra Stratton worked as Samantha Fox’s manager starting back in 1999, before becoming romantically involved in a relationship in 2003.

    In 2008, Stratton and Fox starred on an episode of Wife Swap.

    Samantha Fox is a British pop singer, songwriter, and former fashion model. She first appeared on Page 3 of The Sun at the age of 16, and remained a Page 3 girl until the age of 20.

    Samantha Fox shared word of Myra Stratton’s passing via Twitter on Tuesday.

    Samantha Fox shared sentiments about Myra Stratton during her their time on Wife Swap. She told Freddie Star she was her soulmate.

    “If she wasn’t there my world would fall apart. She’s my soulmate and the person I have been looking for all my life,” she said.

    While appearing on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here she told fellow camper George Hamilton that the two were engaged.

    “We’re engaged, we got engaged this year in Thailand,” she said at the time. “The first year we met we both got tattoos on our fingers, we knew, I knew she was going to be my soulmate for the rest of my life.”

    “Myra makes me feel safe, she’s motherly which I love,” she added.

    How sad that Samantha Fox will now go on sans her soulmate, Hopefully the years they spent together and the love they shared will help sustain her in the time to come.

  • Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake Definitely Aren’t Pregnant, According to His Grandmother

    Jessica Biel’s grandmother-in-law is spilling the beans on the actress’ nearly two-year marriage to Justin Timberlake; Sadie Bomer, Justin’s grandmother, recently told The Sun, “They are married but they are so busy, both of them, it’s hard going. I’m sure when it’s right to have children they will, but not now.”

    Timberlake and Biel have been married since October of 2012, though they dated for five years before their engagement.

    Rumors about the relationship have followed the couple since they became an item in 2007. The two have been notoriously private about their lives together, since the beginning of their courtship. Break-up rumors and cheating scandals covered front pages of magazines almost daily.

    Though elaborate and completely false stories about Hollywood A-listers constantly run rampant, there was actually some truth to the rumors that the pair weren’t quite as happy as they always appeared to be. In 2011, after nearly four years together, the couple officially called it quits, saying that they “wanted different things,” rather than the fact that they weren’t happy.

    Other sources cited Justin’s affair(s) with his Friends With Benefits co-star, Mila Kunis, and Daily Show correspondent, Olivia Munn, as the reason that the pair were splitting, although those claims were never proven to be true.

    However, later that year, Biel and Timberlake were once again spotted together, and after that, all bets were off – the two actors were official again by October, spotted several times out and about and looking happier than ever.

    Sadie denies the rumors that the two are on the rocks currently, however.

    “They do love each other dearly,” Bomer says. “But they are apart so much it’s going to be hard going for them. I think Jessica finds that really tough. She’s on her own a good deal,” later adding, “If he’s not coming back at night that puts a strain on things, of course it does. It’s hard to keep it all going but you have to have faith to keep it all going. I have faith in them and I believe they love each other dearly but I know they need time together.”

    Main image courtesy ABC News via YouTube.

  • NASA Video Shows Sun’s Rise in Activity

    NASA Video Shows Sun’s Rise in Activity

    The sun. We see it nearly every day, and yet most of us spend a considerable amount of time trying to keep it out of our eyes or off our skin.

    NASA, on the other hand, has been staring straight into the sun for years now. The agency launched the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in 2010 to capture images of the sun, which it does every 12 seconds in 10 different wavelengths. Scientists are using the SDO to learn more about the sun and to improve predictions for solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which can affect satellites orbiting Earth.

    In the three years since its launch, the SDO has observed the sun as it ramps up to “solar maximum,” which is the peak of the star’s 11-year solar activity cycle. To demonstrate this increase in the sun’s activity, NASA this week released a video that puts together many of the images taken by the SDO. The time-lapsed video shows two images of the sun per day for three years. It also has some nice background music (“A Lady’s Errand of Love” by Martin Lass).

  • NASA Telescope Finds Evidence of Solar Braiding

    NASA Telescope Finds Evidence of Solar Braiding

    NASA this week announced that it has found the first clear evidence of energy transfer from the sun’s magnetic field to its corona. Called “solar braiding,” the process was only a theory until these new observations.

    The evidence comes from the highest resolution images of the sun‘s corona ever taken. The photos were taken by NASA’s High Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) telescope.

    “Scientists have tried for decades to understand how the sun’s dynamic atmosphere is heated to millions of degrees,” said Jonathan Cirtain, Hi-C principal investigator and a heliophysicist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. “Because of the level of solar activity, we were able to clearly focus on an active sunspot, and obtain some remarkable images. Seeing this for the first time is a major advance in understanding how our sun continuously generates the vast amount of energy needed to heat its atmosphere.”

    Cirtain and his colleagues assert that the new findings could lead to better predictions for space weather, since the sun’s magnetic field drives solar eruptions that can reach the Earth and potentially disrupt satellites.

    The Hi-C telescope is a sub-orbital satellite that flew for only 10 minutes in July 2012. During that time, it took 165 photos of an active region of the sun’s corona. New optics grinding and surface polishing techniques were developed for the Hi-C’s mirrors. The telescope’s resolution is around five times that of the one aboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which already takes amazingly high-definition pictures of the sun.

    “The Hi-C observations are part of a technology demonstration that will enable a future generation of telescopes to solve the fundamental questions concerning the heating of the solar atmosphere and the origins of space weather, “said Jeffrey Newmark, sounding rocket program scientist at NASA Headquarters.

    (Image courtesy NASA)

  • Solar Eruption Rang in the New Year, Shows NASA Video

    While people across the world were celebrating or preparing to celebrate the arrival of the year 2013, the sun was putting on a New Year’s show of its own.

    On December 31, a massive solar eruption twisted up from the surface of the sun, propelled by swirling magnetic forces. The eruption extended around 160,000 miles out from the surface of the sun, or 20 times the diameter of the Earth. It lasted from 10:20 am to 2:20 pm EST.

    Luckily for fans of space images, NASA‘s Solar Dynamic Observatory was not on holiday. The observatory caught the event in ultraviolet light. The video below shows the event from its explosive beginning to its serene finale, when wisps of plasma “gently” fell back to the sun’s surface. Every image in the video is 36 seconds apart.

    (Image and video courtesy NASA/SDO/Steele Hill)

  • Massive Solar Eruption Spotted by NASA Observatory

    NASA announced this week that a coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted on the sun early Tuesday morning. The phenomenon can send solar particles flying into space, some of which can affect electronic systems in satellites orbiting Earth. The particles can reach Earth one to four days after the eruption.

    A CME is not a solar flare, and occurs when the solar atmosphere confined where magnetic fields are closed releases bubbles of gas and magnetic fields. The one spotted this week erupted from the sun as speeds of 450 miles per second, which NASA stated is slow to average for a CME. The eruption was seen by the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft.

    CME’s can also create a geomagnetic storm, which occurs when a CME interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field in a certain way, causing solar wind particles to hit the atmosphere over the poles. This causes a rapid drop in the Earth’s magnetic field strength, which lasts for around six to twelve hours.

    NASA stated that CMEs of the type seen this week “have not usually caused substantial geomagnetic storms.” They have, though, put on a light show with auroras near the Earth’s poles. NASA predicts that this week’s CME is “unlikely to cause disruptions to electrical systems on Earth or interfere with GPS or satellite-based communications systems.” The National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center currently predicts a relatively minor geomagnetic storm on Wednesday, with possible weak power grid fluctuations.

    (Image courtesy NASA/STEREO)

  • Rihanna Body Double Allegations Cause a Stir on Twitter

    Rihanna, the popular singer who, according to Nielsen, is the top selling digital artist of all time, is a more than a little irritated by reports that she used a body double in her advertisement for Armani. The clip, which finds the musician rolling around on a bed in her underwear, gives viewers a good look at her scantily-clad body. However, the Sun reports that those curves actually belong to model Jahnassa Aicken, who was hired to stand in for the singer’s bust and butt due to her involvement with one of the singer’s videos.

    Agitated and angered by the allegations, Rihanna took to her Twitter page to issue a colorful post on the subject. Although she later admitted that she could have been “more clever” with her response, at least she had the stones to keep it up for everyone to see.

    Simply put, Rihanna denies that she used a body double.

    According to the paper, the model was asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement which effectively prevents her from speaking publicly about the job. Despite this fact, it has been reported that Aicken received a “modest sum” for her contribution to the advertisement.

    Not surprisingly, this whole sordid affair has made some waves on Twitter, where people endlessly speculate about everything. You can find some reactions to the Rihanna/Aicken story by investigating the posts embedded below. And if you’d like to plant your eyeball over the ad in question, that’s been included, as well.

  • Twitter Drama: Comet Lovejoy & The Sun

    Last night astronomers and space enthusiasts alike had the opportunity to witness the rare and dramatic collision of a comet with our biggest star, the sun. In case you didn’t know, a recently discovered comet, christened Lovejoy, was on a fatal trajectory with the sun’s corona. Space.com offered a forecast of the comet’s doeful future:

    The comet is not expected to survive this close encounter, experts have said. But if it’s any consolation to Lovejoy, the comet’s last hours of existence will be well-documented for posterity. Scientists have trained a phalanx of satellite instruments on the comet, which is what’s known as a Kreutz sungrazer.

    And “well-documented for posterity” it was.

    In accordance to the laws of the Internet, anybody or anything that is the least bit significant will end up with a Twitter account, including these celestial players upon the cosmic stage. In fact, the two teased and conversed with each other on Twitter in the hours leading up to Lovejoy’s smoldering demise and, while it doesn’t sound quite as impressive as a “phalanx of satellite instruments,” it certainly wins for best histrionics.

    @CometLovejoy
    Comet Lovejoy    Woo! I’m having a hot flash over here. #CometLovejoy 18 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @TheSun
    The Sun    Come to me, @CometLovejoy – we will be together again… 17 hours ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

    @CometLovejoy
    Comet Lovejoy    I’ve heard this one before, @TheSun, but you don’t have to tantalize me with your radiance – I accept my fate. Cheers. 17 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @CometLovejoy
    Comet Lovejoy    Oh, boy. I’m feeling hot, ladies and gents. Gettin’ closer to the photosphere. #cometlovejoy 16 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @CometLovejoy
    Comet Lovejoy    You know that white light humans see before they die? I see it. Except it’s fiery and violent. And, well, hot. 16 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @TheSun
    The Sun    You’ve taunted me throughout the millennia @CometLovejoy venturing close, then running away; over and over again. I have the last laugh! 16 hours ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

    @CometLovejoy
    Comet Lovejoy    GOODBYE! FAREWELL! RT @NickAstronomer OH MAN the video stream now live is just awesome – comet diving in!! – http://t.co/yztDlA6l 15 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

    And then, as if some galactic deus ex machina forgivingly nudged Lovejoy with its pivotal hand:

    @NASA_SDO
    NASA SDO    Breaking News! Lovejoy lives! The comet Lovejoy has survived it’s journey around the sun to reemerge on the other side. 14 hours ago via HootSuite · powered by @socialditto

    Lovejoy rallied! The daring comet would survive after all!

    @TheSun
    The Sun    Noooo! @CometLovejoy escapes my immense gravity well and escapes, again! I thought sharks with laser beams would work. Time for another plan 3 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

    After narrowly avoiding a permanent curtain call, Lovejoy embraced its new lease on life and bid a fond farewell to its terrestrial spectators:

    @CometLovejoy
    Comet Lovejoy    I’ve had a change of nucleus – there’s so much more to see! I’ll be back, Earthlings! #CometLoveJoy 14 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

    Crestfallen, the sun could not be reached for comment following this upheaval of events.