> Space Weather News for March 25, 2016   
    > http://spaceweather.com   
    >     
    > HOLE IN THE SUN'S ATMOSPHERE:  A canyon-shaped hole in the sun's atmosphere   
    > has    
    > opened up and it is spewing solar wind toward Earth. Estimated time of   
    > arrival:    
    > March 27-28.  Arctic sky watchers should be alert for a springtime display   
    > of  auroras.  Visit http://spaceweather.com for more information.   
    > NEW RADAR IMAGES OF EARTH-BUZZING COMET:  Earlier this week, comet fragment   
    > P/2016 BA14 made an unusually-close approach to Earth. Using a radar in the   
    > Mojave Desert, NASA researchers pinged the comet as it passed by, revealing   
    > an  icy nucleus that looks like a brick--or a pear--depending on your point   
    > of  view. See for yourself on today's edition of http://spaceweather.com   
    >     
    > http://tinyurl.com/hpwtb7k   
    >     
    > Above: This canyon-shaped coronal hole is spewing solar wind toward Earth   
       
   I have been a amateur astronomer for over 35 years. I presently have two 8"   
   telescopes, a Meade and a Celestron with electronic and computer-operated   
   controls (the Meade is the best one, although I am going to have the Meade   
   tube adapted to the Celestron mount...I'll explain why another time).   
      
   When I first got into astronomy many years ago I had no idea what I was   
   really getting into. The best way I can explain it is by sing an article    
   I recently read in one of my Astronomy magazines where a university professor   
   of an Astronomy course opened his article by pointing out that students who   
   need a class for credits who don't want to get into a math, or chemistry,   
   or other difficult subjects select Astronomy, thinking `how hard can it be   
   to look at a few stars or constellations?'   
      
   Little do they know...and little did I know many years ago...that Astronomy   
   IS all those sciences. Mathematics, Astrophysics, Chemistry...and a whole   
   host of other disciplines, too numerous to list, come into play as well.   
      
   I had to teach myself basic physics and algebra, get into Calculus, chemistry   
   and a lot of other things, just to be able to read some of the papers put    
   out by those who opened up the world of Astronomy to what it became in the   
   last century, and understand what they were talking about! Mathematics is   
   almost a `language' of it's own.    
      
   Anyway...when studying the stars, it's easiest to study the stars nearest    
   to us. We have a big advantage in that we have a large star within 94   
   million miles from us.    
      
   Our sun is a pretty typical normal star of the `G' class...it's mass and   
   composition allow it to begin burning and remain on the Main Sequence for   
   around ten or fifteen billion years.    
      
   It is subject to various `cycles' (as all stars are, some of which we are   
   aware (the 11-year Sun-spot cycle, etc etc...) and some of which we cannot   
   possibly know about as Human History has not existed long enough to become   
   familiar with.    
      
   There is one thing, however, that by now in Human History Man should be   
   painfully aware of:   
      
   Just how fragile our existence on this planet is. The Sun could have a single   
   catastrophic event which, should the resulting shock and material wave be   
   aimed at the Earth in just the right way, could wipe out all (or the major   
   portion) life as we know it. Sudden extinctions of life have occurred in the   
   Earth's past history. Just because we have evolved to hydrogen bombs and    
   space travel doesn't mean we are immune to the on-going processes taking   
   pace in the Sun's interior. Or from a large asteroid being altered in it's   
   orbit due to various shifts in the Sun's gravity, and colliding with Earth.   
      
   By the way....anyone seen this `disaster' Al Gore warned us about many years   
   ago? Neither have I!   
   --- SBBSecho 2.27-Win32   
    * Origin: Telnet://valhalla.synchro.net - Richmond, Virginia (1:275/93)