[HS]

Cool site, and also the "photonic tide" is unexpectedly receding on Betelgeuse, oh shit.

https://www.spaceweather.com/

"THE UNPRECEDENTED FADING OF BETELGEUSE--UPDATE: Last year, Betelgeuse was the 10th brightest star in the sky. This year, it has plummeted to 24th. Astronomers from Villanova have just released a new update on the status of the fading red supergiant: "Betelgeuse is now ~1.0 magnitude fainter relative to observations made at the start of 2019/20 observing season. Our most recent observation on 30.15 UT, January 2020 is V = +1.614 +/-0.012 mag." Whether Betelgeuse is shrinking, dimmed by a giant sunspot, shrouded in an outburst of stardust, or about to explode, is anyone's guess. Stay tuned."

[infurl]

That's one of the more sensationalist reports that I've read. Betelgeuse is a variable star which means that it is normal for it to vary in brightness. The fact that it is currently at its dimmest brightness on record doesn't mean much because accurate records only go back 25 years. Even if it could go supernova soon, "soon" means sometime in the next 100000 years. It's all still amazing though.

[HS]

Ah, ok. Definitely lots of cool stuff going on up there. I'd love to experiance a vr robboted space exploration mission. Darn speed of light would create lots of lag though. We'd need to work around that somehow, or just go ourselves. Multigenerational with major sheilding, or robotic bodies?

[infurl]

I think we are destined to live out our short lives here on Earth. I'd love to see a permanent base established on the Moon now that we know there is lots of water there and it's a short enough trip to be survivable. I'm not sure that Mars would be practical any time soon. Nobody knows how to shield the crew of a spacecraft from solar radiation for such a long trip. Everyone who went there would die very soon, even if good enough shelters could be built on Mars.

Interplanetary and interstellar space belongs to robots and artificial intelligence. The first interstellar probe is likely to be very very small and propelled by a light sail that is powered by lasers in Earth orbit or on the Moon.

David Brin is an astrophysicist who has also written many excellent science fiction books. For lots of information and inspiration try reading "Existence" which he published a few years ago. It tackles the Fermi Paradox which is the most important question of our time, and coincidentally describes many of these things. It's the most plausible prediction of the near future that I've ever found.

Nobody can guess what will happen after that.

edit: changed "accurate prediction" to "plausible prediction"

[HS]

Alright thanks. I haven't found a good science fiction book yet, but they must be out there. I'll give it a try. 

[ruebot]

A Solar Storm Monitor site was the first site I made and how I learned to write XHTML and CSS. I had it at GeoCities and moved a copy to Angelfire before it closed.

Current Space Weather Conditions Since 2000
http://www.angelfire.com/geek/solarstormmonitor/

The code for my Ace Satellite feed and Aurora graph have changed and no longer function. There is a expanded version from GeoCities in archives.org with a Near Earth Object section and up-to date Space Weather warnings.

In 2002 or so I told another webdesigner there had been a big Coronal Mass Ejection and it was headed toward Earth, so he could kiss his butt goodbye.There had been but we weren't in danger. He believed me, thought we were doomed and was all bent out of shape with me when it didn't happen. Better luck next time..

[Art]

No worse, I fear, than those panicked folks when the infamous Y-2K bug was going to cause mass pandemonium!