In article , Mike Tullett writes:

That's the title of a quite readable article on the NASA site:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...htm?list962280


Its analogy of a snow storm in the middle of summer could not be more
wrong if it tried: "something like that just happened on the sun".

But unseasonal, yes.

We have experienced the largest flare modern instruments have recorded
(and two years after solar maximum, but well before solar minimum).
Before that, only estimates exist.

Region 484 is back on the east limb, and regions 486 and 488 should be
with us again on Nov 18th.

Whether this has further damaged Mars Express remains to be seen...

We have just completed the Mars Express End-to-End test. If it wasn't
for the power situation, things would be looking quite reasonable...



Cheers,

keith




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Iraq: 5 thousand million pounds, 50 lives, and counting...