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Twin NASA spacecraft that are studying the sun have sent back spectacular first images of Earth that will help the scientists detect and track solar storms.This picture gives a close-up view of the sun’s activity, like the snapshot of loops in a magnetically active region that soon afterward produced a series of intense flares.

Scientists say that this sweeping viewpoint will let them study the flow of energy from the sun to Earth, coronal mass ejections—violent eruptions of electrically charged gas from the sun’s atmosphere that can cause dangerous solar storms.

An image released shows a huge moving cloud almost half the size of United States over Titan’s northern pole. This cloud is made up of ethane, methane, and other organic material which could be a source of methane lakes spotted near the pole last summer.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured this image of the 1,490-mile-diameter (2,400-kilometer-diameter) cloud on December 29, 2006. The cloud’s presence fits predictions that the Titan has a “methane cycle” which is similar to Earth’s water cycle, with bodies of liquid methane evaporating and forming clouds that causes rain.

The cloud system changes position according to the moon’s seasons, experts predict, and it will eventually migrate from the north pole to the south pole.

Ground-based observations suggest that the total cloud activity on Titan will last for about 25 years, then vanishes for a 4- to 5-year period. The massive cloud over the pole should be around for some more years before it disappears.

There is no fully formed or generally accepted scientific theory on ball lightning, mainly because it is so rare, and even if it occurs its for such a short span that it cannot be studied. It generally has a lifetime of less than five seconds.These balls have been reported to melt glass windows, burn objects, and sometimes even kill people. There have been many theories have been proposed to explain this phenomenon.

John Abrahamson and James Dinniss, of the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, first proposed the ball-lightning theory that lies behind Pavão’s research. The pair suggested that when lightning strikes a surface, like the Earth’s silica-rich soil, a vapor is formed. This silicon vapor may condense into particles that combine with oxygen in the air to slowly burn with the chemical energy of oxidation.

Pavão and Paiva have spent two years testing the theory with a simple experiment. They used electrodes to shock silicon wafers with enough electricity to create a silicon vapor. Most of the artificial orbs lasted two to five seconds, but at least one has survived as long as eight seconds—approximating natural ball lightning and far exceeding previous efforts to create the phenomenon in the lab.

Ball lightning expert Graham K. Hubler, a physicist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C, called the work “very promising.” “The eight seconds is extraordinary and bodes well for a possible explanation for many ball-lightning events,” he said.

Abrahamson, the New Zealand scientist, agrees. “Their balls are of sufficient duration and size to enter the mainstream of ball lightning seen in nature,” Abrahamson said. “Also the balls have sufficient properties similar to those in nature to be convincing ball lightning.”

Other Sources of the Phenomenon?

Abrahamson added that other materials besides silicon can also cause ball lightning, though none of them have been successfully tested. “Our theory includes many materials, such as aluminum and iron metals, which appear to be the sources of some balls seen in nature,” he said.

Some sightings of the ball lightning have occurred in or around airplanes, Abrahamson explained, which suggests that aluminum in the aircraft could also have caused the phenomenon. If these materials can produce ball lightning, he said, the phenomenon may occur after lightning strikes power poles, electrical fittings, roof materials, and other objects.

In fact, Abrahamson suggested, conventional lightning may not be the only energy source for the curious orbs. “It could be smaller atmospheric discharges or even friction heating from earthquakes—balls have been seen coming from an active fault,” he said.

The Bermuda Triangle is an area that is roughly surrounded by Miami, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. No one keeps statistics, but during the last century, many ships and planes have just vanished without any evidence around this triangle.

There have been many unusual incidents that have been happening in the area that have been noted in the past. Christopher Columbus had written about some bizarre compass bearings in the area.

This region got its name in August 1964, when Vincent Gaddis coined the term Bermuda Triangle in a cover story for Argosy magazine about the disappearance of Flight 19.

After the appearance of this story in the magazine, there have been many theories that have been propounded to explain what’s happening there.

The disappearances that happened were attributed to huge sea monsters, giant squid, or extra-terrestrials. There have also been theories about Alien abductions, ocean flatulence where the ocean suddenly gives out huge quantities of trapped methane.

“The region is highly traveled and has been a busy crossroads since the early days of European exploration,” said John Reilly, a historian with the U.S. Naval Historical Foundation. “To say quite a few ships and airplanes have gone down there is like saying there are an awful lot of car accidents on the New Jersey Turnpike—surprise, surprise.”

Lieutenant A. L. Russell, in the U.S. Coast Guard’s official response to Bermuda Triangle inquiries, writes: “It has been our experience that the combined forces of nature and the unpredictability of mankind outdo science-fiction stories many times each year.”

Graveyard of the Atlantic

The Bermuda Triangle region has some unusual features. It is one of the only two places on Earth that has been nicknamed as the Devil’s Sea.This is home to some of the deepest underwater trenches in the world; that could settle in a watery grave miles much below the surface of the ocean.

The sea floor around the Bermuda Triangle is around 19,000 feet (5,791 meters) down; near its southern tip, while around the Puerto Rico the trench dips to around 27,500 (8,229 meters) feet below sea level.

The weather

“The biggest issues in that area normally are hurricanes, but it’s not particularly a spawning area for storms,” said Dave Feit, chief of the marine forecast branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Prediction Center.However, the Gulf Stream travels along the western edge of the triangle and could be a factor.

The Gulf Stream is like a 40- to 50-mile-wide (64- to 80-kilometer-wide) river within the ocean that circulates in the North Atlantic Ocean. The warm water and two- to four-knot currents can create weather patterns that remain channeled within it.

“If you have the right atmospheric conditions, you could get quite unexpectedly high waves,” said Feit. “If wave heights are eight feet outside of the Gulf Stream, they could be two or even three times higher within it. Sailors can sometimes identify the Gulf Stream by the clouds and thunderstorms over it.”

The Coast Guard also say that the Caribbean-Atlantic storms are unpredictable and can yield waterspouts that can be disastrous for pilots and mariners.

This is just the beginning keep in touch while I update you with the full story…