They came from outer space--and you can have one! Genuine meteorites are now on sale in the Space Weather Store. |
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QUIET
SUN: All of the sunspots on the
Earthside of the sun are magnetically simple and
quiet, and the sun's X-ray output has consequently
flatlined.
NOAA forecasters estimate the chance of significant
flares today to be no more than 1%. Solar
flare alerts: text,
voice.
AURORA
WATCH:
Earth passed through a minor solar wind stream on
Feb. 4-5. The weak impact of the solar wind was
just enough to spark auroras around parts of the
Arctic Circle. Frank Olsen sends this 20-second
exposure from the waterfront outside Tromsø, Norway:
"Despite bright moonlight and
low solar activity, there were some great auroras
last night," says Olsen.
The effects of the solar wind are
subsiding, and the auroras might disappear into
the moonlight for the next few nights. Geomagnetic
activity is expected to hover at low levels for
the next 48 hours.
Aurora alerts: text,
voice.
more images: from
Oivind Toien of Fairbanks, Alaska
BE ALERT
FOR MOON HALOES: With the full
Moon less than a week away, now is the time to be
alert for Moon haloes. Tom Soetaert photographed
this spooky specimen over Lawrence, Kansas, on Feb.
2nd:
Moon halos are formed by ice crystals
in high clouds, which catch moonbeams and bend them
as
shown. The brighter the Moon, the brighter the
Moon halo, so any halos this weekend should be very
bright indeed. The Moon is full on Feb. 7th. Browse
the links below for more examples of what's in store.
more images: from
Chris Cook of Cape Cod, Massachusetts; from
Joni Niemelä of Western Finland; from
Mike Peters of Green Bay, Wisconsin; from
Tamas Ladanyi of Veszprem (Hungary); from
Schmaus Thomas of Oberbernbach, Bavaria, Germany;
from
Domenico Licchelli of Gagliano del Capo, Italy;
from
Primoz Kuk of Sempeter pri Gorici, Slovenia;
from
Dr. Salvador Aguirre of Hermosillo, Sonora,
Mexico; from
György Soponyai of Dunakeszi, Hungary
January
2012 Aurora Gallery
[previous Januaries: 2010,
2009,
2008,
2007, 2005,
2004]
Comet
Lovejoy Gallery
[previous comets: McNaught,
Holmes,
Lulin,
Tuttle,
Ikeya-Zhang]
Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (
PHAs)
are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that
can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the
known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet,
although astronomers are finding
new
ones all the time.
On
February 6, 2012 there were 1287
potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent
& Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT) |
Miss
Distance |
Mag. |
Size |
| 2009 AV |
Feb 16 |
44.9 LD |
-- |
1.2 km |
| 2000 ET70 |
Feb 19 |
17.7 LD |
-- |
1.0 km |
| 2011 CP4 |
Feb 23 |
9.1 LD |
-- |
255 m |
| 2008 EJ85 |
Mar 6 |
9.1 LD |
-- |
44 m |
| 1999 RD32 |
Mar 14 |
57.9 LD |
-- |
2.4 km |
| 2011 YU62 |
Mar 16 |
73.3 LD |
-- |
1.4 km |
| 1996 SK |
Apr 18 |
67.2 LD |
-- |
1.6 km |
| 2007 HV4 |
Apr 19 |
4.8 LD |
-- |
8 m |
Notes: LD means
"Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance
between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256
AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on
the date of closest approach.
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The
official U.S. government space weather bureau |
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The
first place to look for information about sundogs,
pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. |
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Researchers
call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO
is the most advanced solar observatory ever. |
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3D
views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial
Relations Observatory |
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Realtime
and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. |
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from
the NOAA Space Environment Center |
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the
underlying science of space weather |
