You are viewing the page for Jan. 1, 2006
  Select another date:
<<back forward>>
SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

SpaceWeather.com
Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment.

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 464.3 km/s
density: 13.0 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2241 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C1 2215 UT Jan01
24-hr: C1 2215 UT Jan01
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 01 Jan '06

These sunspots do not pose a threat for strong solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI

Sunspot Number: 62
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 31 Jan 2005

Far Side of the Sun

This holographic image reveals no large sunspots on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 6.8 nT
Bz: 5.3 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

Coronal Holes:

There are no large coronal holes on the sun today. Image credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope.

SPACE WEATHER
NOAA
Forecasts
Solar Flares: Probabilities for a medium-sized (M-class) or a major (X-class) solar flare during the next 24/48 hours are tabulated below.
Updated at 2006 Jan 01 2203 UTC
FLARE 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
CLASS M 05 % 05 %
CLASS X 01 % 01 %

Geomagnetic Storms: Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm
Updated at 2006 Jan 01 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 20 % 15 %
MINOR 10 % 05 %
SEVERE 01 % 01 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 25 % 15 %
MINOR 15 % 05 %
SEVERE 05 % 01 %

What's Up in Space -- 1 Jan 2006
Subscribe to Space Weather News

The space station is visible in the night sky this month. Would you like to see it? Sign up for SpaceWeather PHONE.

VANISHING VENUS: Tonight could be your last chance to see Venus for a while. The planet is plunging into the glare of the sun and will vanish from the evening sky until December 2006. Step outside at sunset and look southwest. Venus and the crescent moon are side by side: sky map.

LAST SUNSET: When the Hawaiian sun set for the last time in 2005, Rob Ratkowski of Maui was there to photograph it:

Pictured above is the Faulkes Robotic Telescope atop the Haleakala volcano, a whisper-thin crescent moon, and Venus. "After Venus set, the Zodiacal Light was visible, stretching from the horizon overhead to Mars," says Ratkowski. Not a bad way to end the year!

AURORA MEGA-GALLERY: Have you ever wondered what it would be like to fly through the aurora borealis? Can you see auroras from Florida? Is there a season for geomagnetic storms? Answers await in the new Aurora Mega-Gallery.

Above: "For several hours on Nov. 7, 2004, the northern horizon shimmered red and green," recalls Anthony Arrigo of Park City, Utah, who was alerted to the show by a Spaceweather PHONE call.

METEOR SHOWER: The first meteor shower of 2006, the Quadrantids, peaks on Jan. 3rd at 18:20 Universal Time. The timing favors Japan and, to a lesser extent, Hawaii where dark-sky observers should see 40+ faint meteors per hour just before dawn (Tuesday morning in Hawaii, Wednesday morning in Japan). North Americans can expect to see perhaps half that many: full story.



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 1 Jan 2006 there were 754 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

January 2006 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE
(UT)

MISS DISTANCE

MAG.

 SIZE
(meters)
2005 XO4

Jan. 1

18.5 LD

20+

~150 m
2005 YM128

Jan. 1

19.8 LD

19

~75 m
2005 YO128

Jan. 3

6.5 LD

16

~60 m
Notes: LD is a "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.

Essential Web Links

NOAA Space Environment Center -- The official U.S. government bureau for real-time monitoring of solar and geophysical events, research in solar-terrestrial physics, and forecasting solar and geophysical disturbances.

Atmospheric Optics -- the first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. See also Snow Crystals.

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory -- Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. (European Mirror Site)

Daily Sunspot Summaries -- from the NOAA Space Environment Center.

Current Solar Images --a gallery of up-to-date solar pictures from the National Solar Data Analysis Center at the Goddard Space Flight Center. See also the GOES-12 Solar X-ray Imager.

Recent Solar Events -- a nice summary of current solar conditions from lmsal.com.

SOHO Farside Images of the Sun from SWAN and MDI.

The Latest SOHO Coronagraph Images -- from the Naval Research Lab

The Sun from Earth -- daily images of our star from the Big Bear Solar Observatory

List of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

Observable Comets -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

What is the Interplanetary Magnetic Field? -- A lucid answer from the University of Michigan. See also the Anatomy of Earth's Magnetosphere.

Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from NASA's ACE spacecraft. How powerful are solar wind gusts? Read this story from Science@NASA.

More Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Proton Monitor.

Aurora Forecast --from the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; Jan-Mar 2005; Apr-Jun 2005; Jul-Sep 2005; Oct-Dec 2005;

Space Audio Streams: (University of Florida) 20 MHz radio emissions from Jupiter: #1, #2, #3, #4; (NASA/Marshall) INSPIRE: #1; (Stan Nelson of Roswell, New Mexico) meteor radar: #1, #2;

Recent International Astronomical Union Circulars

GLOSSARY | SPACE WEATHER TUTORIAL

This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips: email

You are visitor number 33666833 since January 2000.
©2019 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved.