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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
SPACE WEATHER
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 445.7 km/sec
density: 2.8 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Aug03
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Aug03
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
Daily Sun: 03 Aug 07
The sun is blank --no sunspots. Solar activity should remain very low. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 01 Aug 2007
Far side of the Sun:
This holographic image reveals a possible sunspot on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2
quiet
explanation | more data
Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Updated: 2007 Aug 03 2151 UT
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 2.9 nT
Bz: 1.7 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
Coronal Holes:
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on August 5th or 6th. Credit: SOHO Extreme Ultraviolet Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2007 Aug 03 2203 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
01 %
01 %
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: 2007 Aug 03 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
10 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
10 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
What's up in Space
August 3, 2007
Where's Saturn? Is that a UFO--or the ISS? What's the name of that star? Get the answers from mySKY--a fun new astronomy helper from Meade.

DREAMY LUNAR ECLIPSE: Mark your calendar: On Tuesday, August 28th, there's going to be a dreamy, colorful, total eclipse of the Moon: full story.

BLANK SUN: The sun is almost blank today, and that makes it a good day to study, you guessed it, blank. This morning, Japanese scientists commanded the Hinode spacecraft to point its Solar Optical Telescope at an apparently empty patch, and this is what they saw:

The sun is not blank at all. It's covered with granules that give the surface a rough appearance. Granules are evidence of boiling on a titanic scale. The upper layers of the sun sit atop a 15-million degree nuclear furnace, and they boil much like a pan of water on a hot stove. Granules are akin to the rising and falling bubbles you see in a kitchen pan--just one difference: solar granules are as wide as Alaska. So much for the "blank sun."

RECTANGULAR PLANET: Jupiter is in a state of global upheaval. Cloud belts have been changing colors, cyclonic spots have been jumping cloud belts and reversing their spin. All this activity mesmerized French astronomer Guillaume Bertrand who recently spent four consecutive nights (July 24, 25, 26, 27) photographing Jupiter. He then spread out the images and stitched them into a full-planet map:

"This is how Jupiter looks through my 4.5 inch Newtonian telescope," says Bertrand. A labeled version of the map shows areas of intense activity. "There are currently two South Tropical Distubances (STrD), a South Equatorial Disturance (SED), and the South Equatorial Belt (SEB) is both fading and reviving at the same time."

Got a backyard telescope? Take a look. Jupiter is easy to find shining brightly in the southern sky after sunset: sky map.

BONUS: Wrap that rectangular map around a sphere, spin it, and what do you get? Click here.


.2007 Noctilucent Cloud Gallery
[Night-Sky Cameras] ["Noctilucent Cloud"--the song]

Near-Earth Asteroids
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 August 3, 2007 there were 876 potentially hazardous asteroids.
July 2007 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2007 FV42
July 2
53 LD
15
1.2 km
2007 MB4
July 4
7.6 LD
16
130 m
2007 DT103
July 29
9.3 LD
15
550 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.
Essential 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.
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
  Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  From the NOAA Space Environment Center
Current Solar Images
  from the National Solar Data Analysis Center
  more links...
©2007, SpaceWeather.com -- This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips.
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