Spaceweather.com Time Machine

You are viewing the page for Jul. 4, 2005

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: 435.4 km/s
density: 2.0 protons/cm³
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C1 2220 UT Jul04
24-hr: C1 2220 UT Jul04
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 04 Jul '05

Sunspots 783 and 786 pose a threat for M-class solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI

Sunspot Number: 179
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 03 Jul 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
B_total: 3.6 nT
B_z: 0.2 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

Coronal Holes:

There are no large coronal holes on the Earth-facing side of 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 2005 Jul 03 2204 UTC

FLARE	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
CLASS M	35 %	35 %
CLASS X	05 %	05 %

Geomagnetic Storms: Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm
Updated at 2005 Jul 03 2204 UTC
Mid-latitudes

	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
ACTIVE	25 %	15 %
MINOR	15 %	10 %
SEVERE	05 %	05 %

High latitudes

	0-24 hr	24-48 hr
ACTIVE	25 %	20 %
MINOR	15 %	10 %
SEVERE	05 %	05 %

What's Up in Space -- 4 Jul 2005
Subscribe to Space Weather News

Would you like to see the space station fly over your backyard? Sign up for SpaceWeather PHONE.

DEEP IMPACT! NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft successfully blasted a hole in the icy, rocky crust of Comet Tempel 1. The projectile, about the size of a washing machine, hit the city-sized comet at 10:52 pm PDT on July 3rd, while the mothership took this spectacular picture:

Deep Impact image gallery

The explosion was brighter than researchers anticipated. "Unbelievable. How did we make such a big splash?" wondered JPL's Don Yeomans on NASA TV.

Although cameras on Deep Impact recorded a very bright explosion, telescopes on Earth did not see a big change in the comet's appearance. Why not? The blast was hidden from view by the comet's huge atmosphere. Tempel 1's overall brightness, a dim 10th magnitude before the crash, barely increased. An hour or so after impact, however, observers on Earth (and elsewhere) did notice a brightening, 3- to 6-fold by some accounts, as material from the impact crater spewed into the comet's atmosphere where it reflected sunlight toward Earth.

Does this mean you can see it? Not without a telescope! Comet Tempel 1 is brighter than it used to be, but it did not become a naked-eye object as a result of the explosion.

SOLAR ACTIVITY: What a difference a few days can make: Just last week the sun was blank and quiet. Now it is peppered with sunspots and threatening solar flares: movie. The largest of these new active regions is sunspot 783, pictured below. It is almost as wide as the planet Jupiter and harbors energy for M-class explosions.

Above: Sunspot 783 on July 3rd. Photo credit: Pavol Rapavy of Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia.

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 are on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.

On 4 Jul 2005 there were 703 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

June-July 2005 Earth-asteroid encounters

ASTEROID	DATE (UT)	MISS DISTANCE	MAG.
2005 LM3	June 3	4.0 LD	18
2005 LU3	June 4	4.9 LD	20
2005 LD	June 19	7.1 LD	17
2000 AG6	July 22	8.7 LD	20

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

Daily Solar Flare and Sunspot Data -- from the NOAA Space Environment Center.

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

What is an Iridium flare? See also Photographing Satellites by Brian Webb.

What is an Astronomical Unit, or AU ?

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; Jan-Mar., 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 33312382 since January 2000.