When is the best time to see auroras? Where is the best place to go? And how do you photograph them? These questions and more are answered in a new book, Northern Lights - a Guide, by Pal Brekke & Fredrik Broms. | | | DECLINING CHANCE OF FLARES: Departing sunspots AR1967 and AR1968 are in a state of decay. Even so, both retain unstable magnetic fields that harbor energy for strong flares. NOAA forecasters estimate a declining but significant 60% chance of M-flares and a 20% chance of X-flares on Feb. 8th. Solar flare alerts: text, voice CME IMPACT SPARKS AURORAS: A minor CME hit Earth's magnetic field on February 7th. The light show it produced was anything but minor. "BANG!" says Truls Tiller of Tromsø, Norway. "The sky exploded in auroras." In every direction he turned, he saw a scene like this: "I could hardly decide which direction to point my camera," he says. "The sky was filled with light for more than four hours." More auroras are in the offing. A solar wind stream is expected to reach Earth this weekend even as Earth's magnetic field continues to reverberate from the Feb. 7th CME impact. NOAA forecasters estimate a 60% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on Feb. 8-9. Aurora alerts: text, voice Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery CURIOSITY PHOTOGRAPHS EARTH: Last year when the Cassini spacecraft photographed Earth through the rings of Saturn, the whole world was alerted to smile and wave. Last week, Curiosity did the same thing with less fanfare. Except for a few scientists, no one knew the Mars rover would be taking this picture of the Earth-Moon system on Jan. 31st: Mission controllers used the left eye of Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) to capture the scene about 80 minutes after local sunset in the Dingo Gap. Our planet was the brightest thing in the darkening Martian sky. A human observer with normal vision, if standing on Mars, would have easily seen Earth and the Moon as two distinct "evening stars." The distance to Earth when Curiosity took the photo was about 99 million miles. For more information about Curiosity's adventures on Mars, visit mars.jpl.nasa.gov. Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Realtime Supernova Photo Gallery Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com. On Feb. 5, 2014, the network reported 2 fireballs. (2 sporadics)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies] On Feb. 4, 2014, the network reported 6 fireballs. (6 sporadics)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies] 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 8, 2014 there were potentially hazardous asteroids. 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. | The official U.S. government space weather bureau | | The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. | | Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever. | | 3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory | | Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. | | from the NOAA Space Environment Center | | the underlying science of space weather | |