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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: 290.4 km/sec
density: 3.7 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2244 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Oct08
24-hr: A2
1310 UT Oct08
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
Daily Sun: 08 Oct 07
Sunspot 972, less than 48 hours old, is disintegrating as fast as it materialized. It could be gone by the end of day. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 13
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 05 Oct 2007
Far side of the Sun:
This holographic image reveals no large sunspots 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 Oct 08 2132 UT
What is the auroral oval?
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 1.7 nT
Bz: 0.3 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT
Coronal Holes:
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on or about Oct. 11th. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2007 Oct 08 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 Oct 08 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
05 %
05 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
02 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
10 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %

What's up in Space
October 8, 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. .

PROMINENCE ALERT: Readers, if you have a solar telescope, point it at the sun. A large prominence is leaping over the sun's northwestern limb: image.

more images: from Michael Borman of Evansville, Indiana; from Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK.

METEOR WATCH: The annual Draconid meteor shower peaks Oct. 9th at 0430 UT--in other words, tonight at 9:30 pm PDT or 12:30 am EDT. Don't expect a big display. The source of the shower, comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, is far away and unlikely to produce more than a few slow meteors every hour. It should be noted, however, that unexpected Draconid outbursts have happened as recently as Oct. 2005 resulting in dozens to hundreds of meteors. Could tonight be such a night? Here's where to look.

PERUVIAN METEORITE UPDATE: On Sept. 15th, a fireball streaked across the skies of Peru and soon thereafter a watery crater was discovered by local residents near the town of Carancas. At first experts dismissed the connection; the crater didn't look like a meteorite impact. But since then minds have changed:

"Without reservation this is definitely a meteorite," says
astronomy professor Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario. "We found some infrasound data recorded by a station in La Paz about 70 km away. From the size of the the airwave we can work out the kinetic energy of the impactor--about 0.03 kton TNT."

"Something like 20 to 30 kg of the meteorite have already been recovered, but odds are good a multi-ton monster lurks at the bottom of the crater," he continues. "The bad news: It is below the water table, the rainy season is coming and unless some action is taken ASAP, the rock will quickly oxidize and crumble." [more]

Meanwhile, he says, "we are digging for seismic data of the actual impact--the first actual seismic recording of a terrestrial meteorite impact!" Stay tuned.

TIE FIGHTER: Lately, observers have been saying the International Space Station reminds them of a TIE Fighter. Here's why:

Amateur astronomer Chris Todd of Ocean, New Jersey, took the picture Oct. 6th through his hand-guided 8-inch Meade LX90. "It was an amazing space station flyover!" he says.

The "wings" in Todd's picture are the station's copper-colored solar arrays, one of them newly unfurled giving the station a symmetrical fighter-like outline. Truly, however, there is no comparison: While a cramped Star Wars TIE Fighter could barely hold one Darth Vader, the International Space Station is large enough to house 3+ astronauts with room to spare for a science lab, a kitchen, a miniature gymnasium and more. It all adds up to a 480,000-lb spaceship as bright as the planet Venus.

Later this month space shuttle Discovery will join ISS in Earth orbit. For one or two nights, as the shuttle prepares to dock with the larger space station, it will be possible to see and photograph the spacecraft side-by-side. When should you look? Check Heavens Above for flyby timetables or sign up for SpaceWeather PHONE to receive can't-miss alerts by phone and email.


September 2007 Aurora Gallery
[August 2007 Aurora Gallery] [Aurora Alerts]

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 October 8, 2007 there were 887 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Oct.-Nov. 2007 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2340 Hathor
Oct. 22
23 LD
16
620 m
2005 GL
Nov. 8
8.0 LD
16
280 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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