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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: 262.2 km/sec
density: 2.6 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2346 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B7
2245 UT Jul10
24-hr: B7
2245 UT Jul10
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2340 UT
Daily Sun: 10 Jul 10
Sunspot 1087 is crackling with B- and C-class solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 12
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 09 July 2010

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2010 total: 35 days (18%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 803 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days
explanation | more info
Updated 09 July 2010


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 80 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 09 July 2010

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 0 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 1
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 2.4 nT
Bz: 0.3 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2346 UT
Coronal Holes:
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should hit Earth's magnetic field on or about July 13th. Credit: SDO/AIA
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2010 Jul 10 2201 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: 2010 Jul 10 2201 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
05 %
05 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
05 %
05 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
What's up in Space
July 10, 2010

ANDROID FLYBYS: Our field-tested satellite tracker is now available for Android phones. Features: Global predictions and flyby alarms! Learn more.

 

SUNSET CONJUNCTION: Look west at sunset. Venus is passing by 1st magnitude star Regulus; they're only a little more than a degree apart. Bright Venus catches the eye first. As the glow of sunset fades, Regulus pops out of the twilight a little below Venus. The view through binoculars is superb.

SOUTH PACIFIC ECLIPSE: On Sunday, July 11th, the new Moon will pass in front of the sun, producing an eclipse of rare beauty over the South Pacific. Best observing sites include Easter Island, the Cook Islands, the waters off Tahiti, and southern parts of Chile and Argentina. [full story] [animated map] [details]

SOLAR BLAST: Magnetic fields overlying sunspot 1087 became unstable and erupted yesterday. The explosion emitted a bright flash of UV light (a C3-class solar flare) and hurled a massive plume of hot plasma away from the sun. Click on the image to watch the action unfold:


movie formats: 2 MB mpeg; 1 MB iPad; 0.7 MB iPhone

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) recorded the 1.5-hour time-lapse movie beginning at 1950 UT on July 9th. SDO has been busy since sunspot 1087 materialized, recording B- and C-class flares every few hours. So far none of the eruptions has been Earth-directed, but this could change in the days ahead as the active region turns to face our planet. Stay tuned for space weather.

more images: from Cai-Uso Wohler of Bispingen, Germany; from Jan Timmermans of Valkenswaard, The Netherlands; from Didier Favre of Brétigny-sur-Orge, France; from Peter Desypris of Syros, Greece; from Andreas Murner of Rosenheim, Bavaria, Germany

NOCTILUCENT STORM: Last night, sky watchers in Europe witnessed the finest display of noctilucent clouds (NLCs) so far this year. Electric-blue tendrils spread as far south as France:

"I could see the NLCs from my window," says photographer Alexandre Croisier of Brittany, France. "So I rushed down to the beach to take this picture--a 6 second exposure with my Canon 350D."

In England, the same display stretched from horizon to horizon. "There was quite a lot of detail visible, including swirls and tiger stripes," reports Mark Jones of Leamington Spa, UK. Even city lights did not overwhelm the NLCs. "I had no trouble seeing them from southwest London," says onlooker Maurice Gavin.

July is often the best month of the year to see these mysterious clouds. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for electric blue in the nights ahead.

more images: from George Kristiansen of Lincolnshire, UK; from Andrew J. Brown of Chelmsford Essex England UK; from Richard Fleet of Pewsey Vale, Wiltshire, England; from Dave Threlkeld of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from Paul Money of Close to Horncastle, Lincolnshire, UK; from Jorge Sereno of Middlburg, The Netherlands; from Jason Evans of Eastleigh, Hampshire, United Kingdom; from Chris Lloyd of Kidderminster, Worcs. UK; from Pete Glastonbury of Devizes, Wiltshire, UK; from Gordon Fiander of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England; from Katherine Leadbetter of Bedhampton, Hampshire, UK; from Keith Cooper of Leicester, England; from Jeff Stevens of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England;

 
       
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 July 10, 2010 there were 1138 potentially hazardous asteroids.
July-Oct 2010 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2010 MY1
Jul 3
7.9 LD
24
73 m
1999 JD6
Jul 27
53.9 LD
17
1.8 km
6239 Minos
Aug 10
38.3 LD
18
1.1 km
2005 NZ6
Aug 14
60.5 LD
18
1.3 km
2002 CY46
Sep 2
63.8 LD
16
2.4 km
2010 LY63
Sep 7
51.9 LD
18
1.4 km
2009 SH2
Sep 30
7.1 LD
25
45 m
1998 UO1
Oct 1
32.1 LD
17
2.1 km
2005 GE59
Oct 1
77 LD
18
1.1 km
2001 WN5
Oct 10
41.8 LD
18
1.0 km
1999 VO6
Oct 14
34.3 LD
17
1.8 km
1998 TU3
Oct 17
69.1 LD
15
5.3 km
1998 MQ
Oct 23
77.7 LD
17
2.1 km
2007 RU17
Oct 29
40.6 LD
18
1.0 km
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 Weather Prediction Center
  The official U.S. government space weather bureau
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.
STEREO
  3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  from the NOAA Space Environment Center
Current Solar Images
  from the National Solar Data Analysis Center
Science Central
   
  more links...
   
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