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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: 578.1 km/s
density:
1.1 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2220 UT


X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
B1 1935 UT May12
24-hr: B1 0000 UT May12
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 12 May '06

Sunspot 880 poses no threat for strong solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI.


Sunspot Number: 36
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 11 May 2006

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
Btotal: 4.0 nT
Bz:
2.4 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2234 UT

Coronal Holes:

Earth is inside a solar wind stream flowng from the the indicated coronal hole. 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 2006 May 12 2204 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 2006 May 12 2204 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 20 % 15 %
MINOR 10 % 01 %
SEVERE 05 % 01 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 20 % 20 %
MINOR 10 % 05 %
SEVERE 05 % 01 %

What's Up in Space -- 12 May 2006
Subscribe to Space Weather News

Roses. Candy. Spatulas? Make that the stars: Spaceweather PHONE for Mother's Day.

LONG RANGE FORECAST: The sun's "Great Conveyor Belt" has slowed to a record-low crawl. This has repercussions for future solar activity: solar cycle 25 peaking in 2022 could be one of the weakest in centuries: full story.

THEY'RE HERE: The many fragments of dying comet 73P/Schwassmann Wachmann 3 have arrived. For the next four days they will glide past Earth only 6 million miles away. The two biggest fragments, B and C, are easy targets for backyard telescopes. Look for them between midnight and dawn in the constellation Cygnus. Sky maps: May 12, May 13.

Above: Fragment C of comet 73P, photographed May 12th by Friedrich Deters of LaGrange, North Carolina, using a 10-inch telescope.

more images: from Mike Holloway of Van Buren, AR. USA; from Gabriel Rodrigues Hickel et al of Brasopolis, Brazil; from Paolo Candy of the Cimini Astronomical Observatory in Soriano, Italy; from Toni Scarmato of Calabria, Italy.

POLLEN CORONA: It's that time of year: pollen season. When you're done sneezing, look askance at the Sun. (Looking directly can damage your eyes.) You might see a pollen corona, like this one photographed yesterday by Andreas Murner of Bavaria, Germany:

Specks of pollen are very small, and when they float through the air they diffract sunlight, producing beautiful halos. Pollen coronas are often golden-hued, but not always. Come back tomorrow for more colors.



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 12 May 2006 there were 785 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

May 2006 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE
(UT)

MISS DISTANCE

MAG.

 SIZE
2006 HU50

May 4

3.8 LD

17

~50 m
2006 HX57

May 6

3.0 LD

16

~45 m
2006 JY26

May 10

1.1 LD

18

~8 m
Comet 73P-C

May 12

31 LD

5

~1 km
2006 GY2

May 16

6.7 LD

13+

~0.8 km
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

Daily images from the sun -- 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.

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; 2005; Jan-Mar 2006;

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

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