Listen to radar echoes from satellites and meteors, live on listener-supported Space Weather Radio. | | |
(NO) CHANCE OF FLARES: Strong solar flares today are unlikely. NOAA forecasters say the odds of an M-flare is 10% and the odds of an X-flare is no more than 1%. The quiet appears set to persist through the weekend. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.
SOLAR CONJUNCTION OF JUPITER: If you've been looking for Jupiter, stop. The glare could hurt your eyes. Jupiter is approaching the sun for an extremely tight conjunction. Today they are only 3.5 degrees apart:
On June 19th, Jupiter will pass directly behind the solar disk, less than a quarter of a degree from disk center. It's a rare total eclipse of Jupiter by the sun. Because of the glare, the event is invisible to human eyes. Coronagraphs, however, block the glare and monitor Jupiter's approach. Join SOHO for a ringside seat.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
GAMMA DELPHINID METEORS: On June 11, 1930, Earth passed through a stream of debris from an unknown long-period comet, producing a flurry of gamma Delphinid meteors. Three days ago, on June 11, 2013, researchers said it might happen again. It didn't; the expected outburst failed to materialize. Nevertheless, a small number of candidate gamma Delphinids were seen by observers around the world. Yuri Beletsky captured these over the Las Campanas observatory in Chile:
"Meteor activity was lower than expected," says Beletsky. "Even so, we saw a few of them."
Thomas Ashcraft also recorded a spectacular gamma Delphinid over his private observatory in rural New Mexico: movie. "The fireball appeared ten minutes from the predicted outburst peak time," notes Ashcraft.
"It is still possible that we glanced the dust trail and caught a few meteors," says Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute, one of the forecasters who predicted the return of the gamma Delphinids. "At 8:32 UT, I myself saw a short bright +1 meteor radiate from Aquila in a clearing between clouds at Lick Observatory. Sadly, other sites of our video camera network were clouded out. Given that the shower's radiant may have been at a different location [compared to 1930], please do keep collecting photographs of meteors taken that night. Single-station photographs may yet identify a compact radiant. Once we know the radiant, we can make more accurate predictions for the future. "
Realtime Meteor Photo Gallery
AURORAS + NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS: On Sunday, June 9th, Alan Dyer of Gleichen, Alberta, Canada, went outside to see the colors of the sunset. He got more than he bargained for. Stacked atop the rosy glow of twilight were dual bands of electric-blue noctilucent clouds and green auroras:
"At times the auroral curtains appeared superimposed on the noctilucent clouds," says Dyer. "It isn't often we see the two phenomena together."
That's because they are completely unrelated. Auroras are caused by energetic particles from the sun raining down on Earth's upper atmosphere, causing the air to glow like the picture tube of a color TV. Noctilucent clouds are made of tiny ice crystals wrapped around bits of meteor smoke. Their electric-blue color comes from the scattering of high altitude sunlight. On June 9th the two phenomena overlapped for a rare display.
"Adding to the colours was the deep orange of perpetual twilight rimming the northern horizon," continues Dyer. "It was a beautiful pre-solstice night."
More aurora-noctilucent overlaps might be in the offing. NLC experts say noctilucent clouds have appeared bright and early this year, while 2013 might bring the late surge of a double-peaked Solar Max. High-latitude sky watchers should keep an eye on the sunset. Aurora alerts: text, voice.
Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
[previous years: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011]
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Realtime Comet Photo Gallery