Listen to radar echoes from satellites and meteors, live on listener-supported Space Weather Radio. | | | COUNTDOWN TO PLUTO: NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is closing in on Pluto. Officials say the encounter begins less than a year from now. Although Pluto has been demoted from planethood by a small group of professional astronomers, it is still a sizable world, some 5000 miles around the equator with a system of moons and perhaps even rings. New Horizons is heading for one of the most exciting planetary flybys of the Space Age. Get the full story and a video from Science@NASA. SMALLEST FULL MOON OF THE YEAR: Can you see the difference? Tonight's full Moon is the smallest full Moon of the year--an "apogee moon," as much as 14% smaller and 30% dimmer than other full Moons of 2014. Such a reduced full Moon still produces a lot of light, as shown in this photo taken on Apogee's Eve (Jan. 14) by Neil Winston of Lusby, Maryland: "Fog rolled in as the temperature dropped after some rainfall," says Winston. "The bright moon cast distinct rays of light through gaps in the trees." Full Moons vary in size and brightness because of the oval shape of the Moon's orbit. The Moon follows an elliptical path around Earth with one side ("apogee") about 50,000 km farther than the other ("perigee"). Big full Moons on the perigee side of the Moon's orbit are sometimes called "Supermoons." That would make tonight's full Moon an "anti-Supermoon"--or perhaps, "kryptonite." Step outside after sunset and take a look. Backyard astronomy alerts: text, voice. Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery LIGHT PILLARS: Winter is unfolding around the northern hemisphere. As temperatures drop, pillars of light are springing up from ground. Janis Satrovskis of Valmiera, Latvia, photographed this specimen on Jan. 14th: Light pillars are a common sight around northern cities in winter. Urban lights bounce off ice crystals in the air, producing tall luminous columns sometimes mistaken for auroras. Usually the ice crystals are natural, such as snow flakes, but in this case the atmospheric optics were artificial. "The amazing phenomenon was created by snow blowing machines," explains Satrovskis. "These are our first days with temperatures below zero and ski resorts are making snow. A slight breeze carried manmade snow over the city, creating a spectacular view." Light pillars are springing up in cold cities around the world. Is yours one of them? Browse the gallery for the latest sightings. Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery Realtime Venus Photo Gallery Realtime Comet 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 Jan. 15, 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] On Jan. 14, 2014, the network reported 12 fireballs. (12 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 January 15, 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 | |