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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

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Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment.

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 489.4 km/s
density:
1.4 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT


X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
B2 1845 UT Apr17
24-hr: B2 1845 UT Apr17
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 17 Apr '06

Sunspot 871 poses no threat for strong solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI.


Sunspot Number: 45
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 16 Apr 2006

Far Side of the Sun

This holographic image reveals two sunspot groups on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 5.0 nT
Bz:
4.6 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

Coronal Holes:

A gust of solar wind originating from the indicated coronal hole could hit Earth on April 20th. 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 Apr 17 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 2006 Apr 17 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 10 % 10 %
MINOR 05 % 05 %
SEVERE 01 % 01 %

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

What's Up in Space -- 17 Apr 2006
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Did you sleep through the auroras? Next time get a wake-up call. Sign up for Spaceweather PHONE.

A PLANET NAMED GEORGE: On Tuesday morning, April 18th, Venus can guide you to a naked-eye planet that ancient astronomers inexplicably failed to see. Get the full story from Science@NASA.

INCOMING COMET: "Comet 73P/Schwassmann Wachmann 3 is approaching Earth--and fast!" says amateur astronomer Guillaume Poulin (Mont-Mégantic Observatory) who made this movie of fragment B traveling 36,000 mph on April 11th:


Click to view the complete 2-hour movie

Not shown in Poulin's movie are 19 other fragments of the comet also heading our way. The swarm will pass only 6 million miles from Earth on May 12th-14th, providing a marvelous view to anyone with a backyard telescope: full story.

more images: from George Varros of Mount Airy Maryland; from Alberto Quijano Vodniza of Pasto, Nariño, Colombia; from Ernesto Guido & Giovanni Sostero of Italy using a remote-controlled telescope in New Mexico; from Mike Holloway of Van Buren, Arkansas;

EASTER SUN-DAY: "This photo was taken on Easter 'Sun' day," says Larry Alvarez of Flower Mound, Texas. "There were some unusual snake-like filaments creeping across the sun's surface and plenty of other surface activity."

Solar filaments are clouds of hydrogen held above the sun's surface by magnetic force fields. They look dark because they are cooler than the underlying star--but a filament is in fact glowing-hot, as we see when filaments stick out over the sun's limb: image. These structures are huge and easy to see through H-alpha telescopes.



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 17 Apr 2006 there were 778 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

April-May 2006 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE
(UT)

MISS DISTANCE

MAG.

 SIZE
(meters)
2000 PN9

March 6

7.9 LD

12

~2 km
2006 EH1

March 7

2.0 LD

18

~20 m
2006 EC

March 8

0.7 LD

16

~19 m
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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