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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: 296.4 km/sec
density: 1.5 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2340 UT Jul18
24-hr: A1
0155 UT Jul18
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2340 UT
Daily Sun: 18 July 09
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 17 July 2009

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 7 days
2009 total: 149 days (76%)
Since 2004: 660 days
Typical Solar Min: 485 days
explanation | more info
Updated 17 July 2009

Far side of the Sun:
This holographic image reveals no sunspots on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 1
quiet
explanation | more data
Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 3.0 nT
Bz: 0.9 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2346 UT
Coronal Holes:
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on or about July 21. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2009 Jul 18 2201 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: 2009 Jul 18 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 18, 2009

AURORA ALERT: Did you sleep through the Northern Lights? Next time get a wake-up call: Spaceweather PHONE.

 

APOLLO LANDING SITES PHOTOGRAPHED: NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has returned its first imagery of Apollo landing sites. The pictures show lunar module descent stages, scientific instruments and even 40-year-old foot trails made by astronauts walking across the dusty lunar surface: full story.

BIG SPACESHIP: Yesterday, space shuttle Endeavour docked to the International Space Station. A few hours later, the complex flew over the Netherlands where Ralf Vandebergh was waiting with his 10-inch telescope and--snap!--he took this picture:

Today, astronauts are unloading a porch from the shuttle's cargo bay and installing it on Japan's Kibo science laboratory. What do you do with a "space porch"? It's a research tool. When experiments require exposure to space radiation or hard vacuum, astronauts can set it out on the porch. The porch will also add an increment of sun-reflecting surface area to the space station's profile, making the complex brighter than ever. Check the Simple Satellite Tracker for flybys.

more images: from Pawel Warchal of Cracow, Poland; from Marco Langbroek of Leiden, the Netherlands; from Simon Loy of Vancouver, BC, Canada;

MAN-MADE NLCs: On July 15th, Nature provided a grand display of noctilucent clouds stretching from Scandinavia to Colorado. At the same time, NASA provided a miniature display of its own over Florida:

"We saw some brilliant night-shining clouds here in Florida," reports Martin Zloty of Land O'Lakes, just north of Tampa. "They appeared about three hours after space shuttle Endeavour launched on its mission to the International Space Station."

Indeed, Endeavour was the source of the clouds. The space shuttle's hydrogen-burning main engines spew tons of water vapor into the atmosphere during their ascent to space. When the shuttle reaches an altitude of 60 to 70 km, the water vapor turns into super-tiny ice crystals that glow electric blue when illuminated by the setting sun. It looks much like a noctilucent cloud and in a sense it is, created by man rather than Nature. A movie from researchers at Hampton University shows the process in action.

more images: from Fendell Pillsbury of Sarasota, Florida

2009 Noctilucent Photo Gallery
[previous years: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003]


Explore the Sunspot Cycle

       
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 18, 2009 there were 1065 potentially hazardous asteroids.
July 2009 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2009 MM8
July 13
11.4 LD
18
53 m
2008 NP3
July 18
11.8 LD
18
87 m
2006 TU7
July 20
14.2 LD
17
175 m
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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