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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: 332.5 km/sec
density: 11.4 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2344 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2340 UT Feb19
24-hr: A0
2340 UT Feb19
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2340 UT
Daily Sun: 19 Feb 09
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 18 Feb. 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= 0 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 1
quiet
explanation | more data
Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
What is the auroral oval?
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.0 nT
Bz: 0.7 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2347 UT
Coronal Holes:
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on or about Feb. 21st. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2009 Feb 19 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 Feb 19 2201 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
25 %
MINOR
01 %
10 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
30 %
MINOR
10 %
15 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
What's up in Space
February 19, 2009

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

 

SATURN PHOTO-OP: Something is about to happen on Saturn that is so pretty, even Hubble will pause to take a look. Backyard astronomers can see it, too. Four of Saturn's moons will transit Saturn and cast their shadows on the planet's cloudtops at the same time: full story.

GRAND CENTRAL STATION: On Feb. 17th and 18th, many observers of Comet Lulin saw something unexpected. In addition to the comet, "I kept getting satellite trails in my images," reports John Cordiale of Queensbury, New York. "It was like Grand Central Station. Multiple groupings of satellites traveled through my images for hours." He photographed the activity using a 2.5-inch (65mm) refractor:

"It made me wonder if I was seeing debris from the recent double satellite collision," says Cordiale.

It certainly looked like flying debris (see this animation from Jesus Pelaez of Padilla de Arriba, Spain). But no, what Cordiale, Pelaez and others saw was actually a band of intact geostationary satellites.

Geostationary satellites orbit Earth twenty-two thousand miles above the equator, always keeping station above a single point on the ground. While geosats are stationary with respect to Earth's surface, they move with respect to the stars. Viewed through the eyepiece of a star-tracking telescope, the stars are motionless while the "stationary" satellites streak through the field of view like so much debris. Strange but true.

From mid-Northern latitudes, geostationary satellites occupy a band of declinations between approximately -5 and -7 degrees. By happenstance, Comet Lulin passed through that band on Feb. 17th and 18th, setting the stage for an unexpected show. "I had never seen anything like it!" says Cordiale.

Comet Lulin Photo Gallery
[Comet Hunter Telescope] [Sky maps: Feb. 18, 19, 20]

SATELLITE DEBRIS: More than a week has passed since the Feb. 10th collision of Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251 over northern Siberia, and the orbits of some of the fragments have now been measured by US Strategic Command. Orbital elements are available for 8 pieces of debris from Iridium 33 and 18 pieces from Kosmos 2251. Satellite observer Daniel Deak has plotted those orbits on a 3D map of Earth for readers of Spaceweather.com. Click on the image to view the distribution of Iridium debris on Feb. 18th:

A similar map highlights the Kosmos debris, and a polar view is available, too.

In the maps, hollow circles denote primary fragments still being tracked with the same catalogue number as the original satellite. "We can say it is what remains of the satellite after the collision," explains Deak. Solid circles denote lesser fragments; they are scattered almost all the way around Earth.

A comparison of Kosmos vs. Iridium maps shows that Kosmos debris is scattered more widely than Iridium debris in orbital phase, eccentricity and inclination. For some reason, Kosmos fragments seem to have been ejected from the crash with a greater velocity than Iridium counterparts.

This is just the beginning. More fragments, perhaps hundreds of them, will be catalogued in the days and weeks ahead. As they are added to the map, new information about the crash and its aftermath will naturally emerge. Stay tuned!


February 2009 Aurora Gallery
[Previous Februaries: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2004, 2003, 2002]


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 February 19, 2009 there were 1026 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Feb. 2009 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2009 BK58
Feb. 2
1.7 LD
17
30 m
2009 BG81
Feb. 2
4.4 LD
19
12 m
2009 CC2
Feb. 2
0.5 LD
17
12 m
2009 BW2
Feb. 5
8.4 LD
20
40 m
2009 CP
Feb. 8
7.7 LD
19
20 m
2009 BE58
Feb. 10
8.6 LD
16
225 m
2006 AS2
Feb. 10
9.2 LD
15
370 m
2009 BL58
Feb. 11
4.8 LD
17
55 m
1999 AQ10
Feb. 18
4.4 LD
13
390 m
2009 CV
Feb. 23
4.8 LD
18
62 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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