When is the best time to see auroras? Where is the best place to go? And how do you photograph them? These questions and more are answered in a new book, Northern Lights - a Guide, by Pal Brekke & Fredrik Broms. | | |
CHANCE OF FLARES: Fast-growing sunspot AR1875 (movie) has developed a 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that harbors energy strong explosions. NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance of M-class solar flares and a 5% chance of X-flares on Oct. 22nd. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.
COMET EXPLOSION: Almost 450 million km from Earth, Comet C/2012 X1 (LINEAR) has exploded. Amateur astronomers are reporting a 100-fold increase in the comet's brightness compared to predictions, and the comet's atmosphere or "coma" now resembles that of exploding Comet 17P/Holmes in 2007. Using a remotely-controlled 0.5 meter telescope in New Mexico, European observers Ernesto Guido, Martino Nicolini and Nick Howes took this picture of the spherical explosion on Oct 21st:
"The predicted magnitude of the comet on Oct. 20th was about +14," says Guido. "Now it is close to +8.5." This is below the threshold for naked-eye visibility, but bright enough for backyard telescopes equipped with digital cameras.
Prompted by the reports of Guido et al, Romanian amateur astronomer Maximilian Teodorescu observed the comet on Oct. 22nd, confirming its brightness and spherical structure. "It looked exactly like Comet Holmes back in 2007," says Teodorescu.
Located in the constellation Coma Berenices, Comet LINEAR X1 rises in the east about an hour before the sun. The low altitude of the comet in morning twilight is a challenge. "I could not see the comet through the eyepiece of my 4.5 inch refracting telescope," adds Teodorescu, "but the camera detected it easily enough."
The outburst does not necessarily signal a disintegration of the comet. Possibly, a local vein or cavern of deep ice in the comet's nucleus has been exposed to sunlight. Rapid evaporation of fragile ices could account for the comet's bigger- and brighter-than-expected atmosphere. Monitoring in the nights ahead might reveal clues to what happened ... and when. Resources: 3D orbit, ephemeris, sky map.
Realtime Comet Photo Gallery
ERUPTING FILAMENT AND CME: During the early hours of Oct. 22nd, a long filament of magnetism erupted on the sun: movie. The explosion hurled a CME into space, shown here in a coronagraph movie from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory:
Radio emissions from shock waves in the CME suggest an expansion velocity of near 700 km/s (1.6 million mph). That may sound fast, but in fact 700 km/s is a run-of-the-mill speed for CMEs. Although the eruption occured squarely on the Earthside of the sun, the expanding cloud might miss Earth. The bulk of the ejecta appears to be heading north of the sun-Earth line. Stay tuned for updates as NOAA forecasters complete their analysis of this event. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
ORIONID METEOR SHOWER--UPDATE: The Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar (CMOR) is still detecting echoes from Orionid meteors. This means Earth is still inside a stream of debris from the shower's parent comet, Halley. A CMOR sky map made at 13:45 UT on Oct. 22nd shows the Orionid radiant (ORI) clearly active:
Forecasters expected the shower to peak on Oct. 21st with about 20 meteors per hour. However, Halley's debris stream is so broad that Orionid activity has spilled into Oct. 22nd. If you're up before sunrise, be alert for meteors! [meteor radar] [sky map]
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Realtime Comet ISON Photo Gallery
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
NEW: 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 Oct. 22, 2013, the network reported 38 fireballs.
(22 sporadics, 12 Orionids, 4 southern Taurids)
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 October 22, 2013 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 |