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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: 295.9 km/sec
density: 0.4 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A9
1815 UT May24
24-hr: B1
1445 UT May24
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2340 UT
Daily Sun: 24 May 10
Sunspot 1072 is growing and poses a slight threat for M-class solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 23
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 23 May 2010

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2010 total: 33 days (23%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 801 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days
explanation | more info
Updated 23 May 2010


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 75 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 23 May 2010

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 1
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 3.3 nT
Bz: 0.2 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
Coronal Holes:
There are no large coronal holes on the Earth-facing side of the sun. Credit: SDO/AIA
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2010 May 24 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: 2010 May 24 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
May 24, 2010

NEW AND IMPROVED: Turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into a field-tested global satellite tracker. The Satellite Flybys app now works in all countries.

 

DOUBLE FLYBY ALERT: Space shutte Atlantis has undocked from the International Space Station and is set to land at the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, May 26th. Meanwhile, the spacecraft are circling Earth together, two bright star-like objects gliding through the night sky side by side. It's a must-see. Check the Simple Satellite Tracker or your iPhone to see if you are favored with a double flyby.

SIZZLING SUNSPOT: Yesterday, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) peered into the dark heart of sunspot 1072 and found it sizzling with activity. Click on the image to set the scene in motion:

The curvaceous arcs in this extreme ultraviolet (171 Å) image are magnetic flux tubes filled with million-degree plasma. Occasionally, a magnetic instability causes an explosion, a minor solar flare, which appears in the movie as a brief flash of light. None of these B-class flares was strong enough to affect Earth; they were merely photogenic.

According to NOAA forecasters, sunspot 1072 harbors energy for flares 100 times stronger than this, and there is a 10% chance of such an M-class eruption during the next 24 hours. Shortwave radio blackouts, sudden ionospheric disturbances, and some fantastic movies from SDO could be in the offing. Stay tuned.

AMAZING TRANSIT: On May 22nd in Switzerland, Thierry Legault photographed the International Space Station (ISS) and space shuttle Atlantis passing directly in front of the sun. The docked spacecraft raced past sunspot 1072, framed by "solar fire":


View the full-disk transit

"I have never had such good seeing conditions and this image surpasses any transit image I've done before," says Legault. "The sunspot area is also very sharp." He recorded the split-second transit using a solar-filtered 6" refracting telescope.

NASA's shuttle program is coming to an end later this year, and Atlantis is making her final scheduled visit to the ISS. For this reason, the STS-132 mission patch shows Atlantis heading into the sunset. There is, however, a possibility that Atlantis might fly again. If so, make that sunset a solar transit.

more transit photos: from Yvan Trembley of Chamalieres, France; from Emmanuel Rietsch of Switzerland; from Dirk Lucius of Leer, Germany; from Jerome Delpau of Moncé en Belin, France


May 2010 Aurora Gallery
[previous Mays: 2008, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002] [aurora alerts]

 
       
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 May 24, 2010 there were 1127 potentially hazardous asteroids.
May 2010 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2010 JR34
May 14
5.8 LD
21
12 m
2003 HR32
May 17
55.2 LD
17
1.0 km
2010 JN71
May 26
8.2 LD
18
245 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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