They came from outer space--and you can have one! Genuine meteorites are now on sale in the Space Weather Store. | | |
QUIET SUNSPOTS: Near the center of the solar disk, growing sunspot AR1850 directly faces Earth. However, like all the other spots on the sun today, AR1850 is quiet and not flaring. The chance of a geoeffective flare today is low. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.
COMET ISON ON TRACK TO BECOME 'IMPRESSIVE': Amateur astronomers around the world are photographing Comet ISON as it approaches Mars in the predawn sky. The comet is not as bright as some forecasters expected. What does that mean for ISON's future prospects? The answer may be found below this color photo of the comet obtained by UK astronomer Damian Peach on Sept. 24th:
Photo details: 17" CDK with FLI-PL6303e camera. LRGB. L: 5x3mins. RGB: 1x2mins. Sun -18 to -14deg.
At the moment, Comet ISON is about as bright as a 14th magnitude star, which puts it one or two magnitudes dimmer than forecasts. Nevertheless, according to several experts speaking in a NASA video, Comet ISON is still on track to become an impressive sungrazer. John Bortle predicts ISON will rival Venus during the hours leading up to its closest approach to the Sun in November, while Matthew Knight notes that Comet ISON is brighter than Comet Lovejoy was at the same distance from the sun in 2011. As many readers remember, Comet Lovejoy went on to become a spectacular naked-eye object. Comet ISON might do the same.
New images of the comet are coming in every day. Browse the gallery for the latest views:
Realtime Comet ISON Photo Gallery
MAGNETIC ERUPTION: A filament of magnetism curling over the sun's northeastern limb erupted on Sept. 24th around 20:30 UT. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the structure hurling part of itself into space:
Watch the movie and pay attention to the base of the explosion. A "canyon of fire" forms as the filament cuts through the sun's lower atmosphere. The glowing walls of the canyon trace the original channel where the filament was suspended by magnetic forces above the stellar surface.
As erupting magnetic filaments often do, this one launched a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space: image. The cloud does not appear to be heading for Earth. Aurora alerts: text, voice.
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
[previous years: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011]
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 September 25, 2013 there were potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Size |
2000 DK79 | Nov 10 | 49.1 LD | 3.0 km |
2011 JY1 | Nov 13 | 8.2 LD | 57 m |
2001 AV43 | Nov 18 | 3 LD | 52 m |
2010 CL19 | Nov 25 | 37.6 LD | 1.3 km |
2013 NJ | Nov 26 | 2.5 LD | 190 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. | 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 |