You are viewing the page for May. 30, 2007
  Select another date:
<<back forward>>
SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
SPACE WEATHER
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 343.8 km/sec
density: 0.4 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A6
1650 UT May30
24-hr: C2
1415 UT May30
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
Daily Sun: 30 May 07
New sunspot 958 poses little threat for strong solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 11
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 29 May 2007
Far side of the Sun:
This holographic image reveals no large spots on the farside of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 Quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2
Quiet
explanation | more data
Current Auroral Oval:
Europe, Antarctica, Australia, USA
Credit: NOAA/POES
Updated: 2007 May 30 2115 UT
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 1.9 nT
Bz: 0.9 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated:Today at 2246 UT
Coronal Holes:
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on or about June 2nd. Credit: SOHO Extreme Ultraviolet Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2007 May 30 2203 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
10 %
10 %
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: 2007 May 30 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
What's up in Space
May 30, 2007
He already has a neck tie. This year give Dad something truly heavenly for Father's Day: SpaceWeather PHONE.

BLUE MOON: This Thursday evening, the Moon over North America will become full for the second time in the month of May. According to folklore, that makes it a Blue Moon. But will it really be blue? Believe it or not, blue-colored Moons are possible. Get the full story from Science@NASA.

A DAY AT THE BEACH: New sunspot 958 is not very large but it has a marvelous white beach. Pete Lawrence sends this picture from his backyard in Selsey, UK:

Astronomers call the phenomenon plage--French for beach. Plage is not sand but a bright, hot magnetic froth that surrounds many sunspots. It shows up particularly clearly in solar telescopes tuned to the purple glow of ionized calcium. Lawrence used a Calcium-K Personal Solar Telescope to obtain the photo above.

more images: from Cai-Uso Wohler of Bispingen, Germany.

FIND THE MOON: On May 23rd, when photographer Guillaume Bertrand looked at the sky over Saint Laurent sur Sèvre, France, he was transported thousands of light years away. "The scene reminded me of a star-forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud," he says. (continued below)


Photo details: Canon 300D

But when he took the picture and examined it closely, he found no stars--only the Moon! "Can you find it?" he asks. Click here to search.

When you locate the Moon, note how its surface brightness compares favorably to that of bright white clouds. That's why, contrary to popular belief, the Moon is so easy to see during the day.

more images: from Jerry Chab of Falls City, Nebraska; from Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from Günther Strauch of Borken, NRW, Germay; from Anthony Ayiomamitis of Athens, Greece; from Ralph Nevins of Ottawa, Ontario;

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 30, 2007 there were 863 potentially hazardous asteroids.
May 2007 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
1862 Apollo
May 8
72 LD
13
2.4 km
2007 JD
May 11
12 LD
18
100 m
2007 JZ2
May 14
7.0 LD
19
30 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 Environment Center
  The official U.S. government bureau for real-time monitoring of solar and geophysical events, research in solar-terrestrial physics, and forecasting solar and geophysical disturbances.
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.
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  From the NOAA Space Environment Center
Current Solar Images
  from the National Solar Data Analysis Center
  more links...
©2007, SpaceWeather.com -- This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips.
©2019 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved.