Metallic photos of the sun by renowned photographer Greg Piepol bring together the best of art and science. Buy one or a whole set. They make a stellar gift. | | |
THUNDERSTORMS MAKE ANTIMATTER: A NASA spacecraft designed to measure high-energy events in the deep cosmos has found them instead right here on Earth. Ordinary thunderstorms, it turns out, produce potent bursts of antimatter hundreds of times a day. Get the full story from Science@NASA.
AURORA WATCH: "Last night we were a bit doubtful that our Northern Lights tour would actually end up with any Northern Lights," reports Klas Tigerström of Abisko, Sweden. "But then the sky cleared and we got what we came for."
"The really cool stuff only appeared for about 2 minutes, but it felt like a life time!!" he says.
The next display should last longer. A solar wind stream is heading for Earth, due to arrive on Jan. 14-15. NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance of geomagnetic activity in response to the impact of the stream. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for weekend auroras.
January 2011 Aurora Photo Gallery
[previous Januaries: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2005, 2004]
MORNING STAR: "There's only so much you can see from a hazy and light-polluted urban sky. And then there's Venus!" says photographer Ramiz Qureshi. "Here is the view from a congested street in Karachi, Pakistan, on the morning of Jan. 9th."
"Venus was out-shining everything in the sky," he says. "City lights were no match for the morning star."
Indeed, this is a good week to look for Venus, which is at greatest elongation (distance from the sun). The silvery planet rises two hours before the sun and hangs high in the eastern sky at dawn. As Qureshi's photo shows, dark skies are not required for a dazzling view. Set your alarm and take a look; it's a great way to start the day.
Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery
[NASA: Hinode Observes Annular Solar Eclipse]
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 January 12, 2011 there were 1179 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 |