Listen to radar echoes from satellites and meteors, live on listener-supported Space Weather Radio. |
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EARTHSONG:
A NASA spacecraft has recorded audio-frequency
radio emissions coming from Earth. Some say the
signals sound like whales; others liken them to
the chirping of prairie dogs. What do you think?
[audio]
[video]
[full
story]
SUNSPOTS:
Earth-facing sunspots 1579 and 1582
are so large, sky watchers are noticing them without
the assistance of a solar
telescope. When the low-hanging sun is dimmed
by clouds and haze, the two spots can be seen punctuating
the sunset:
Lauri Kangas took this picture on
the evening of October 2nd from Fort Frances, Ontario.
" The sun was easy to photograph safely without
any protective filters due to the clouds and smoke
from forest fires in northwestern Ontario,"
says Kangas.
Although these sunspots are large
(each one is wider than Earth) they are not very
active. Their magnetic canopies contain are simply
organized, containing no unstable structures that
pose a threat for flares. NOAA forecasters say there
is less than a 5% chance of M-flares and a 1% chance
of X-flares today.
Caution:
Do not look at the sun through
unfiltered optics. Even when the sun is low and
dim, focused sunlight can damage human eyes. When
photographing sunsets, use your camera's LCD screen,
not the optical viewfinder.
Realtime
Space Weather Photo Gallery
ISS
CROSSING THE HARVEST MOON: Two nights
ago, Bill Reyna of Sussex County, New Jersey, went
outside to see the Harvest Moon (the full Moon closest
to the autumnal equinox) when a winged shadow flitted
across the lunar landscape. It was the International
Space Station:
Reyna captured the station's silhouette
backlit by the Sea of Clouds (Mare Nubium) using
a Canon 7D digital camera snapping pictures in HD
video mode. "With the ISS moving at 4.6 miles
per second at a range of 321 miles, it crossed the
lunar disk in only .45 seconds," he says. "I
knew exactly when to video-record the transit thanks
to predictions from Calsky."
ISS flyby alerts:
text,
voice
Realtime
Aurora 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
October 3, 2012 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.
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The
official U.S. government space weather bureau |
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The
first place to look for information about sundogs,
pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. |
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Researchers
call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO
is the most advanced solar observatory ever. |
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3D
views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial
Relations Observatory |
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Realtime
and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. |
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from
the NOAA Space Environment Center |
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the
underlying science of space weather |
