Turn your cell phone into a field-tested satellite tracker. Works for Android and iPhone. |
|
|
COLORFUL
CONJUNCTION : The red planet Mars
and the blue star Regulus have gathered together
in the pre-dawn sky for a close conjunction that
will be at its best on the morning of Friday, Nov.
11th. Wake up early, look
east, and behold
the colors.
INCOMING
CME? Yesterday, Nov. 9th around
1330 UT, a magnetic filament in the vicinity of
sunspot complex 1342-1343 erupted, producing a M1-class
solar flare and hurling a CME into space. The Solar
and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) recorded the
progress of the expanding plasma cloud:
Although the eruption was not squarely
aimed at Earth, the CME is likely to deliver a glancing
blow to our planet's magnetic field on Nov. 11th
or 12th. This could add to the impact of another
CME already en route. The earlier cloud was propelled
by a filament eruption (movie)
on Nov. 7th and is also expected to deliver a glancing
blow on Nov. 11th.
Analyses of these events are still
preliminary, and the forecast may change. For now
it is safe to say that high-latitude sky watchers
should be alert for auroras on Nov. 11-12. Aurora
alerts: text,
voice.
SPOTTED
SUNRISE: Solar Cycle 24 is gaining
steam with more sunspots, solar flares, and CMEs
than we've seen in years. This development is having
a visible effect on the solar disk; it's not blank
anymore. Today's snapshot from Jett Aguilar of Quezon
City, the Philippines, reveals a distinctly spotty
sunrise:
"At sunrise this morning, I was
finally able to capture the active sun with its
face stippled with sunspots," says Aguilar.
"Giant sunspot AR1339 was particulary visible."
To take the picture, he used an off-the-shelf
Canon 50D digital camera with a Canon EF 100-400
mm lens. Other readers who wish to try this should
be careful. Never look at the sun through unfiltered
optics even when the solar disk is dimmed by clouds
and haze. Focused sunlight can permanently damage
your eyes. Instead, point your camera using the
LCD screen or, better yet, buy a safe
solar telescope. The view is dynamite and it
is only going to improve as Solar Cycle 24 approaches
maximum in 2012-2013.
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
November 10, 2011 there were 1256
potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent
& Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT) |
Miss
Distance |
Mag. |
Size |
| 2011 FZ2 |
Nov 7 |
75.9 LD |
-- |
1.6 km |
| 2005 YU55 |
Nov 8 |
0.8 LD |
11.2 |
400 m |
| 2011 UT91 |
Nov 15 |
9.9 LD |
-- |
109 m |
| 1994 CK1 |
Nov 16 |
68.8 LD |
-- |
1.5 km |
| 1996 FG3 |
Nov 23 |
39.5 LD |
-- |
1.1 km |
| 2003 WM7 |
Dec 9 |
47.6 LD |
-- |
1.6 km |
| 1999 XP35 |
Dec 20 |
77.5 LD |
-- |
1.0 km |
| 2000 YA |
Dec 26 |
2.9 LD |
-- |
80 m |
| 2011 SL102 |
Dec 28 |
75.9 LD |
-- |
1.1 km |
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 |
|
