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JUPITER-MOON CONJUNCTION:
When the sun goes down tonight,
step outside and look up. The crescent Moon and
Jupiter are having a close encounter in the constellation
Taurus--and don't forget Comet Pan-STARRS near the
western horizon: sky
map.
STRONG CME IMPACT:
As predicted, a coronal mass ejection
(CME) hit Earth's magnetic field at 0600 UT on March
17th. The impact lifted the solar wind speed from
300 km/s to 700 km/s and sparked a moderately strong
(Kp=6) geomagnetic storm. Northern Lights spilled
across the Canadian border into the United States
as far south as Colorado:
"Just after 4 am local time,
the skies turned green and red behind the twin stone
monoliths of Rabbit Ears Peak near Steamboat Springs,
Colorado," reports photographer and astronomy
professsor Jimmy Westlake.
In the contiguous United States, auroras
also appeared above New York, Washington, Minnesota,
Wisconsin, Wyoming, Michigan and the Dakotas. Scan
the realtime
photo gallery and count the states.
The show's not over. Geomagnetic storming
is underway
as Earth passes thrugh the wake of the CME. High-latitude
sky watchers should remain alert for auroras.
Aurora alerts: text,
voice.
Realtime
Aurora Photo Gallery
IS COMET PAN-STARRS
FRAGMENTING? Veteran astrophotographer
Peter Rosen has been monitoring Comet
Pan-STARRS, and his latest images obtained on
March 15th seem to show a fragment emerging from
the nucleus. It is the speck just below and to the
right of the comet's head:
"It is visible also in two or
three other image stacks," says Rosen. He notes
how the stars in the image are trailed, but the
apparent fragment is not. "It seems to follow
the comet, not the stars. A plane passed through
the field of view during the exposure, making a
red streak through the comet's tail."
"The colorful image is a frequency
modulation that increases the contrast and clearly
shows the fragment as a dark dot below the nucleus,"
he continues. "I hope this splitting can be
confirmed or refuted soon by other observers."
For casual sky watchers:
A growing number of people are reporting that they
can see Comet Pan-STARRS with the naked eye. Best
estimates place the magnitude of the comet at +0.2,
about twice as bright as a 1st magnitude star. As
the comet moves away from the sun, its visibility
is improving, which means you might be
able to see it in the nights ahead. Step outside
about an hour after sunset and look west: sky
map.
More:
NASA
video, 3D
orbit, ephemeris,
light
curves.
Realtime
Comet Photo Gallery
Realtime
Space Weather Photo Gallery
Realtime
Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
[previous years: 2003,
2004,
2005,
2006,
2007,
2008,
2009,
2011]
