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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
SPACE WEATHER
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 363.5 km/sec
density: 2.2 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A7
1735 UT Apr29
24-hr: A7
1735 UT Apr29
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2340 UT
Daily Sun: 29 Apr. 10
Micro-sunspot 1063 poses no threat for solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 12
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 28 Apr 2010

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2010 total: 20 days (17%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 790 days
Typical Solar Min: 485 days
explanation | more info
Updated 28 Apr 2010


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 76 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 28 Apr 2010

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 3.5 nT
Bz: 2.3 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2346 UT
Coronal Holes:
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole could reach Earth on or about May 3rd. Credit: STEREO-B Extreme UV Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2010 Apr 29 2201 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
01 %
01 %
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: 2010 Apr 29 2201 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
05 %
05 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
05 %
05 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
What's up in Space
April 29, 2010

NEW AND IMPROVED: Turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into a field-tested global satellite tracker. The Satellite Flybys app now works in all countries.

 

SPACE STATION FLYBYS: The International Space Station is making a series of bright flybys over North America and Europe this week. Check the Simple Satellite Tracker to find out when to look. And don't forget, there's an app for that, too.

ISS images: from Frank Boston of Owasso, Oklahoma; from Bill Arnold of Woolmarket, Massachusetts

THE TREE OF AVATAR: NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is doing more than just taking crisp pictures of the sun. It is revealing our star as a place of intense and sometimes even alien beauty. In today's image, we see "The Tree of Avatar."


Click on the image to launch a 25 MB Quicktime movie

The trunk of the tree is a twisted, gnarly pillar of magnetism containing hundreds of millions of tons of relatively cool plasma. The canopy is a cloud of million-degree gas. As solar physicists watched this tree on April 19th, it exploded, producing one of the biggest eruptions in years: movie.

The colors in the movie trace different temperatures. Reds are relatively cool (60,000 K - 80,000 K); blues and greens are hot (1,000,000 K - 2,200,000 K). The tree's cool trunk rapidly heats up as it rises into the blast, and the canopy cools down as it falls in pieces back to the sun. Go ahead and watch the movie again. Once is not enough!

PLANET WEIKERSHEIM: For several days last week, something unusual happened in the skies of Europe: air traffic came to a halt. Almost every flight was grounded because of the volcano in Iceland. "The sky took on a strange appearance," reports Jens Hackmann of Weikersheim, Germany. "It was totally uninterrupted by contrails! So, I took several pictures using my Canon 5D Mark II and put them together in the form of a 'little planet' panorama."

The dome in the image is Hackman's backyard observatory. Planet Weikersheim appears to be hollow, but that's just because "I forgot to take pictures of the ground," explains Hackmann. "But who wants to see my feet?" Indeed.

Star trails also looked great during the flight ban. Click here for vertigo.


April Northern Lights Gallery
[previous Aprils: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002]

 
       
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 April 29, 2010 there were 1116 potentially hazardous asteroids.
April 2010 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2010 GV23
April 5
2.1 LD
19
12 m
2010 GF7
April 8
2.8 LD
18
30 m
2010 GA6
April 9
1.1 LD
16
27 m
2010 GM23
April 13
3.4 LD
17
47 m
2005 YU55
April 19
5.9 LD
15
185 m
2009 UY19
April 23
8.8 LD
18
87 m
2002 JR100
April 29
8.0 LD
19
65 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 Weather Prediction Center
  The official U.S. government space weather bureau
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.
STEREO
  3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  from the NOAA Space Environment Center
Current Solar Images
  from the National Solar Data Analysis Center
Science Central
   
  more links...
   
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