Thirty-five new items have just been added to our Meteorite Jewelry collection. Browse the Space Weather Store for something out of this world. |
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HIDDEN
PORTALS IN EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD:
A NASA-sponsored researcher at the University of
Iowa has developed a way for spacecraft to hunt
down hidden magnetic portals in the vicinity of
Earth. These gateways link the magnetic field of
our planet to that of the sun, setting the stage
for stormy space weather. [video]
ACTIVE
SUNSPOT: Sunspot AR1513 is crackling
with impulsive M-class
solar flares. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory
recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash from one
of them at 0920 UT on June 29th:
This M2-class flare (like a similar
eruption yesterday) illuminated Earth's upper atmosphere
with a pulse of X-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation.
Waves of ionization rippled over Europe, altering
the propagation of low-frequency radio signals around
the continent. Using a receiver tuned to 60 kHz,
Rob Stammes detected the
sudden ionospheric disturbance over Norway.
His antennas also picked up radio waves from the
flare itself at 26 MHz and 56 MHz.
More ionization waves and solar radio
bursts are in the offing. NOAA forecasters estimate
a 30% chance of continued M-flares during the next
24 hours. Solar flare
alerts: text,
voice.
Realtime
Space Weather Photo Gallery
X THREE
MILLION: On the Richter
Scale of Solar Flares, X3 is considered to be
a big explosion. How about X3 million?
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has seen what happens
when a planet gets hit by such a flare. This artist's
concept, released today by the space agency, illustrates
the impact of an X3000000-class stellar flare on
exoplanet HD 189733b:
The flare, detected by NASA's Swift
satellite, scorched the top of the planet's atmosphere
with a powerful blast of ultraviolet radiation and
X-rays. Hours later, Hubble detected more than 1,000
tons of gas every second flying away at 300,000
mph. HD 189733b is a gas giant about 14% more massive
than Jupiter, so it hardly misses the atmosphere
it lost. Millions of years of these flares, however,
will eventually make a dent even in such a massive
world. So the next time there's an X-flare here
in the solar system, just remember, it
could be worse.
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
June 29, 2012 there were
potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent
& Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT) |
Miss
Distance |
Mag. |
Size |
| 2012 MY2 |
Jun 29 |
1.3 LD |
-- |
24 m |
| 2003 KU2 |
Jul 15 |
40.2 LD |
-- |
1.3 km |
| 2004 EW9 |
Jul 16 |
46.8 LD |
-- |
2.1 km |
| 2002 AM31 |
Jul 22 |
13.7 LD |
-- |
1.0 km |
| 37655 Illapa |
Aug 12 |
37 LD |
-- |
1.2 km |
| 2000 ET70 |
Aug 21 |
58.5 LD |
-- |
1.1 km |
| 1998 TU3 |
Aug 25 |
49.2 LD |
-- |
4.9 km |
| 2009 AV |
Aug 26 |
62.8 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.
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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 |
