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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

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Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment.

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 292.8 km/s
density:
3.2 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT


X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
B6 1650 UT May01
24-hr: C1 1540 UT May01
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 01 May '06

Sunspot 875 poses a continuing threat for M-class solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI.


Sunspot Number: 62
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 30 May 2006

Far Side of the Sun

This holographic image reveals one mid-sized spot on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 3.5 nT
Bz:
3.0 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

Coronal Holes:

A solar wind gust flowing from the indicated coronal hole could reach Earth on May 5th or 6th. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope


SPACE WEATHER
NOAA
Forecasts

Solar Flares: Probabilities for a medium-sized (M-class) or a major (X-class) solar flare during the next 24/48 hours are tabulated below.
Updated at 2006 May 01 2203 UTC
FLARE 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
CLASS M 15 % 15 %
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 2006 May 01 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 20 % 25 %
MINOR 10 % 15 %
SEVERE 05 % 05 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 30 % 30 %
MINOR 15 % 20 %
SEVERE 05 % 10 %

What's Up in Space -- 1 May 2006
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Roses. Candy. Spatulas? Make that the stars: Spaceweather PHONE for Mother's Day.

MARS & THE MOON: Looking for Mars? The red planet is 179 million miles from Earth, dim and not so easy to find. Tonight the Moon can guide you right to it. The pair are side by side in the western sky after sunset: sky map.

BEWARE THE BALROG! Yesterday, Jeff Barton of the Texas Astronomical Society took a picture of sunspot 875 using his Coronado solar telescope. "I was struck by the resemblance of the spot to the Balrog of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy," says Barton. "I can see the monster's terrible eyes and flaming whip curling over its right shoulder as it readies to strike Gandalf from the rock bridge in the Mines of Moria."

A dash of reality: The Balrog's eyes are the twin cores of the sunspot, each about the size of the planet Earth, and the whip is a magnetic filament. Will it snap? That's how solar flares happen! Stay tuned.

more images: from Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from Birgit Kremer of Marbella, Spain; from Mike Strieber of Newport News, Virginia; from Alan Friedman in downtown Buffalo, New York; from Franck Charlier of Marines, Val d'Oise, France; from Wah! of Hong Kong; from Greg Piepol of Rockville, Maryland;

PHOTO-OP: Mark your calendar: On May 8th at approximately 0300 UT (11 pm EDT on May 7th), fragment C of dying comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 will pass very close to the Ring Nebula in Lyra. The view through backyard telescopes should be wonderful.


Imagine a comet passing in front of this.... [more]

Brad Timerson of the Rochester Astronomy Club in New York alerted us to the encounter. "This should be an interesting event to watch," says Timerson. The tail of the comet could pass directly in front of the nebula. Sky maps: overview, detail.



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 1 May 2006 there were 784 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

May 2006 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE
(UT)

MISS DISTANCE

MAG.

 SIZE
(meters)
2006 HU50

May 4

3.8 LD

17

~50m
Comet 73P-C

May 12

31 LD

4

~1 km
2006 GY2

May 16

6.7 LD

13+

~0.8 km
Notes: LD is a "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 Web Links

NOAA Space Environment Center -- The official U.S. government bureau for real-time monitoring of solar and geophysical events, research in solar-terrestrial physics, and forecasting solar and geophysical disturbances.

Atmospheric Optics -- the first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. See also Snow Crystals.

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory -- Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. (European Mirror Site)

Daily Sunspot Summaries -- from the NOAA Space Environment Center.

Current Solar Images --a gallery of up-to-date solar pictures from the National Solar Data Analysis Center at the Goddard Space Flight Center. See also the GOES-12 Solar X-ray Imager.

Recent Solar Events -- a nice summary of current solar conditions from lmsal.com.

SOHO Farside Images of the Sun from SWAN and MDI.

The Latest SOHO Coronagraph Images -- from the Naval Research Lab

Daily images from the sun -- from the Big Bear Solar Observatory

List of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

Observable Comets -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

What is the Interplanetary Magnetic Field? -- A lucid answer from the University of Michigan. See also the Anatomy of Earth's Magnetosphere.

Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from NASA's ACE spacecraft. How powerful are solar wind gusts? Read this story from Science@NASA.

More Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Proton Monitor.

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; 2005; Jan-Mar 2006;

Space Audio Streams: (University of Florida) 20 MHz radio emissions from Jupiter: #1, #2, #3, #4; (NASA/Marshall) INSPIRE: #1; (Stan Nelson of Roswell, New Mexico) meteor radar: #1, #2;

Recent International Astronomical Union Circulars

GLOSSARY | SPACE WEATHER TUTORIAL

This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips: email

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