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A LULL IN THE SOLAR WIND: Earth is passing through a broad gulf between streams of high-speed solar wind. This should keep geomagnetic activity low until the solar wind quickens again, possibly on June 12th or 13th. Until then, any auroras will come as a surprise. Free: Aurora Alerts.
MARS OUTSHINES SIRIUS: It's official. Mars is now brighter than any star in the sky. This week, the Red Planet surpassed Sirius in apparent luminosity. If you wake up before dawn, you can't help noticing Mars burning through the morning twilight with a distinctive orange glow. This recent picture from Alan Dyer of Gleichen, Alberta, shows what to expect:
What's happening? Earth and Mars are converging for a close encounter--the best one in 15 years. On July 27th, Mars will be at opposition. Oppositions of Mars happen roughly every 2 years, but this one is special. It is a "perihelic opposition." Mars will be near perihelion, its closest approach to the sun. Perihelic oppositions also bring Mars extra-close to Earth.
The last time this happened was on Aug. 27, 2003, when Mars famously made its closest approach to Earth in almost 60,000 years. Around the world, people organized "Mars parties" to celebrate the extraordinary size and brightness of the Red Planet. This July will be almost as good with Mars only a few percent farther away than it was during its historic encounter 15 years ago. Between now and then, Mars will triple in brightness, outshining even the giant planet Jupiter. Stay tuned for that!
Realtime Mars Photo Gallery
FATHER'S DAY SPECIAL: What do you get for the Dad who has everything? He probably doesn't have this: A 3D Moon globe laser-etched inside a crystal cube. And, oh yes, it has been to the edge of space:
The students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew a payload-full of these unique cubes to the stratosphere on June 3rd. You can have one for $149.95. They're selling them as a fund-raiser for their cosmic ray ballooning program.
Each Moon-cube comes with a unique gift card showing the item floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere. The interior of the card tells the story of the flight and confirms that this gift has been to the edge of space and back again. Dad-satisfaction guaranteed.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education
IT'S A SMALL WORLD: You never know where you will find a member of Earth to Sky Calculus. Consider the case of Aaron Lamb, a founding member of the club. As a college student at Cal Maritime Academy, Aaron launched the first space weather balloon from the deck of a moving boat. Later, he recovered another balloon from San Francisco Bay where it landed safely using a floating payload of his own design.
Aaron is now taking a sabbatical from ballooning while he steams around the world on a tramp ship delivering government cargo. But he can't escape. A few days ago on the docks of Tacoma, Washington, longtime Spaceweather.com reader Bob Clauhs recognized Aaron Lamb as a member of Earth to Sky Calculus. They recorded the moment with a selfie:
Bob graduated from the US Merchant Marine Academy and he is now a port captain and vessel planner for Stevens Towing. Bob is a lifelong lover of cosmic phenomena. As a cadet, he would use the light filters on his sextant to safely search for sunspots.
Aaron is now en route to Tunisia via the Panama Canal. Perhaps Bob will approve another maritime space weather balloon launch :) Readers, have you seen a member of Earth to Sky Calculus? Write in with a picture and help us find the rest of the ballooning group we all love!
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Every night, a network of
NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com.
On Jun. 8, 2018, the network reported 17 fireballs.
(17 sporadics)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies]
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 8, 2018 there were 1912 potentially hazardous asteroids.
|
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
2018 LC1 | 2018-Jun-04 | 10.7 LD | 6.8 | 41 |
2018 LG1 | 2018-Jun-06 | 19.3 LD | 11.5 | 79 |
2018 EJ4 | 2018-Jun-10 | 5.6 LD | 6.2 | 195 |
2015 DP155 | 2018-Jun-11 | 9 LD | 4.4 | 170 |
2018 LD1 | 2018-Jun-14 | 1.6 LD | 11 | 19 |
2018 LK | 2018-Jun-15 | 7.7 LD | 12.4 | 154 |
2018 LF1 | 2018-Jun-16 | 15.7 LD | 14 | 44 |
2018 KC3 | 2018-Jun-19 | 14.6 LD | 8.8 | 88 |
2017 YE5 | 2018-Jun-21 | 15.6 LD | 15.5 | 513 |
467309 | 2018-Jun-23 | 17.9 LD | 14 | 355 |
441987 | 2018-Jun-24 | 7.3 LD | 12.6 | 178 |
2018 LN2 | 2018-Jun-28 | 10.5 LD | 9.4 | 85 |
2018 LJ1 | 2018-Jul-01 | 13.9 LD | 2.6 | 17 |
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. | Cosmic Rays in the Atmosphere |
Readers, thank you for your patience while we continue to develop this new section of Spaceweather.com. We've been working to streamline our data reduction, allowing us to post results from balloon flights much more rapidly, and we have developed a new data product, shown here:
This plot displays radiation measurements not only in the stratosphere, but also at aviation altitudes. Dose rates are expessed as multiples of sea level. For instance, we see that boarding a plane that flies at 25,000 feet exposes passengers to dose rates ~10x higher than sea level. At 40,000 feet, the multiplier is closer to 50x. These measurements are made by our usual cosmic ray payload as it passes through aviation altitudes en route to the stratosphere over California.
What is this all about? Approximately once a week, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus fly space weather balloons to the stratosphere over California. These balloons are equipped with radiation sensors that detect cosmic rays, a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. Cosmic rays can seed clouds, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. Furthermore, there are studies ( #1, #2, #3, #4) linking cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death in the general population. Our latest measurements show that cosmic rays are intensifying, with an increase of more than 13% since 2015:
Why are cosmic rays intensifying? The main reason is the sun. Solar storm clouds such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) sweep aside cosmic rays when they pass by Earth. During Solar Maximum, CMEs are abundant and cosmic rays are held at bay. Now, however, the solar cycle is swinging toward Solar Minimum, allowing cosmic rays to return. Another reason could be the weakening of Earth's magnetic field, which helps protect us from deep-space radiation.
The radiation sensors onboard our helium balloons detect X-rays and gamma-rays in the energy range 10 keV to 20 MeV. These energies span the range of medical X-ray machines and airport security scanners.
The data points in the graph above correspond to the peak of the Reneger-Pfotzer maximum, which lies about 67,000 feet above central California. When cosmic rays crash into Earth's atmosphere, they produce a spray of secondary particles that is most intense at the entrance to the stratosphere. Physicists Eric Reneger and Georg Pfotzer discovered the maximum using balloons in the 1930s and it is what we are measuring today.
| 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 |
| fun to read, but should be taken with a grain of salt! Forecasts looking ahead more than a few days are often wrong. |
| from the NOAA Space Environment Center |
| the underlying science of space weather |
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