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THIS EXPLOSION MIGHT HIT EARTH: Yesterday, Dec. 9th, a magnetic filament in the sun's southern hemisphere erupted, possibly hurling a fraction of itself into space: movie. SOHO coronagraph movies are inconclusive. A faint CME might have left the blast site. If so, it could jolt Earth's magnetic field on Dec. 12th. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
THIS EXPLOSION DEFINITELY WON'T: The sun just shot an interestingly narrow stream of plasma into space. SOHO coronagraphs watched it jet away from the southwestern limb of the sun on Dec. 9th:
This was no ordinary CME. The jet was less than 50 thousand km wide at its base, but it stretched more than 15 million km into space. Coherent blob-like structures can be seen traveling down the stream as the eruption progresses.
The underlying physics of this event is a bit of a mystery. It might be a strangely skinny helmet streamer. Helmet streamers are magnetic arches rooted in the sun, which are sculpted and stretched by the solar wind. They're normally 10 to 100 times wider than this one, though.
One thing is certain: It won't hit Earth. Maybe next time.
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ORION IS COMING IN HOT: NASA's Orion spacecraft is hurtling toward Earth for a nail-biting re-entry on Dec. 11th. "Last night I photographed Orion on its way back from the Moon for a Pacific Ocean splashdown this weekend," reports Rob Matson of Newport Coast, CA. He stitched together 42 images to create this video:
"Orion was at a range of ~262,000 km at about magnitude +15. Toward the middle of the image sequence it had a solar glint to about +13.5," says Matson. "It was an easy target for my 11-inch telescope."
Tomorrow Orion will skip across the top of the atmosphere like a pebble on the surface of a pond, bleeding away some of its kinetic energy before it plunges toward the Pacific Ocean like a 5,000 degree Fahrenheit meteor. Will Orion's experimental heat shield work? Tune into NASA TV on Dec. 11th for live coverage.
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GIFTS FROM THE EDGE OF SPACE: Christmas is coming. Are you looking for a far-out gift? Check out the Earth to Sky Store. It's filled with unique items that have flown to the edge of space onboard cosmic ray research balloons.
These unique gifts have floated above 99.7% of Earth's atmosphere, experiencing space-like blasts of cosmic rays, extreme cold, and a wild ride parachuting back to Earth after the balloon explodes. Even Amazon doesn't carry items this far out. Don't forget to enter coupon code "SPACESANTA" at checkout for a 10% holiday discount.
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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 Dec 10, 2022, the network reported 3 fireballs.
(3 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 December 10, 2022 there were 2319 potentially hazardous asteroids.
|
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
2022 WB5 | 2022-Dec-05 | 5.8 LD | 11 | 27 |
2022 VP1 | 2022-Dec-05 | 17.3 LD | 7.1 | 56 |
2022 WA6 | 2022-Dec-06 | 4.4 LD | 13.9 | 22 |
2022 WV8 | 2022-Dec-06 | 15.6 LD | 7.2 | 31 |
2022 WF8 | 2022-Dec-06 | 8.8 LD | 7.6 | 13 |
2022 WK9 | 2022-Dec-07 | 6.1 LD | 14.3 | 33 |
2022 WO10 | 2022-Dec-08 | 5 LD | 4.8 | 9 |
2022 WP11 | 2022-Dec-09 | 11.9 LD | 17.3 | 63 |
2022 XJ | 2022-Dec-09 | 6.8 LD | 10.2 | 16 |
2022 WW | 2022-Dec-10 | 19.2 LD | 6.2 | 30 |
2019 XY | 2022-Dec-10 | 3.6 LD | 12.9 | 9 |
2003 YS70 | 2022-Dec-13 | 10.4 LD | 4.1 | 5 |
2019 XQ1 | 2022-Dec-13 | 14.5 LD | 9.8 | 30 |
2018 XU3 | 2022-Dec-13 | 14.8 LD | 10.3 | 28 |
2021 XS4 | 2022-Dec-14 | 14.5 LD | 9.7 | 23 |
2015 RN35 | 2022-Dec-15 | 1.8 LD | 5.9 | 85 |
2022 XO | 2022-Dec-15 | 8.4 LD | 8.6 | 21 |
2022 WU11 | 2022-Dec-17 | 11.6 LD | 10.5 | 31 |
2016 YE | 2022-Dec-18 | 18.6 LD | 4.8 | 23 |
2014 HK129 | 2022-Dec-20 | 6.7 LD | 11.6 | 216 |
2017 XQ60 | 2022-Dec-21 | 18.8 LD | 16 | 45 |
2022 UD9 | 2022-Dec-22 | 4.6 LD | 10.3 | 159 |
2022 RD2 | 2022-Dec-22 | 13.9 LD | 1.1 | 7 |
2022 XN | 2022-Dec-24 | 8.6 LD | 11.1 | 49 |
2013 YA14 | 2022-Dec-25 | 2.7 LD | 10.5 | 68 |
2022 TE14 | 2022-Dec-25 | 11.2 LD | 7 | 127 |
2018 YK2 | 2022-Dec-26 | 15.8 LD | 15.1 | 98 |
2022 WV9 | 2022-Dec-27 | 6.5 LD | 7.2 | 43 |
2010 XC15 | 2022-Dec-27 | 2 LD | 10.1 | 182 |
2021 AE | 2022-Dec-28 | 16.5 LD | 15 | 23 |
2021 NF | 2023-Jan-02 | 17.9 LD | 11.3 | 40 |
2011 WR41 | 2023-Jan-03 | 15.8 LD | 8.9 | 34 |
2019 AY3 | 2023-Jan-04 | 16.8 LD | 19.7 | 62 |
2021 TL | 2023-Jan-09 | 14.2 LD | 8.5 | 75 |
2014 LJ | 2023-Jan-14 | 4.8 LD | 3.5 | 7 |
2012 BV13 | 2023-Jan-16 | 12.2 LD | 6.7 | 134 |
2020 BP | 2023-Jan-20 | 5.2 LD | 16.9 | 26 |
2019 BO2 | 2023-Jan-24 | 12.1 LD | 16.2 | 21 |
2019 BZ4 | 2023-Jan-24 | 16.5 LD | 5.6 | 20 |
2020 BZ14 | 2023-Jan-26 | 8.8 LD | 6.7 | 54 |
2022 SO113 | 2023-Jan-29 | 10.5 LD | 3.5 | 73 |
2017 DU34 | 2023-Feb-02 | 13.3 LD | 11.2 | 16 |
367789 | 2023-Feb-03 | 4.7 LD | 9.9 | 149 |
2020 OO1 | 2023-Feb-04 | 4.8 LD | 7.7 | 19 |
Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. | Cosmic Rays in the Atmosphere |
SPACE WEATHER BALLOON DATA: Almost 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 sensors that detect secondary cosmic rays, a form of radiation from space that can penetrate all the way down to Earth's surface. Our monitoring program has been underway without interruption for 7 years, resulting in a unique dataset of in situ atmospheric measurements.
Latest results (July 2022): Atmospheric radiation is decreasing in 2022. Our latest measurements in July 2022 registered a 6-year low:
What's going on? Ironically, the radiation drop is caused by increasing solar activity. Solar Cycle 25 has roared to life faster than forecasters expected. The sun's strengthening and increasingly tangled magnetic field repels cosmic rays from deep space. In addition, solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) sweep aside cosmic rays, causing sharp reductions called "Forbush Decreases." The two effects blend together to bring daily radiation levels down.
.Who cares? Cosmic rays are a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. They can alter the chemistry of the atmosphere, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. According to a study from the Harvard T.H. Chan school of public health, crews of aircraft have higher rates of cancer than the general population. The researchers listed cosmic rays, irregular sleep habits, and chemical contaminants as leading risk factors. A number of controversial studies (#1, #2, #3, #4) go even further, linking cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death.
Technical notes: 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.
Data points in the graph labeled "Stratospheric Radiation" correspond to the peak of the Regener-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 Regener 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. |
| information about sunspots based on the latest NOAA/USAF Active Region Summary |
| current counts of failed and deployed Starlink satellites from Jonathan's Space Page |
| Authoritative predictions of space junk and satellite re-entries |
| 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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