This is an AI Free Zone! Text created by ChatGPT and other Large Language Models is spreading rapidly across the Internet. It's well-written, artificial, frequently inaccurate. If you find a mistake on Spaceweather.com, rest assured it was made by a real human being. | | |
QUIET WITH A CHANCE OF FLARES: The sun has gone quiet with a sudden (and almost certainly temporary) drop in the sunspot number. However, there is still a chance of flares. Remaining sunspot AR3395 has a 'delta-class' magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class explosions. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
PERSEID METEOR RECAP: The annual perseid meteor shower peaked over the weekend with maximum rates near 75 meteors per hour, according to the International Meteor Organization. Juan Carlos Casado photographed more than 50 of them from Sant Llorenç de la Muga, Girona, Spain:
"This image is a composite that summarizes the maximum of 2023 Perseid meteor shower," says Casado. "I took more than 1200 photos, which I examined one by one to extract the Perseid meteors. When combining the photos, I compensated for Earth's rotation to show the effect of a radiant located in the constellation Perseus."
"In the forground is the medieval town of Sant Llorenç de la Muga," he continues. "Sant Llorenç in Catalan means Saint Lawrence, and the Perseids are known in Spain as the 'tears of Saint Lawrence' in memory of the martyr who is commemorated on August 10 of each year."
more images: from Dan Bush of Albany, Missouri; from Jeremy Perez of Lake Mary, Arizona; ; from Radu Anghel of Motoseni, Romania; from Martin McKenna of Lough Fea, N. Ireland; from Craig Heden of Cottonwood, California ; from James Champagne of Logan, Utah;
Realtime Perseid Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
THE INFERIOR CONJUNCTION OF VENUS: How do you observe a planet using your telescope when that planet is only 7 degrees from the blinding sun? Yesterday, Philip Smith of Manorville, New York, solved the problem using cardboard:
"My friend said it looks like the front of the Hubble Space Telescope," says Smith. "Next I plan to paint it black."
Smith used the DIY sunblocker to photograph yesterday's inferior conjunction of Venus. The second planet was so close to the sun, it was impossible to point the unshadowed telescope at Venus without stray sunbeams getting into the optics.
"I briefly tried draping a sweatshirt in front of the telescope, but the fabric started to smolder and smoke," says Smith. "Cardboard worked much better."
Astronomers around the world watched the conjunction, which revealed Venus as an exquisitely slender crescent. Each observer solved the "sunbeam problem" in their own way. Browse the Venus photo gallery to see the results.
Realtime Venus Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
VOYAGER GOLDEN RECORD ORNAMENT: This is a must-have Christmas ornament for space fans: The Voyager Golden Record. Last Oct. 15th, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $129.95. The 4-inch aluminum disk is imprinted with instructions intended for extraterrestrials, telling them how to play the phonographs now sailing through interstellar space onboard NASA's Voyager probes. Having touched the edge of space, it's the closest thing on Earth to an actual Golden Record.
The students are selling these unique ornaments to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the ornament in flight and extra materials decoding the markings on the disk.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
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 Aug 14, 2023, the network reported 107 fireballs.
(61 Perseids, 45 sporadics, 1 Northern Delta Aquarid)
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 August 14, 2023 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
|
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
2023 PU | 2023-Aug-09 | 8.1 LD | 8 | 13 |
2023 PO | 2023-Aug-10 | 14.7 LD | 8 | 24 |
2022 BS2 | 2023-Aug-11 | 17.3 LD | 8.2 | 30 |
2023 PB1 | 2023-Aug-13 | 4.1 LD | 15.5 | 19 |
2023 OE5 | 2023-Aug-14 | 4 LD | 3.9 | 19 |
2023 PA1 | 2023-Aug-14 | 6.6 LD | 20.2 | 31 |
2023 PQ | 2023-Aug-14 | 2 LD | 14.8 | 37 |
2023 PS | 2023-Aug-14 | 6.6 LD | 7.9 | 18 |
2023 PC | 2023-Aug-14 | 13.3 LD | 5.3 | 43 |
2023 PX | 2023-Aug-15 | 13 LD | 7.6 | 27 |
2023 PH1 | 2023-Aug-16 | 5.2 LD | 6 | 10 |
2022 CP1 | 2023-Aug-17 | 13.8 LD | 9.8 | 12 |
2023 PZ | 2023-Aug-17 | 1.4 LD | 1.6 | 6 |
2023 PD1 | 2023-Aug-18 | 15.3 LD | 7.5 | 29 |
2011 QJ21 | 2023-Aug-19 | 13 LD | 15.1 | 45 |
2023 PM | 2023-Aug-22 | 9.5 LD | 7 | 63 |
6037 | 2023-Aug-23 | 15.9 LD | 14.3 | 571 |
2012 PZ17 | 2023-Aug-30 | 16.8 LD | 3.6 | 16 |
2017 BY32 | 2023-Sep-02 | 16.4 LD | 3.5 | 19 |
2021 JA5 | 2023-Sep-06 | 13.3 LD | 10.9 | 19 |
2020 GE | 2023-Sep-08 | 14.9 LD | 1.4 | 8 |
2020 RT2 | 2023-Sep-12 | 11 LD | 10 | 8 |
2016 LY48 | 2023-Sep-16 | 5 LD | 10.8 | 99 |
2010 TE | 2023-Sep-16 | 6.8 LD | 6 | 22 |
523598 | 2023-Sep-20 | 19.8 LD | 25 | 239 |
2019 SF6 | 2023-Sep-26 | 16.7 LD | 8.6 | 20 |
2013 TG6 | 2023-Sep-28 | 3.6 LD | 4.1 | 17 |
2009 UG | 2023-Sep-30 | 6.1 LD | 9 | 78 |
349507 | 2023-Oct-03 | 16.5 LD | 21 | 696 |
2022 FX1 | 2023-Oct-04 | 20 LD | 9.9 | 25 |
2022 TD | 2023-Oct-07 | 8.9 LD | 9.4 | 10 |
2018 ER1 | 2023-Oct-08 | 12.5 LD | 5.3 | 27 |
2022 UX1 | 2023-Oct-11 | 3.1 LD | 8.6 | 9 |
2015 KW120 | 2023-Oct-12 | 18.2 LD | 13 | 22 |
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 |
| Getting YouTube comments is essential if you want to beat the algorithm! That’s why you need to buy YouTube comments from RealSocialz.com because they offer real USA comments you can customize. |
| When looking for casinos to play online when the weather is bad, you can try casino online trucchi for Italian games. If you are not from Finland you can try the Swedish page Svenska casino online to find suitable games, check out svenskacasinoonline.net. Always check your local laws before playing with real money. |
| BestCSGOGambling is the best site for everything related to CSGO gambling on the web |
| These links help Spaceweather.com stay online. Thank you to our supporters! |
| | | | | |