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RING OF FIRE SOLAR ECLIPSE: Mark your calendars. One year from today, Oct. 14, 2023, the Moon will pass in front of the sun, producing a 'ring of fire' annular eclipse over the USA. Maps, time tables, and eclipse glasses are available from GreatAmericanEclipse.com.
LUCY'S SUPER-CLOSE FLYBY OF EARTH: Most spacecraft try to avoid hitting the atmosphere. Lucy is about to do it on purpose. On Oct. 16th, NASA's Lucy spacecraft will skim Earth's atmosphere, passing only 220 miles (350 kilometers) above our planet's surface. Near closest approach over Australia it will be visible to the naked eye glowing almost as brightly as a 1st magnitude star.
This is a gravity assist maneuver--the first of three required for Lucy's complicated mission to visit 8 different asteroids. The slingshot will give Lucy the energy it needs to fly towards the asteroid belt and, its ultimate destination, the orbit of Jupiter.
Named for a hominid fossil found in 1974 in Africa, Lucy is on a mission to study a completely different kind of relic: the Trojan asteroids. These are primitive leftovers from the formation of our solar system, collected into swarms around two of Jupiter's Lagrange points. Sensors onboard the spacecraft will examine their appearance and composition, putting competing theories of planetary genesis to the test.
To reach the Trojans, Lucy must first return to Earth. Launched on Oct. 16, 2021, the spacecraft is coming home after exactly one year in space. Lucy's trajectory will bring it deep into near Earth orbit, passing through a region full of Earth-orbiting satellites and debris. NASA will be ready to make last-minute adjustments to avoid collisions. The altitude is so low, the mission team had to include the effect of atmospheric drag when designing the flyby. Passing so close allows Lucy to extract maximum energy from Earth's gravitational field.
On the left, the location in the sky where Lucy will first appear when it emerges from the Earth's shadow for the Western United States. Red stars correspond to cities on the right.
Observers in western Australia will be the first to see Lucy. At around 10:55 UTC (6:55 p.m. local time) on Oct. 16th, the spacecraft will race overhead shining like a 1st or 2nd magnitude star. At the apex of its brightness, it will suddenly disappear into Earth's shadow, vanishing at 11:02 UTC (7:02 p.m. local time).
Lucy will continue over the Pacific Ocean in darkness and emerge from the Earth's shadow at 4:26 a.m. PDT (11:26 UTC). By that time it will have dimmed to 6th or 7th magnitude. Amateur astronomers in the western United States should be able to see Lucy using binoculars or a small telescope.
After the gravity assist, Lucy will recede from Earth, passing by the Moon and taking a few pictures before continuing out into interplanetary space. It might remain bright enough to see using backyard telescopes for more than 24 hours.
Want to see Lucy? You can spot the spacecraft using observing tips from the Southwest Research Institute. Ephemerides from JPL are recommended, too.
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IMPERIAL STORM TROOPER WHISKEY DECANTER: It's the perfect gift for a Star Wars fan--a Storm Trooper Whiskey Decanter from the edge of space. On Oct. 10th, it hitched a ride onboard a cosmic ray research balloon floating 106,066 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California:
You can have it for $166.95. The 750 ml decanter comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight, and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again. All purchases from the Earth to Sky Store help pay the helium bill for our student ballooning program.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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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 Oct 14, 2022, the network reported 23 fireballs.
(19 sporadics, 1 Orionid, 1 Oct. delta Aurigid, 1 epsilon Geminid, 1 chi Taurid)
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 October 14, 2022 there were 2299 potentially hazardous asteroids.
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Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
2022 SB29 | 2022-Oct-09 | 4.5 LD | 7.6 | 15 |
2022 SV11 | 2022-Oct-09 | 17.1 LD | 14.4 | 35 |
2022 SE10 | 2022-Oct-10 | 5.5 LD | 10.9 | 29 |
2022 TS | 2022-Oct-10 | 2.3 LD | 16.6 | 13 |
2022 RA5 | 2022-Oct-12 | 13.1 LD | 5.1 | 38 |
2022 TE1 | 2022-Oct-13 | 2.1 LD | 11.1 | 13 |
2022 SG6 | 2022-Oct-13 | 15.7 LD | 10.9 | 91 |
2013 SL20 | 2022-Oct-14 | 6.3 LD | 12.2 | 45 |
2022 TK1 | 2022-Oct-14 | 10 LD | 13 | 17 |
2022 SY10 | 2022-Oct-15 | 6.4 LD | 3.2 | 15 |
2022 SK48 | 2022-Oct-15 | 17.7 LD | 10.2 | 57 |
2020 TO2 | 2022-Oct-15 | 1.4 LD | 12.6 | 18 |
2020 BD | 2022-Oct-16 | 12.1 LD | 11.4 | 20 |
2022 SK15 | 2022-Oct-16 | 9.5 LD | 15.8 | 59 |
2022 QM6 | 2022-Oct-16 | 19.6 LD | 4.2 | 69 |
2022 SF63 | 2022-Oct-19 | 5.5 LD | 3.9 | 10 |
2022 RB5 | 2022-Oct-22 | 13.1 LD | 5.3 | 115 |
2005 AZ28 | 2022-Oct-24 | 11.5 LD | 5.4 | 48 |
2016 TH94 | 2022-Oct-25 | 19.1 LD | 13.5 | 43 |
2022 TY | 2022-Oct-25 | 15.1 LD | 5.1 | 20 |
2019 AN5 | 2022-Oct-27 | 20 LD | 6.8 | 215 |
2004 UT1 | 2022-Oct-29 | 4 LD | 6.3 | 17 |
2021 VH | 2022-Nov-01 | 5.9 LD | 5.3 | 4 |
2022 RM4 | 2022-Nov-01 | 6 LD | 23.5 | 443 |
2020 WD | 2022-Nov-08 | 3 LD | 6 | 8 |
2019 XS | 2022-Nov-10 | 16.7 LD | 11.9 | 60 |
2019 VL5 | 2022-Nov-15 | 8.5 LD | 8.1 | 24 |
2018 WH | 2022-Nov-16 | 2.5 LD | 7.7 | 4 |
2019 OR1 | 2022-Nov-21 | 18.1 LD | 13.4 | 246 |
2005 LW3 | 2022-Nov-23 | 3 LD | 13.5 | 168 |
2010 VQ | 2022-Dec-02 | 11.9 LD | 3.9 | 10 |
2009 HV58 | 2022-Dec-02 | 12.3 LD | 28.8 | 427 |
2017 QL33 | 2022-Dec-03 | 16 LD | 6.9 | 195 |
2019 XY | 2022-Dec-10 | 3.6 LD | 12.9 | 9 |
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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