You are viewing the page for Oct. 16, 2005
  Select another date:
<<back forward>>
SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

SpaceWeather.com
Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment.

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 378.9 km/s
density:
4.2 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT


X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
A3 1855 UT Oct16
24-hr: B2 1300 UT Oct16
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 16 Oct '05

Sunspot 815 poses no threat for strong solar flares. Solar activity should remain low. Credit: SOHO/MDI


Sunspot Number: 11
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 15 Oct 2005

Far Side of the Sun

This holographic image reveals no big sunspots on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 8.7 nT
Bz:
1.5 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

Coronal Holes:

There are no large coronal holes on the Earth-facing side of the sun today. Image 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 2005 Oct 15 2204 UTC
FLARE 0-24 hr 24-48 hr
CLASS M 01 % 01 %
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 2005 Oct 15 2204 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 25 % 25 %
MINOR 10 % 05 %
SEVERE 01 % 01 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 30 % 25 %
MINOR 15 % 10 %
SEVERE 05 % 05 %

What's Up in Space -- 16 Oct 2005
Subscribe to Space Weather News

Would you like a call when the space station orbits over your backyard? Sign up for SpaceWeather PHONE.

ECLIPSE OF THE HUNTER'S MOON: According to folklore, October's full moon is called the "Hunter's Moon" or sometimes the "Blood Moon." It gets its name from hunters who tracked and killed their prey by autumn moonlight, stockpiling food for the winter ahead. The Hunter's Moon of 2005 is due on Oct. 17th. Creatures of the forest, beware!

Eclipse alert: If you live on the Pacific side of Earth (map), you can see a partial eclipse of the Hunter's Moon. (continued below)


Lunar eclipse animation, credit Larry Koehn.

The best time to look is Monday morning at 5:00 a.m. PDT (Oct. 17, 1200 UT) when the edge of the Moon dips into the darkest part of Earth's shadow. Only a little bit of the Moon will be shaded. A casual observer might not notice the eclipse; but if you know what to look for, you'll definitely see it. [More]

EXPANDING PLANET: The incredible expanding planet ... is Mars. Earth and Mars are converging for a close encounter at the end of October, and that means Mars is getting bigger and brighter with each passing night. To illustrate the change, Joel Warren of Amarillo, Texas, assembled 24 pictures he's taken of Mars between June 23rd and October 8th:

He used an 8-inch telescope and a digital camera to capture all these images. They show not only the changing size of Mars, but also its changing phase: from gibbous to full.

Would you like to see Mars? It rises in the east around 8:00 p.m., and by 9:00 p.m. it's above local trees and houses for most people. Mars is brighter than any star, so you can't miss it. Sky maps: Oct. 16, 17, 18.



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 are on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.

On 16 Oct 2005 there were 710 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

August 2005 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE (UT)

 MISS DISTANCE

 MAG.
1992 UY4

August 8

16 LD

 12
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

The Sun from Earth -- daily images of our star 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.

Aurora Forecast --from the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute

Daily Solar Flare and Sunspot Data -- from the NOAA Space Environment Center.

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

What is an Iridium flare? See also Photographing Satellites by Brian Webb.

What is an Astronomical Unit, or AU?

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; Jan-Mar., 2005;

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

You are visitor number 33517984 since January 2000.
©2019 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved.