THE NEXT GEOMAGNETIC STORM: Earth is exiting a stream of solar wind that sparked bright auroras over the Arctic Circle on Valentine's Day. Another stream is expected to arrive on Feb. 19th, bringing with it a chance of G1-class geomagnetic storms. The gaseous material is flowing from a canyon-shaped hole in the sun's atmosphere. Aurora Alerts: SMS text, email.
CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH A COMET: On Feb. 13th, Comet Iwamoto (C/2018 Y1) made its closest approach to Earth in more than a thousand years. Enrico Colzani of the Sormano Astronomical Observatory monitored the flyby and, while watching, caught the dirty snowball passing through the outer arms of spiral galaxy NGC 2903:
"The comet and galaxy made a beautiful pair--albeit briefly," he says.
Galaxy NGC 2903 was discovered by William Herschel in Nov. 1784. At that time, the comet was unknown and would not be found for another 235 years--in Dec. 2018 by Japanese amateur astronomer Masayuki Iwamoto. The two celestial bodies met this week in the constellation Leo just as the comet was paying a rare visit to the inner solar system.
Comet Iwamoto is a traveler from beyond the Kuiper Belt. It comes from the realm of Extreme Trans-Neptunian Objects (ETNOs) more than 5 times as far from the sun as Pluto. The comet could be a relative of other strange ETNOs such as Sedna, 2012 VP113 ("Biden"), and 2015 TG387 ("Goblin"). Following a highly elliptical 1371-year orbit, Comet Iwamoto's last passage through the inner solar system was around 648 AD (unrecorded), and its next won't happen until 3390 AD. That means Feb. 13, 2019, was a rare night indeed.
Above: Click to view an interactive 3D orbit of Comet Iwamoto, courtesy of NASA/JPL
Although Comet Iwamoto is receding from Earth, it is still relatively bright. Experienced observers say it is shining like a star of 7th magnitude--an easy target for backyard telescopes. If you have a GOTO telescope, use this ephemeris to point your optics--and submit your images here.
SPACE WEATHER ALERTS: Spaceweather.com is proud to announce our new and improved space weather alert system. Sign up now and you'll never miss another solar storm in 2019. Subscribers receive instant text messages when there are solar flares, geomagnetic storms, and CMEs about to strike Earth. And if you sign up for the PRO PLAN, you'll receive a type of alert available no where else--"Magnetic Crack" alerts. Keep reading after the graphic to learn more:
PRO PLAN subscribers get a text message whenever a crack is opening in Earth's magnetosphere. Magnetic cracks are caused by south-pointing magnetic fields ("BsubZ") in the solar wind, which partially cancel Earth's magnetic defenses. Solar wind pours in through these cracks to fuel bright auroras and geomagnetic storms. Veteran aurora chasers know that watching "BsubZ" is the best way to anticipate geomagnetic activity. Now your cell phone can do this job for you, alerting you when cracks are forming in the invisible magnetic field overhead.
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