THE AVALANCHE UPDATE: Once-in-a-generation snowstorms and an avalanche in California have stranded Dr. Tony Phillips in the mountains of the Eastern Sierra with only 10 sled dogs and a satellite dish to update Spaceweather.com. Everything is okay! Work on our web site proceeds mostly as usual, albeit a little more slowly, and the crisis is expected to end later this week with everyone safe and sound. The well wishes of many readers have been very much appreciated. Thank you!
'EXTREMELY RARE' FARSIDE CME: Something big just happened on the farside of the sun. During the early hours of March 13th, SOHO coronagraphs recorded a farside halo CME apparently leaving the sun faster than 3000 km/s:
Note: The bright object at 4 o'clock is Mercury
Because of its extreme speed, this CME may be classified as "extremely rare," a fast-mover that occurs only once every decade or so. A NASA model of the event shows the CME heading almost directly away from Earth. Good thing!
Although the CME is not Earth-directed, it has nevertheless touched our planet. See all the snowy dots and streaks in the coronagraph movie above? Those are energetic particles accelerated by shock waves in the CME. They create short-lived luminous speckles when they hit SOHO's digital camera.
NOAA's GOES-16 satellite has detected the particles reaching Earth--all from the CME's backside. Imagine what a frontside blast would have been like! Earth's magnetic field is funneling the particles toward the poles where a type of radio blackout is underway--a polar cap absorption (PCA) event:
Note the red areas. Airplanes flying over these regions may find that their shortwave radios won't work due to the ionizing effect of infalling protons. This PCA could persist for a day or more. You can monitor its progress here. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
THIS IS PROBABLY NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT: On Valentine's Day 2046, almost every telescope in the world will be doing the same thing: Watching asteroid 2023 DW streak past Earth. The newly-discovered space rock will come perilously close to our planet with an approximately 1/560 chance of actually hitting, according to NASA. Red dots in this map show possible impact sites on Feb. 14, 2046:
Above: The impact zone of asteroid 2023 DW and (inset) an image of the space rock from the Sormano Observatory in Italy
Now for the good news: This is probably nothing to worry about. The odds of a collision are only 0.18%, which means there is a 99.82% of a miss. These odds will probably tilt further in our favor as the asteroid's orbit is refined by additional observations.
"I have worked out almost 65,000 different possible orbits of 2023 DW and
only 150 of these indicate an impact," says astronomer Enrico Colzani of the Sormano Observatory in Italy, who made the impact map. "New observations in the coming days will probably eliminate even this small possibility."
Discovered by Georges Attard and Alain Maury in San Pedro de Atacama on Feb. 26th, asteroid 2023 DW is approximately 50 meters in diameter, roughly the size of the object that caused the Tunguska Event in 1908. So if it *did* hit, people in the impact zone would certainly notice. Stay tuned for updates.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
18K GOLD CUPID'S COMPASS: Are you looking for a romantic gift? Consider Cupid's Compass. This premuim 18K gold-filled pendant flew to the stratosphere on Jan. 6th onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $259.95. Engraved with the words "I'd be lost without you", the hypoallergenic pendant has a 5-star cubic zirconia crystal in the middle surrounded by a ring of equally high-grade 5A cubic zirconia nuggets. It is a visually striking pendant that makes a once-in-a-lifetime Valentine's, anniversary or birthday gift.
The students are selling space pendants to pay the helium bill for their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its trip to the stratosphere and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter