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WEEKEND AURORAS:
A weak solar wind stream is brushing
against Earth's magnetic field this weekend. In
response to the encounter, NOAA forecasters put
the odds of a polar geomagnetic storm on April 6-7
at 15%-20%. Aurora
alerts: text,
voice.
Although the solar wind disturbance
is mild, it is nevertheless igniting auroras around
the Arctic Circle. Rune Engebø sends this picture
from Nupen, Troms, Norway:
The auroras were bright enough to
see through the growing twilight of polar Spring.
"Comet Pan-STARRS was visible, too," says
Engebø. "Can you find
it?"
Realtime
Aurora Photo Gallery
CHANCE OF FLARES:
NOAA forecasters estimate a 30%
chance of M-class
solar flares today. The likely source would be new
sunspot AR1719, now rotating over the sun's eastern
limb. The sunspot announced itself on April 5th
with an M2-class eruption recorded by the Solar
Dynamics Observatory:
On the Richter
Scale of Solar Flares, an M2-category blast
is not considered especially intense. Nevertheless,
this was one of the biggest flares of the year so
far. The reason it stands out is that solar activity
in 2013 has been unexpectedly
low.
More M-flares are in the offing, but
they will not be Earth-directed until AR1719 turns
more squarely toward our planet. Geoeffective solar
activity could begin early next week.
Solar flare alerts:
text,
voice.
Realtime
Space Weather Photo Gallery
OMG:
On April 4th, in the western sky
at sunset, Comet Pan-STARRS made a photogenic flyby
of the Andromeda galaxy. Amateur astronomer Pavel
Smilyk of Syktyvkar, Russia, photographed the pair
at the hour of closest approach:
"This is a 27 x 2 minute guided
exposure I made using a Canon 1100Da digital camera,"
says Smilyk. "We had very clear skies."
In this deep exposure, the comet's
dusty tail appears to touch the galaxy's outermost
spiral arms. In fact, no physical contact occured;
the comet is still in the solar system while Andromeda
is 2.5 million light years away.
The comet and galaxy are parting now,
but slowly, so they will remain a close pair for
cameras and wide-field telescopes for several nights
to come. Browse the gallery for more close-up
images of the ongoing conjunction.
More about Pan-STARRS:
NASA
video, 3D
orbit, ephemeris,
light
curves.
Realtime
Comet Photo Gallery
Realtime
Space Weather Photo Gallery
Realtime
Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
[previous years: 2003,
2004,
2005,
2006,
2007,
2008,
2009,
2011]
