Metallic photos of the sun by renowned photographer Greg Piepol bring together the best of art and science. Buy one or a whole set. They make a stellar gift. |
|
|
FULL
SNOW MOON: There's a full Moon
tonight. According to folklore it is the "Snow
Moon," named by Native Americans after the
heavy snows of February. In North America, snow
has been in
short supply, but the white tide is turning
in Europe as winter storms sweep across the continent.
Wherever you are, enjoy the cold
moonlight.
M-CLASS
SOLAR FLARE: Departing sunspot
AR1410 is growing in size and magnetic complexity
as it approaches the sun's northwestern limb. The
region is now crackling with solar flares, highlighted
by this M1-class
eruption on Feb. 6th at 20:01 UT:
NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance
of more M-flares during the next 24 hours. Any eruptions
from AR1410 are unlikely to be Earth-directed as
the active region continues to turn away from our
planet. Solar flare
alerts: text,
voice.
NORTHERN
SNOWSCAPE: A solar wind stream
of medium velocity (400-500 km/s) is buffeting Earth's
magnetic field and stirring up auroras around the
Arctic Circle. Nenne Åman witnessed this scene last
night from the Galtispouda mountain near Arjeplog,
Sweden:
"The winter landscape was so
beautiful, and tonight's auroras made it stunning
together with the moon light," says Åman. "Another
wonderful night in northern Sweden!"
High-latitude sky watchers should
be alert for more moonlit auroras on Feb. 7th as
the solar wind continues to blow.
Aurora alerts: text,
voice.
more images: from
Chad Blakley of Abisko National Park, Sweden;
from
Arild Heitmann of Tennevik River, Skånland,
Troms, Norway; from
Andy Keen of Inari, Northern Lapland, Finland;
from
Neal Cheeseman of Arvidsjaur, Sweden
January
2012 Aurora Gallery
[previous Januaries: 2010,
2009,
2008,
2007, 2005,
2004]
Comet
Lovejoy Gallery
[previous comets: McNaught,
Holmes,
Lulin,
Tuttle,
Ikeya-Zhang]
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
February 8, 2012 there were 1287
potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent
& Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT) |
Miss
Distance |
Mag. |
Size |
| 2009 AV |
Feb 16 |
44.9 LD |
-- |
1.2 km |
| 2000 ET70 |
Feb 19 |
17.7 LD |
-- |
1.0 km |
| 2011 CP4 |
Feb 23 |
9.1 LD |
-- |
255 m |
| 2008 EJ85 |
Mar 6 |
9.1 LD |
-- |
44 m |
| 1999 RD32 |
Mar 14 |
57.9 LD |
-- |
2.4 km |
| 2011 YU62 |
Mar 16 |
73.3 LD |
-- |
1.4 km |
| 1996 SK |
Apr 18 |
67.2 LD |
-- |
1.6 km |
| 2007 HV4 |
Apr 19 |
4.8 LD |
-- |
8 m |
Notes: LD means
"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.
| |
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. |
| |
from
the NOAA Space Environment Center |
| |
the
underlying science of space weather |
