Don't just watch shooting stars. Wear them! Authentic meteorite jewelry for Valentine's Day is now available in the SpaceWeather Store. | | |
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 7, 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 |
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| 3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory |
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