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INCOMING CME: NOAA forecasters estimate a 25% chance of strong geomagnetic storms around the poles on April 8-9 when a CME delivers a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field. The cloud was propelled in our direction by a solar filament, which erupted on April 5th (movie). High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras. Aurora alerts: text, phone.
EGG MOON: Last night's full Moon, the first full Moon of northern spring, is sometimes called the "Egg Moon" because of its association with Easter. As it watched the moon rise over Cape Elizabeth, Maine, photographer John Stetson didn't think it looked much like an egg--that is, until he tilted his head 90 degrees:
"The earth's atmosphere provided beautiful color and distorted the shape of our moon as it appeared on the horizon," says Stetson. "The red rim on the lower part of the moon and the green rim on the upper part of the moon was particularly evident tonight. Many observers shared this view at the eyepiece. Happy Easter to all."
more images: from Anthony Ayiomamitis of Athens, Greece; from Will Wickham of Corning, NY; from Fritz Helmut Hemmerich of Tenerife, Canary Islands;
WEEKEND AURORAS: Last night, April 6-7, parts of the high Artic Circle were alight with auroras so bright even the full Moon couldn't overwhelm them. In the village of Ivujivik, Nunavik (Canada), many of the luminous formations reminded onlooker Gilles Boutin of flowers:
"Voici les Auroras flower of Nunavik," says Boutin. "J`ai capté les aurores au zénith soit des couronnes boréales alors voici de magnifiques fleurs boréales de Ivujivik, Nunavik."
More auroras are possible on April 8th and 9th when a CME is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field. NOAA forecastesr estimate a 25% chance of strong geomagnetic storms around the poles. Aurora alerts: text, phone.
more images: from Yuichi Takasaka of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada; from Shawn Malone of Marquette, Michigan; from Michael Noble of Cooking Lake, SE of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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 April 7, 2012 there were 1287 potentially hazardous asteroids.
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 |