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. | | | M-FLARES: A fast-growing active region near AR1499 is crackling with impulsive M-class solar flares, including two on June 9th (1132 UT and 1650 UT). This development could signal an uptick in solar activity. Solar flare alerts: text, voice. In Falmouth, Maine, amateur astronomer John Stetson photographed the ongoing activity around sunspot AR1499: "These solar active regions are producing M-class and C-class flares that are easy to see through my H-alpha telescope," says Stetson. NOAA forecasters estimate a 25% chance of more M-class flare today, although this is probably an underestimate considering the rapid pace of development of magnetic fields near AR1499. Stay tuned. HUBBLE TRANSIT OF VENUS: One of the big ironies of the 2012 Transit of Venus was that NASA's greatest telescope didn't dare photograph the event. Hubble's instruments are so sensitive, one look at the glaring sun would have crippled its instruments. Nevertheless, Hubble managed to join the show. Astrophotographer Theirry Legault caught the observatory flitting in front of the sun alongside Venus: "I was in north-east Australia for the full transit of Venus and a transit of Hubble in the middle," says Legault. "My Nikon D4 digital camera was working at 10 fps on a Takahashi FSQ-106ED telescope to record 9 images of HST during its 0.9s transit." This is certainly an historic photo. Imagine what James Cook would think of a telescope in space crossing his field of view as he watched the transit of 1769 from a beach in Tahiti. Moreover, imagine what kind of telescopes will be crossing the sun when the next Transit of Venus occurs in 2117. Congratulations to Legault for capturing a truly rare 0.9s slice of history. More slices of history may be found in the Transit of Venus Photo Gallery: Realtime Transit of Venus Photo Gallery [Submit your photos] [NASA videos: 2012 Transit of Venus, ISS Transit of Venus] 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 June 9, 2012 there were 1293 potentially hazardous asteroids. Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Mag. | Size | 2002 AC | Jun 16 | 62.2 LD | -- | 1.2 km | 1999 BJ8 | Jun 16 | 68.8 LD | -- | 1.1 km | 2005 GO21 | Jun 21 | 17.1 LD | -- | 2.2 km | 2003 KU2 | Jul 15 | 40.2 LD | -- | 1.2 km | 2004 EW9 | Jul 16 | 46.8 LD | -- | 2.1 km | 2002 AM31 | Jul 22 | 13.7 LD | -- | 1.0 km | 37655 Illapa | Aug 12 | 37 LD | -- | 1.2 km | 2000 ET70 | Aug 21 | 58.5 LD | -- | 1.0 km | 1998 TU3 | Aug 25 | 49.2 LD | -- | 4.9 km | 2009 AV | Aug 26 | 62.8 LD | -- | 1.1 km | 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 | |