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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
SPACE WEATHER
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 337.9 km/sec
density: 5.9 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2230 UT Feb11
24-hr: A4
0000 UT Feb11
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2340 UT
Daily Sun: 09 Feb 09
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI

more images: from Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK

NOTE: The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is passing through a telemetry keyhole. This is causing a temporary delay in transmission of Daily Sun images. Updates will resume shortly.
Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 10 Feb. 2009
Far side of the Sun:
This holographic image reveals no sunspots on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 2 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2
quiet
explanation | more data
Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
What is the auroral oval?
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 2.8 nT
Bz: 1.0 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2346 UT
Coronal Holes:
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on Feb. 13th or 14th. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2009 Feb 11 2201 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
01 %
01 %
CLASS X
01 %
01 %
Geomagnetic Storms:
Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm
Updated at: 2009 Feb 11 2201 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
05 %
05 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
05 %
05 %
MINOR
01 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
What's up in Space
February 11, 2009

AURORA ALERT: Did you sleep through the Northern Lights? Next time get a wake-up call: Spaceweather PHONE.

 

COMET PAUSE: Comet Lulin is approaching Earth and brightening, but it can't compete with the Moon. For the next few mornings, bright moonlight will spoil the view as Moon and comet cross paths in the constellation Virgo. Additions to the gallery may slow, but only temporarily; the Moon will be out of the way in plenty of time for Comet Lulin's closest approach to Earth on Feb. 24th: sky map.

SOLAR FLARE: Yesterday, Feb. 10th at 2310 UT, Earth-orbiting satellites detected a B1-class solar flare. Normally, such a small eruption would pass unremarked, but during this deep solar minimum, it's a relatively big event. NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft photographed the probable blast-site shortly before and after the eruption:


Image credit: STEREO-B Extreme Ultraviolet Telescope [larger image]

The source of the explosion appears to be a collapsing (or erupting) magnetic filament. The filament was present before the flare, absent afterward. Higher-cadence imagery from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) may confirm or refute this idea; however, those images have not yet been beamed back to Earth. Stay tuned for updates.

VIRTUAL REALITY MOON HALO: "Two nights ago, my sister-in-law Katy phoned me at 1 o'clock in the morning to say that there was 'a big crazy circle around the Moon,'" reports Laurent Laveder of Quimper, France. "I went outside to look and she was right: the sky was hazy, the Moon was very high and circled by a bright 22° ice halo."

Click on the image to experience the halo as if you were there yourself:


Virtual Reality Moon Halo

Laveder explains how he created the VR halo: "I took many pictures with my Canon 30D and a fisheye lens. Then I stitched the images together into a 360° panoramic view, which we are able to spin around using Quicktime VR."

If it's cold where you live, be alert for more halos tonight. The Moon is bright and northern skies are icy--perfect conditions for the real thing.

more images: from Zoltan Goda of Baja, Hungary; from Dick McGowan of Lake Perry, Kansas; from Rafael Schmall of Kaposfo, Hungary; from Tyler Burg of Omaha, Nebraska; from Phillip Chee of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada; from Daniele Cipollina of Arquata Scrivia (AL) Italy; from John McConnell of Maghaberry, Northern Ireland;


February 2009 Aurora Gallery
[Previous Februaries: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2004, 2003, 2002]


Explore the Sunspot Cycle

       
Near-Earth Asteroids
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 11, 2009 there were 1025 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Feb. 2009 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2009 BK58
Feb. 2
1.7 LD
17
30 m
2009 BG81
Feb. 2
4.4 LD
19
12 m
2009 CC2
Feb. 2
0.5 LD
17
12 m
2009 BW2
Feb. 5
8.4 LD
20
40 m
2009 CP
Feb. 8
7.7 LD
19
20 m
2009 BE58
Feb. 10
8.6 LD
16
225 m
2006 AS2
Feb. 10
9.2 LD
15
370 m
2009 BL58
Feb. 11
4.8 LD
17
55 m
1999 AQ10
Feb. 18
4.4 LD
13
390 m
2009 CV
Feb. 23
4.8 LD
18
62 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.
Essential Links
NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
  The official U.S. government space weather bureau
Atmospheric Optics
  The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena.
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
  Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.
STEREO
  3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  from the NOAA Space Environment Center
Current Solar Images
  from the National Solar Data Analysis Center
Science Central
   
  more links...
   
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