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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: 348.1 km/sec
density: 3.8 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2346 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B1
2315 UT Jul12
24-hr: B4
1335 UT Jul12
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2340 UT
Daily Sun: 12 Jul 10
Sunspot 1087 poses a threat for C-class solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 25
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 11 July 2010

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2010 total: 35 days (18%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 803 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days
explanation | more info
Updated 11 July 2010


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 83 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 11 July 2010

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 2 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 3.4 nT
Bz: 2.1 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2347 UT
Coronal Holes:
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should hit Earth's magnetic field on July 13th or 14th. Credit: SDO/AIA
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2010 Jul 12 2201 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
10 %
10 %
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: 2010 Jul 12 2201 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
30 %
40 %
MINOR
10 %
15 %
SEVERE
01 %
05 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
40 %
50 %
MINOR
20 %
25 %
SEVERE
05 %
10 %
What's up in Space
July 12, 2010

ANDROID FLYBYS: Our field-tested satellite tracker is now available for Android phones. Features: Global predictions and flyby alarms! Learn more.

 

ASTEROID FLYBY: On Saturday, July 10th, the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe executed a close flyby of big asteroid Lutetia. Close-up photography revealed an alien worldlet dented by a giant bowl-shaped depression with landslides and boulders rolling down the sides. Click here for must-see images.

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN: The South Pacific eclipse of July 11th is over. During the 5-hour event, sky watchers spent as much as 4 minutes completely enveloped in the Moon's shadow watching in awe as the solar corona revealed itself to the human eye. Eclipse-chaser Janne Pyykkö sends this picture from a hill overlooking Lago Argentino in Patagonia, Argentina:

"The eclipse was not easy to catch here because the total phase occured at sunset when the sun was only 1o above the horizon," he says. "To increase my chances, I hiked to a hill 400 meters above the lake--and there it was! The eclipse was easy to see just above the usually-cloudy Andes. I was very lucky indeed."

Physics professor Patricia Reiff of Rice University witnessed the eclipse from the deck of the Aranui 3 cruise ship just off the coast of Tahiti. She sent this picture directly from the ship using her iPhone.

Photographers, submit your images here.

Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery
[NASA: South Pacific Eclipse] [animated map] [details]

SINUOUS BEAUTY: Sunspot 1087 is developing into a behemoth many times wider than Earth. It now has dozens of dark cores with a long magnetic filament snaking among them:

"What amazing active region!" says Britta Suhre, who took the picture from her backyard observatory in Rosenheim, Germany: "It is real fun to photograph."

The filament is crackling with B- and C-class solar flares, as shown in these movies from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. The biggest and most spectacular eruption so far was a C3-flare on July 9th: movie.

Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor the action.

more images: from Francois Rouviere of Mougins, France; from Mark Seibold of Sandy, Oregon; from Michael Borman on Patoka Lake near Wickliffe, Indiana; from Michael Buxton of Ocean Beach, California; from Steve Riegel of Santa Maria, CA; from Gianluca Valentini of Rimini, Italy; from W. Verhesen of Sittard, The Netherlands; from Andreas Murner of Rosenheim, Bavaria, Germany; from Gianluca Valentini of Rimini, Italy; from Jan Timmermans of Valkenswaard, The Netherlands;

 
       
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 July 12, 2010 there were 1138 potentially hazardous asteroids.
July-Oct 2010 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2010 NG
Jul 13
5.7 LD
25
41 m
1999 JD6
Jul 27
53.9 LD
17
1.8 km
6239 Minos
Aug 10
38.3 LD
18
1.1 km
2005 NZ6
Aug 14
60.5 LD
18
1.3 km
2002 CY46
Sep 2
63.8 LD
16
2.4 km
2010 LY63
Sep 7
55.8 LD
18
1.3 km
2009 SH2
Sep 30
7.1 LD
25
45 m
1998 UO1
Oct 1
32.1 LD
17
2.1 km
2005 GE59
Oct 1
77 LD
18
1.1 km
2001 WN5
Oct 10
41.8 LD
18
1.0 km
1999 VO6
Oct 14
34.3 LD
17
1.8 km
1998 TU3
Oct 17
69.1 LD
15
5.3 km
1998 MQ
Oct 23
77.7 LD
17
2.1 km
2007 RU17
Oct 29
40.6 LD
18
1.0 km
2003 UV11
Oct 30
5 LD
19
595 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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