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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: 409.2 km/sec
density: 19.8 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2243 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Nov12
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Nov12
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
Daily Sun: 11 Nov 07
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 10 Nov 2007
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= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 1
quiet
explanation | more data
Current Auroral Oval:

Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Updated:
What is the auroral oval?
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 6.3 nT
Bz: 2.6 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
Coronal Holes:
A solar wind stream flowing from this coronal hole could reach Earth as early as Nov. 13th or 14th. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2007 Nov 12 2202 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: 2007 Nov 12 2202 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
25 %
35 %
MINOR
15 %
15 %
SEVERE
05 %
10 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
35 %
45 %
MINOR
15 %
25 %
SEVERE
10 %
10 %

What's up in Space
November 12, 2007
Where's Saturn? Is that a UFO--or the ISS? What's the name of that star? Get the answers from mySKY--a fun new astronomy helper from Meade.

TAURID METEORS: The annual Nouthern Taurid meteor shower caused by Comet Encke is underway. Although Taurid rates are normally low, only about five meteors per hour, those five can be doozies. The shower is a well-known producer of terrestrial fireballs and lunar explosions. Taurids can appear at any hour of the night, so be alert for meteors this weekend: sky map.

COMET 17P/HOLMES: Twenty-seven seconds. That's all the time you need to capture a nice picture of Comet 17P/Holmes. Last Friday night, Tom Wagner of Waterloo, Iowa, pointed his Nikon Coolpix 4500 at Perseus, opened the shutter for 27 seconds (ISO 400) and--voila!--an exploding comet:

"I am amazed at how bright Comet Holmes is," he says. "I've driven around town showing my relatives and students this awesome sight."

Comet 17P/Holmes is definitely worth watching. On Oct. 24th the comet exploded, brightening a million-fold to naked eye visibility. It has since expanded almost as large as a full Moon while dimming only slightly. And on Nov. 8th, astronomers watched in amazement as the comet's tail broke off!

Got a telescope? Monitoring is encouraged: sky map, ephemeris.

3D BONUS: Grab your 3D glasses. Graphic artist Patrick Vantuyne has combined two photos of Comet Holmes, one taken by Jack Newton in Arizona and one by Ivan Eder in Hungary, to create an eye-popping stereo portrait: stereo image. "The stereo effect has nothing to do with the different locations of the photographers," he notes. "It is a result of the movement of the comet among between the two pictures."

Comet 17P/Holmes Photo Gallery
[Interactive World Map of Comet Photos]
[sky map] [ephemeris] [3D orbit] [Night Sky Cameras]

FUEL DUMP: During the weekend, sky watchers noticed a new nebula in the constellation Orion. "It looked similar to the Andromeda galaxy--then, it began growing larger and we realized it was moving fast," reports Anna Webb of Hawaii. "Is this a new comet? A satellite burning up in the atmosphere?" Answer: It was a rocket fuel dump. Pierre Martin of Ottawa, Canada, photographed the event using his Canon 30D:

"Saturday night (Nov. 10) at 8:50 pm EST, a Delta-4 Heavy Rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida," says Martin. "The payload was a Defense Support Program missile warning satellite (DSP-23). A circularization burn for the DPS-23 was scheduled for 3:01am EST, followed by a fuel dump at 3:21 am EST. Because both the Centaur rocket burn (duration: 3 minutes) and the residual fuel and oxidizer dump after payload separation occurred at an altitude of 22,000-miles, both were briefly visible to the naked eye. Through binoculars, one of the expanding clouds looked strikingly like an angel."

more images: from Jay Ballauer and Vance Bagwell of Crowell, Texas; from Thomas O'Brien in the Maroon Bells Wilderness near Aspen, Colorado.

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 November 12, 2007 there were 901 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Nov. 2007 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2005 GL
Nov. 8
8.0 LD
16
280 m
2007 VA3
Nov. 11
7.0 LD
19
30 m
2007 UL12
Nov. 12
18.4 LD
17
325 m
1989 UR
Nov. 24
27.6 LD
15
880 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 bureau for real-time monitoring of solar and geophysical events, research in solar-terrestrial physics, and forecasting solar and geophysical disturbances.
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.
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  From the NOAA Space Environment Center
Current Solar Images
  from the National Solar Data Analysis Center
  more links...
©2007, SpaceWeather.com -- This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips.
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