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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

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Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment.

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 483.6 km/s
density:
3.0 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2244 UT


X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
A6 2040 UT Oct13
24-hr: A6 2040 UT Oct13
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 13 Oct '06

The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit:
SOHO/MDI

Sunspot Number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 12 Oct 2006

Far Side of the Sun

This holographic image reveals no sunspots on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 10.9 nT
Bz:
0.8 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT

Coronal Holes:

A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole could reach Earth on or about Oct. 20th. Credit: NOAA GOES-13.


SPACE WEATHER
NOAA
Forecasts

Solar Flares: Probabilities for a medium-sized (M-class) or a major (X-class) solar flare during the next 24/48 hours are tabulated below.
Updated at 2006 Oct 13 2203 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 2006 Oct 13 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 30 % 20 %
MINOR 15 % 10 %
SEVERE 05 % 01 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 35 % 25 %
MINOR 20 % 15 %
SEVERE 05 % 05 %

What's Up in Space -- 13 Oct 2006
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Autumn is here, and it's a wonderful time for stargazing. Find out what's up from Spaceweather PHONE.

COMET SWAN: Where is Comet Swan? Look northwest after sunset, and the handle of the Big Dipper will guide you right to it: sky map. Although the comet is too dim to see with the unaided eye, it is an easy target for backyard telescopes. The comet's pretty emerald color shows that it is rich in cyanogen (CN), a poisonous gas, and diatomic carbon (C2). Both glow green when exposed to sunlight: photo.

SOLAR ACTIVITY: A giant prominence has just sprung up over the sun's southwestern limb, "and it's evolving fast," says Les Cowley, who made this sketch while looking through the eyepiece of his Solar Max60:

Prominences are clouds of hydrogen held up by solar magnetic force fields. They come in all shapes and sizes. The hole at the base of this arch is big enough for Earth to fit through. Croquet, anyone?

more images: from Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from John Candy of Whitley Bay, UK.

MOON SHOTS: There's an alien world in your backyard, visible in spectacular detail through common binoculars and telescopes. It's the Moon. To illustrate the point, Mike Salway of Australia photographed a small region of Mare Nubium (Sea of Clouds) on Oct. 1st. His high-resolution mosaic is peppered with lunar curiosities such as the Davy Crater Chain:


The view through a 10" Dobsonian. Credit: Mike Salway.

The chain formed unknown millions of years ago when a fragmented comet or asteroid hit the Moon, one piece after another. What fragmented it? Tidal forces from the Earth-Moon system ripped the impactor into a "string of pearls" much like Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 that hit Jupiter in 1994.

Salway's mosaic also highlights the dramatic Straight Wall, a 70 mile-long fault best seen in the shadows and light of a quarter Moon. Good luck: Tonight's moon is a quarter Moon. Grab your telescope and take a look.



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 13 Oct 2006 there were 803 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

Aug-Sept 2006 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE
(UT)

MISS DISTANCE

MAG.

 SIZE
2006 QM111

Aug 31

0.4 LD

21

13 m
2006 QQ56

Sept. 2

7.9 LD

18

29 m
2006 QV89

Sept. 5

7.9 LD

18

40 m
Notes: LD is a "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 Web Links

NOAA Space Environment 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.

Recommended: Earth & Sky

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory -- Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. (European Mirror Site)

Daily Sunspot Summaries -- from the NOAA Space Environment Center.

Current Solar Images --a gallery of up-to-date solar pictures from the National Solar Data Analysis Center at the Goddard Space Flight Center. See also the GOES-12 Solar X-ray Imager.

Recent Solar Events -- a nice summary of current solar conditions from lmsal.com.

List of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

Observable Comets -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

What is the Interplanetary Magnetic Field? -- A lucid answer from the University of Michigan. See also the Anatomy of Earth's Magnetosphere.

Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from NASA's ACE spacecraft. How powerful are solar wind gusts? Read this story from Science@NASA.

More Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Proton Monitor.

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; 2005; Jan-Mar 2006;

Space Audio Streams: (University of Florida) 20 MHz radio emissions from Jupiter: #1, #2, #3, #4; (NASA/Marshall) INSPIRE: #1; (Stan Nelson of Roswell, New Mexico) meteor radar: #1, #2;

GLOSSARY | SPACE WEATHER TUTORIAL

This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips: email


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