AURORA ALERTS: Did you miss the Northern Lights? Next time get a wake-up call from Space Weather PHONE | | |
ACTIVE SUNSPOTS: Fast-growing sunspots 1124 and 1125 are "pulsing with interesting B-class flares that are fun to watch," reports amateur astronomer Michael Buxton of Ocean Beach, California. "I took this picture of a dual eruption on Saturday afternoon." Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to catch the show.
SPACE STATION FLARE: This weekend, the International Space Station is making a series of bright flybys over North America. It was really bright last night when it soared over the roof of Christopher Calubaquib's home in El Sobrante, California:
"The ISS flared for a few seconds just as I was taking the picture," says Calubaquib. "What a beautiful flyby."
The flare was caused by sunlight glinting off some reflective surface on the station's exterior. With dimensions comparable to a football field, the sprawling 815,520 lb outpost offers plenty of options for bouncing sunbeams. During a strong glint, the ISS can easily exceed Jupiter or Venus in brightness. To see a flare of your own, check our Simple Satellite Tracker for ISS flyby times, or turn your cell phone into a field-tested ISS tracker.
more images: from Richard Glenn of Gold Beach, Oregon
NORTHERN LIGHTS: The solar wind is buffeting Earth's magnetic field and stirring up auroras around the Arctic Circle. A beacon of light from the John Lennon memorial Imagine Peace Tower pointed to the display over Reykjavik, Iceland, on Nov 11th:
"The combination of the beacon and the Northern Lights resembled a beautiful flower in the sky--a nice tribute to Lennon," says photographer Marketa Stanczykova.
More scenes like this are in the offing. NOAA forecasters estimate a 25% - 35% chance of geomagnetic activity on Nov. 14th and 15th when a CME is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field. High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras.
ARCTIC PATHFINDER: Spaceweather.com has a new sponsor, Arctic Pathfinder, a tour guide service that can take you to see the Northern Lights with your own eyes. Modes of transportation include car, snowmobile, and dog sled. Please visit their website for details.
more images: from Rob Stammes of Lofoten, Norway; from John Gray of Butt of Lewis, Outer Hebrides; from John Dean of Nome, Alaska; from Tenho Tuomi of Lucky Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada; from Larry Jenkins of Labrador City, Labrador, Canada
October 2010 Aurora Gallery
[previous Octobers: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001]
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 13, 2010 there were 1164potentially hazardous asteroids.
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 |