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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: 417.9 km/sec
density: 6.8 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2330 UT Jan15
24-hr: A0
2330 UT Jan15
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2340 UT
Daily Sun: 15 Jan 09
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 14 Jan. 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: 3.2 nT
Bz: 2.8 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 Jan. 18th. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2009 Jan 15 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 Jan 15 2201 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
01 %
01 %
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
January 15, 2009

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

 

MARS IS ALIVE: A team of NASA and university scientists has discovered 'substantial plumes' of methane floating through the atmosphere of Mars. Their discovery indicates Mars is either biologically or geologically active. Get the full story from Science@NASA.

SPACECRAFT FLYBY: Last night, NASA's Stardust-NeXT spacecraft flew past Earth only 5700 miles above the planet's surface. It was a gravity assist maneuver designed to fling the probe toward Comet Tempel 1 for a rendezvous on Valentine's Day 2011. In Utah, NASA Solar System Ambassador Patrick Wiggins photographed the flyby using his Celestron 14-inch telescope:

Wiggins took 76 pictures which fellow astronomer Howard Jackman combined into the composite image shown above. "The data spans the time period 0514 to 0547 UT on Jan. 14th," says Jackman.

Stardust-NeXT is now hurtling toward Comet Tempel 1. NASA has been there before. In 2005, the Deep Impact spacecraft blasted a hole in the comet's nucleus, allowing astronomers to see inside a comet for the first time. Just one problem: they couldn't see a thing. The debris cloud kicked up by the impactor was surprisingly dense and hazy, and prevented photography of the underlying crater. No one knows what the impact revealed! Stardust-NeXT is going back for a second look now that the dust has settled: full story.

more images: from Timur Kryachko of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Science, Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Russia

FANTASTIC ICE HALOS: Night falls. You grab your halogen lamp and step outside into the moonlight. A bitter arctic wind tries to push you back; ice crystals sting your eyes. But what you see overhead carries you forward into the night:

"Jari Luomanen and Marko Riikonen braved the intense cold of the Finland night on January 9/10 to research halos and obtain this stunning shot showing halos from the Moon competing with those from a halogen lamp," explains atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. "Lamps plus crystals from snow-making machines are the latest way to study ice halos: details. Here the lamp is acting as the equivalent of a low sun to create a whole set of rare arcs such as the Hastings and helic previously seen only in Antactica."

Luomanen has video-recorded the manmade halos shimmering and flashing in the night. Click here for a 6 MB snippet or visit his web site to view full-length 50+ MB reels. It's the next best thing to being there.

EXTRA: Finnish photographer Mika Aho also witnessed the fantastic halo display of Jan. 9/10. He offers these movies and another account of the event.


UPDATED: Comet Lulin Photo Gallery
[sky map] [Comet Hunter Telescope]

       
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 January 15, 2009 there were 1015 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Jan. 2009 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2008 YC29
Jan. 2
3.4 LD
18
35 m
2008 YY32
Jan. 3
6.2 LD
18
40 m
2008 YG30
Jan. 4
3.6 LD
16
50 m
2008 YV32
Jan. 9
2.7 LD
19
25 m
2008 YF29
Jan. 11
9.7 LD
18
65 m
2002 AO11
Jan. 15
7.7 LD
17
120 m
1998 CS1
Jan. 17
11 LD
12
1.3 km
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
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  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
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  more links...
   
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