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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: 513.1 km/sec
density: 2.5 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Jun15
24-hr: B2
0445 UT Jun15
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
Daily Sun: 15 June 07
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 14 June 2007
Far side of the Sun:
This holographic image reveals no sunspots on the farside of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3
quiet
explanation | more data
Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Updated: 2007 Jun 15 2129 UT
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 3.4 nT
Bz: 0.9 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated:Today at 2246 UT
Coronal Holes:
Earth is inside a solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole. Credit: SOHO Extreme Ultraviolet Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2007 Jun 15 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: 2007 Jun 15 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
20 %
MINOR
10 %
10 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
What's up in Space
June 15, 2007
The space shuttle is docked to the ISS. Would you like a call when the pair fly over your backyard? Sign up for SpaceWeather PHONE.

VOYAGE TO THE GIANT ASTEROIDS: This summer, NASA plans to launch a robotic probe to visit two stange and giant asteroids--one is covered with ice while the other may have been blasted by an ancient supernova. The tales these asteroids tell may reveal the true beginnings of our solar system: full story.

VESTA: Speaking of giant asteroids... Christopher Go of the Philippines has managed to photograph asteroid Vesta tumbling through space using his 11-inch Celestron telescope:

"It's been frustrating, trying to image such a small object," says Go. "As seen from Earth, Vesta is only 0.6 arcseconds wide. Perfect seeing was required."

When NASA's Dawn spacecraft reaches Vesta in 2011, it will send back the first detailed images of this fascinating asteroid's surface. Photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope hint that Vesta may be covered with ancient lava flows and magma seas much like our own Moon. These features are thought to be due, in part, to a nearby supernova billions of years ago: more.

Want to see Vesta yourself? It is a speck, barely visible to the naked eye in the constellation Scorpius. Look south at midnight: sky map.

SUN HALOS: This afternoon in the skies above Lake Pleasant, New York, a vivid luminous ring formed around the sun. "It was a beautiful sight; several of my neighbors rushed out to get photos," says Brian Bledsoe who joined in snapping this picture:


Photo details: Canon 20D, 1/640s, f/18

This is actually two sun halos--a circular 22o halo on the inside and an oval circumscribed halo on the outside. Both are caused by pencil-shaped ice crystals in the high, thin clouds hovering today over Lake Pleasant. Because high clouds are always freezing, ice halos like these may appear in any season or latitude. Look for them!


2007 Noctilucent Photo Gallery
[Listen!] [Night-sky Cameras]

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 June 15, 2007 there were 869 potentially hazardous asteroids.
June-July 2007 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2005 AD13
June 18
33 LD
16
1.2 km
2007 FV42
July 2
53 LD
15
1.2 km
2007 DT103
July 29
9.3 LD
15
550 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 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.
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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