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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: 622.1 km/sec
density: 1.2 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Jan16
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Jan16
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
Daily Sun: 16 Jan 08
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 16 Jan 2008
Far side of the Sun:
This holographic image reveals no large sunspots on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 2 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3
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: 3.9 nT
Bz: 1.6 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
Coronal Holes:
Earth is inside a solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole. Credit: Hinode X-Ray Telescope.
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2008 Jan 16 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: 2008 Jan 16 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
10 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
15 %
MINOR
10 %
05 %
SEVERE
05 %
01 %

What's up in Space
January 16, 2008
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.

AURORA WATCH: Sky watchers in Russia, Scandinavia, Canadas and Alaska should be alert for auroras tonight. A fast solar wind stream is blowing against Earth and causing high-latitude geomagnetic storms: gallery.

CORONAL RAIN: "Each time I look at the Sun there is beauty," says Gary Palmer of Los Angeles, California. "Yesterday, I couldn't take my eyes off a prominence dancing along the southwestern limb." He calls this movie, made using his SolarMax90 sun-filtered telescope, Coronal Rain:


Click to view the IMAX version! (11.3 MB)

"What a day!" says Palmer. A full-screen "IMAX version" of the movie is guaranteed to impress: click to play.

more images: from Greg Piepol of Rockville, Maryland; from J. Fairfull and J. Stetson of South Portland, Maine.

MERCURY REVEALED: Before this week, maps of the planet Mercury were mostly blank. Mariner 10 flybys of the 1970s had photographed only 45% of the planet's surface. But now the unseen side has been revealed:

NASA's Messenger spacecraft took this picture from a range of 17,000 miles on Jan. 14, 2008. At first glance, it seems to show little more than a repetitive expanse of craters. But researchers are excited. One of the craters is the giant Caloris Basin never before seen in its entirety. Formed by the impact of a large asteroid or comet, Caloris is one of the largest and perhaps youngest basins in the Solar System. Close-up photos of the 800-mile-wide crater (still being downloaded from the spacecraft) may reveal new things about the history of Mercury and the physics of catastrophic impacts.

SEE FOR YOURSELF: This month, you can see Mercury with your own eyes; just look west any evening after sunset. "As the twilight deepened, Mercury stepped onto the stage and sparkled like a superstar!" reports Doug Zubenel of DeSoto, Kansas. He took these pictures on Jan. 15th.


Comet 17P/Holmes Photo Gallery
[World Map of Comet Sightings]
[sky map] [ephemeris] [3D orbit] [comet binoculars]

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. [comment]
On January 16, 2008 there were 918 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Jan. 2008 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2005 WJ56
Jan. 10
10.9 LD
11
1.2 km
2008 AF3
Jan. 13
1.0 LD
14
27 m
1685 Toro
Jan. 24
76 LD
13
6.2 km
2007 TU24
Jan. 29
1.4 LD
10
400 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...
©2008, SpaceWeather.com -- This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips.
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