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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: 351.4 km/sec
density: 0.7 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2343 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2340 UT Jan17
24-hr: A0
0915 UT Jan17
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2340 UT
Daily Sun: 17 Jan 09
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI

more images: from Andy Yeung of Hong Kong, China; from Matthias Juergens of Gnevsdorf, Germany; from Michael Buxton of San Diego, California
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= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 1
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: 4.8 nT
Bz: 1.1 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2347 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 17 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 17 2201 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
01 %
10 %
MINOR
01 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
05 %
20 %
MINOR
01 %
10 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
What's up in Space
January 17, 2009

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

 

ASTEROID FLYBY: NASA's Goldstone Radar in the Mojave Desert is trained on asteroid 1998 CS1. The 1.3 km-wide space rock is flying past Earth today only 2.5 million miles away. Radar images should reveal much about the asteroid including its shape, spin, and precise location. This information will help astronomers better forecast future encounters with the asteroid, which is considered potentially hazardous. [ephemeris]

images: from Ivan Majchrovic and Roman Piffl of Marianka, Slovakia

ICE IN THE AIR: An arctic cold front has descended on the United States causing record low temperatures across a wide swath of the country. It's so cold, the air itself is filled with ice--perfect for morning sundogs:

Chris Hawes sends the photo from Faribault, Minnesota. "It was a very cold morning, -20 degrees F, with a fine mist of ice crystals floating in the air," he says. "The sundogs were magnificent, truly almost false suns. As I walked around the house, I noticed one of the sundogs projected in front of the house: photo."

Readers, if there's a minus sign on your thermometer tomorrow morning, look east for sundogs. It's a nice way to begin the day.

more images: from Lois Reinert of Tracy, Minnesota; from Mike Hollingshead of Blair, Nebraska; from Heather Renyck of Whitefield, New Hampshire; from Danny Ratcliffe of Deception Bay, Queensland, Australia; from Robert Wiles of Rochester, Minnesota; from Daniel DeCamp of Vicksburg, Michigan

FROSTY FLORA: Not all the ice is in the air. On the same day Chris Hawes photographed sundogs in the skies of Minnesota, things took a different turn in Tennessee: "A morning fog and 21o temperatures caused some of the atmosphere to freeze out onto our garden," reports Mark D. Marquette of Boones Creek. He calls this photo Frosty Flora:

"The Sun burned off the beautiful scene by 11 am--and I sure am grateful I can set my own work hours! I enjoyed capturing this rare sight in Dixie with my Nikon D100."

more images: from Mark D. Marquette of Boones Creek, Tennessee; from Pete Glastonbury of Devizes, Wiltshire, UK; from Kiran Chakravarti of Bishop's Stortford, United Kingdom;


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 17, 2009 there were 1017 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
NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
  The official U.S. government space weather bureau
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.
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
Science Central
  a one-stop hub for all things scientific
  more links...
   
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