You are viewing the page for Dec. 18, 2007
  Select another date:
<<back forward>>
SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
SPACE WEATHER
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 685.4 km/sec
density: 1.4 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C1
1915 UT Dec18
24-hr: C1
1315 UT Dec18
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
Daily Sun: 18 Dec 07
Sunspot 978 vanishing over the sun's western limb. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 14
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 17 Dec 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= 3 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 4
unsettled
explanation | more data
Current Auroral Oval:

Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Updated: 2007 Dec 18 2117 UT
What is the auroral oval?
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.3 nT
Bz: 1.9 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2033 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: 2007 Dec 18 2203 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
05 %
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 Dec 18 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
50 %
50 %
MINOR
20 %
20 %
SEVERE
05 %
05 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
50 %
50 %
MINOR
25 %
25 %
SEVERE
10 %
10 %

What's up in Space
December 18, 2007
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.

NOON TRIANGLE: Don't look (because it would really hurt your eyes), but Mercury and Jupiter have gathered around the Sun to form a compact triangle in the noon sky. A coronagraph onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is monitoring the formation, which will persist for the rest of the week. Join SOHO for a ringside seat.

CLOSE ENCOUNTER: Tonight, Dec. 18th, Mars makes its closest approach to Earth until the year 2016. At a distance of only 55 million miles, Mars outshines every star in the night sky (it is slightly brighter than Sirius) and draws attention to itself with its distinctive red color. Plus, it looks great through a backyard telescope; this morning in Nicholasville, Kentucky, amateur astronomer Rick Schrantz took this picture through his 10-inch reflector:

The azure markings in Schrantz's photo are martian ice clouds, filled with tiny crystals of water and carbon dioxide that scatter blue wavelengths of sunlight. The contrast, blue vs. red, is one of the most striking aspects of Mars in the eyepiece. Ready to look? Train your optics on the bright red "star" rising in the east after sunset: sky map.

more images: from John Nassr of Baguio, Philippines; from Geoff Chester of Washington, DC; from Sylvain Weiller of Saint Rémy lès Chevreuse, France; from Dan Petersen of Racine, Wisconsin; from Sean Walker of Chester, New Hampshire; from Sadegh Ghomizadeh of Tehran, Iran.

ANTICIPATION: Will it turn into a sunspot--or not? That's the question solar physicists around the world are asking themselves this week as a bright knot of reversed-polarity magnetism crosses the face of the sun. On the answer hinges the beginning of a new solar cycle.

This morning in Rockville, Maryland, Greg Piepol used his Coronado SolarMax90 to photograph the region of interest:

As explained in a recent story from Science@NASA, new sunspot cycles always begin with a high-latitude, reversed polarity sunspot. This little active region is both high-latitude and reversed polarity. All it has to do to trumpet the start of a new solar cycle is coelesce into a genuine sunspot.

"Hopefully this active region is the harbinger of good news for the new year!" says Piepol, who craves more solar activity than the low ebb we've been experiencing in 2007. Will a new-cycle spot emerge this week? Stay tuned.


2007 Geminid Meteor Gallery
[World Map of Geminid Sightings]
[IMO recap] [meteor alerts] [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 December 18, 2007 there were 912 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Dec-Jan Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2007 XZ9
Dec. 1
8.1 LD
18
45 m
2007 VD184
Dec. 9
7.8 LD
18
95 m
3200 Phaethon
Dec. 10
47 LD
14
5 km
2007 XH16
Dec. 24
8.1 LD
13
565 m
2007 TU24
Jan. 29
1.4 LD
19
405 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...
©2007, SpaceWeather.com -- This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips.
©2019 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved.