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SOLAR SAIL STUNNER: When NASA's prototype solar sail, NanoSail-D, got stuck onboard its FASTSAT mothership in Dec. 2010, most observers figured the mission was lost. Not so fast. On Jan. 17th, NanoSail-D spontaneously ejected itself into Earth orbit, and the sail could be deployed as early as Jan. 20th. NASA is asking amateur radio operators to listen for NanoSail-D's beacon signal at 437.270 MHz to verify that NanoSail-D is operating. Follow the links for orbital elements, beacon details and submissions.
RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY: The rainstorm is over. A prominence that was raining plasma onto the sun's southwestern limb yesterday erupted during the early hours of Jan. 20th. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the action:
The prominence hurled part of itself into space, but the resulted plasma cloud was not directed toward Earth. This eruption was merely photogenic, not geoeffective. Now attention turns to the sun's northwestern limb where another eruption is in progress. Stay tuned,
WOLF MOON RISING: Last night, Jan. 19th, as photographer Laurent Laveder was positioning his camera in front of the Tronoen Chapel in Brittany, France, he received a text message from his stepdaughter Manon. "Look at the Moon! :o)" she typed. "She didn't know I already was!" says Laveder. Click on the bell tower to view the movie he recorded, entitled Wolf Moon Rising:
It's called the Wolf Moon because of folklore: northern Native Americans named it after packs of singing wolves they once heard during the winter month of January. "For years, I've been meaning to catch the Wolf Moon rising," says Laveder. "I'm glad I finally did!"
Browse the links for more Wolf Moonshots: from Anthony Ayiomamitis of Athens, Greece; from Keith Breazeal of Amador County, California.; from Azhy Hasan of Erbil City in the Kurdistan region of Iraq; from Mike Caplan of Wadsworth, IL; from Mark Seibold of Sandy, Oregon; from Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from Stefano De Rosa of Turin (Italy); from Àlex Roca of Hortoneda, Lleida, Spain
January 2011 Aurora Photo Gallery
[previous Januaries: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2005, 2004]
Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery
[NASA: Hinode Observes Annular Solar Eclipse]
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 20, 2011 there were 1184 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Mag. | Size |
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. | The official U.S. government space weather bureau |
| The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. |
| Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever. |
| 3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory |
| Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. |
| from the NOAA Space Environment Center |
| the underlying science of space weather |