Listen to radar echoes from satellites and meteors, live on listener-supported Space Weather Radio. | | | LYRID METEOR SHOWER: The annual Lyrid meteor shower, caused by debris from ancient Comet Thatcher, is subsiding. During the shower's peak on April 22nd, dark-sky observers saw as many as 15 meteors per hour. Check the meteor gallery for sightings. CHANCE OF STORMS: NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on April 23-24 when the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) is expected tip south, opening a crack in Earth's magnetosphere. Solar wind pouring in could ignite auroras, like this: Ronan McLaughlin of Malin head, Ireland, took the picture on April 20th during the Easter Sunday geomagnetic storm. "My son OisÃn and I were admiring the Milky Way when, suddenly, the auroras made an appearance " The Easter storm was sparked by a CME strike. The storms of April 23-24, if any, will be less potent because no CME is involved. The best time to look for faint auroras is during the hours around local midnight. Aurora alerts: text, voice Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery PEEP-O-NAUTS TAKE RISKY TRIP TO THE EDGE OF SPACE: On April 20th, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a pair of suborbital helium balloons to the stratosphere. One payload carried a radiation sensor to measure the effects of the Easter geomagnetic storm on Earth's upper atmosphere. The other payload carried a colony of halobacteria in an experiment to find out if the extremophiles could live at the edge of space. In honor of the holiday, the students launched some peeps as halobacteria companions. As this movie shows, it's risky being a peep-o-naut: The near-miss only 2000 ft. above the launch site almost brought an explosive end to the mission. Fortunately, the two balloons carried on to the stratosphere, gathering data on the solar storm in progress during the flight. Here is what peeps look like at the edge of space. Later, the peeps and halobacteria parachuted to Earth, landing in a tree in the Inyo Mountains of central California. Student adventurers recovered the payload and they are studying the data now. Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Realtime Mars Photo Gallery Realtime Comet Photo Gallery Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com. On Apr. 23, 2014, the network reported 20 fireballs. (11 April Lyrids, 9 sporadics)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies] On Apr. 22, 2014, the network reported 25 fireballs. (19 sporadics, 6 April Lyrids)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies] 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 April 23, 2014 there were 1465 potentially hazardous asteroids. 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 | |