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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 607.8 km/sec
density: 0.7 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C2
2210 UT Oct25
24-hr: C2
2210 UT Oct25
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2340 UT
Daily Sun: 25 Oct 10
Sunspot group 1117 continues to increase in spot count and magnetic complexity. No big flares yet, however. Credit: SOHO/MDI. 2-day movie: 8 MB mpg
Sunspot number: 57
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 24 Oct 2010

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2010 total: 45 days (15%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 813 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days

Updated 24 Oct 2010


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 82 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 24 Oct 2010

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 3 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 3
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 3.5 nT
Bz: 2.0 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
Coronal Holes: 25 Oct 10
Earth is entering a solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole. Credit: SDO/AIA.
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2010 Oct 25 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
05 %
05 %
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: 2010 Oct 25 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
15 %
MINOR
05 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
30 %
20 %
MINOR
10 %
01 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
 
Monday, Oct. 25, 2010
What's up in space
 

ON SALE NOW: The David H. Levy Comet Hunter -- offering the clearest views of Comet Hartley 2.

 

FAST-GROWING SUNSPOT: Sunspot group 1117 more than tripled in size over the weekend: SDO movie. The active region has not yet produced a major eruption, but it is crackling with picturesque B-class solar flares. Stay tuned for updates.

ARCTIC AURORA OUTBURST: Last night, Oct. 24th, an outburst of color bright enough to rival the Moon spread across the skies of Scandinavia. Thilo Bubek sends this picture from the outskirts of Tromsø, Norway:

"The auroras were beautiful," says Bubek. Bright moonlight often overwhelms auroras, but in this case the nearly-full Moon was an asset. "It illuminated the landscape, setting the stage for a nice photo-op."

The source of the display was a high-speed solar wind stream, which hit Earth's magnetic field over the weekend, sparking two days of intermittent polar geomagnetic activity. It could turn into three days: High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for more auroras tonight as the solar wind continues to blow.

UPDATED: October 2010 Aurora Gallery
[previous Octobers: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001]

SPACE STATION FLYBYS: For the next week, the International Space Station (ISS) will be performing a series of bright evening flybys over North America and Europe. The station is very easy to see if you know when to look. Check the Simple Satellite Tracker for local flyby times or you can turn your cell phone into a field-tested ISS-tracker.

On Oct 21st, amateur astronomer Béla Vingler of Győrújfalu, Hungary, caught the space station flying directly in front of the Moon:


Photo details: 12-inch reflecting telescope, Canon 400D, ISO 800, 1/3200 exp.

The station's winged outline was backlit by the bright debris fields of Crater Tycho as the spacecraft raced across the lunar disk, completing the transit in only a split-second. Because lunar transits happen so fast, careful planning is required to photograph them. The place to start is Calsky.com, which provides precise predictions of ISS transits for locations around the world.

  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 October 25, 2010 there were 1155 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2010 TQ19
Oct 8
9.6 LD
18
37 m
2010 TS19
Oct 10
3.7 LD
18
31 m
2010 TD54
Oct 12
0.1 LD
14
7 m
2010 TB54
Oct 13
6.1 LD
20
19 m
1999 VO6
Oct 14
34.3 LD
16
1.8 km
2010 TK
Oct 16
4.5 LD
18
37 m
1998 TU3
Oct 17
69.1 LD
13
5.2 km
2010 TG19
Oct 22
1.1 LD
15
70 m
1998 MQ
Oct 23
77.7 LD
15
1.9 km
2007 RU17
Oct 29
39.2 LD
15
1.1 km
2003 UV11
Oct 30
5 LD
12
595 m
3838 Epona
Nov 7
76.8 LD
14
3.4 km
2005 QY151
Nov 16
77.7 LD
17
1.3 km
2008 KT
Nov 23
5.6 LD
21
10 m
2002 EZ16
Nov 30
73.9 LD
16
1.0 km
2000 JH5
Dec 7
47 LD
-
1.5 km
2010 JL33
Dec 9
16.6 LD
13
1.3 km
2008 EA32
Jan 7
76.5 LD
-
2.1 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 web 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 Dynamics Observatory
  Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever.
STEREO
  3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
  Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  from the NOAA Space Environment Center
Heliophysics
  the underlying science of space weather
Science Central
   
  more links...
 
 
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