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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

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Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment.

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 297.5 km/s
density: 2.5 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0 2040 UT Jan31
24-hr: A1 0735 UT Jan31
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 31 Jan '06

There are no sunspots on the Earth-facing side of the sun today. Solar activity should remain low. Credit: SOHO/MDI

Sunspot Number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 30 Jan 2006

Far Side of the Sun

This holographic image reveals no large sunspots on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 2.4 nT
Bz: 0.3 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

Coronal Holes:

A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole will probably miss Earth on Feb. 2nd or 3rd when it passes to the north of our planet. Image credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope.

SPACE WEATHER
NOAA
Forecasts
Solar Flares: Probabilities for a medium-sized (M-class) or a major (X-class) solar flare during the next 24/48 hours are tabulated below.
Updated at 2006 Jan 31 2203 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 2006 Jan 31 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 10 % 10 %
MINOR 05 % 05 %
SEVERE 01 % 01 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 15 % 15 %
MINOR 05 % 05 %
SEVERE 01 % 01 %

What's Up in Space -- 31 Jan 2006
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ASTRONOMY CLUBS: Do you publish an astronomy club newsletter? Or would you like to? If the answer is "yes," you can receive free articles about current events in astronomy written by Dr. Tony Phillips. Sample: Snowstorm on Pluto. Contact Nancy Leon of JPL's Space Place for details.

THE DA VINCI GLOW: Tonight, when the sun is setting, step outside and look west. You can see a display of light and shadow that puzzled skywatchers for thousands of years--until Leonardo Da Vinci figured it out. It's the Da Vinci Glow, also known as Earthshine:


The crescent moon photographed on Jan. 31st by Denis Joye near Paris, France.

Cradled in the arms of tonight's crescent moon is a glowing image of the full moon. Da Vinci's explanation: The glow comes from Earth. Sunlight reflected from our own planet lights up the lunar night, allowing us to see the full moon, faintly, two weeks before the moon is actually full. A crescent moon with Earthshine is one of the prettiest sights in the heavens--don't miss it!

MUST-SEE VIDEO: On Jan. 15th when the Stardust capsule ripped through Earth's atmosphere en route to a parachute landing in Utah, no one had a better view than scientists onboard NASA's DC-8 Airborne Laboratory, and they recorded a spectacular video. Click on the image to see it:


Stardust Reentry Video (6 MB)
Credit: Mike Taylor, Utah State University

The glowing head of this man-made meteor reached temperatures exceeding 4000 degrees F. Inside the capsule, delicate samples of dust collected from distant Comet Wild 2 were safe, protected from blistering heat by the capsule's external heat shield. The cargo is now being studied by scientists at the Johnson Space Center who believe it may reveal secrets of comets and the origin of the solar system.

BONUS: In addition to the man-made meteor, there are two natural meteors in the Stardust video. Can you find them? Hint: one is near the 4-second mark; the other near 59-seconds.



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 31 Jan 2006 there were 762 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

January 2006 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE
(UT)

MISS DISTANCE

MAG.

 SIZE
(meters)
2005 XO4

Jan. 1

18.5 LD

20+

~150 m
2005 YM128

Jan. 1

19.8 LD

19

~75 m
2005 YO128

Jan. 3

6.5 LD

16

~60 m
2006 AB3

Jan. 4

13.5 LD

21

~15 m
2005 YU8

Jan. 13

19.8 LD

19

~70 m
2006 AN

Jan. 13

18.5 LD

20

~50 m
Notes: LD is a "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 Environment 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. See also Snow Crystals.

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory -- Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. (European Mirror Site)

Daily Sunspot Summaries -- from the NOAA Space Environment Center.

Current Solar Images --a gallery of up-to-date solar pictures from the National Solar Data Analysis Center at the Goddard Space Flight Center. See also the GOES-12 Solar X-ray Imager.

Recent Solar Events -- a nice summary of current solar conditions from lmsal.com.

SOHO Farside Images of the Sun from SWAN and MDI.

The Latest SOHO Coronagraph Images -- from the Naval Research Lab

The Sun from Earth -- daily images of our star from the Big Bear Solar Observatory

List of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

Observable Comets -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

What is the Interplanetary Magnetic Field? -- A lucid answer from the University of Michigan. See also the Anatomy of Earth's Magnetosphere.

Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from NASA's ACE spacecraft. How powerful are solar wind gusts? Read this story from Science@NASA.

More Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Proton Monitor.

Aurora Forecast --from the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; Jan-Mar 2005; Apr-Jun 2005; Jul-Sep 2005; Oct-Dec 2005;

Space Audio Streams: (University of Florida) 20 MHz radio emissions from Jupiter: #1, #2, #3, #4; (NASA/Marshall) INSPIRE: #1; (Stan Nelson of Roswell, New Mexico) meteor radar: #1, #2;

Recent International Astronomical Union Circulars

GLOSSARY | SPACE WEATHER TUTORIAL

This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips: email

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