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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: 303.6 km/s
density:
1.0 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT


X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
A1 2040 UT Jan30
24-hr: A3 0100 UT Jan30
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 30 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: 29 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: 2.9 nT
Bz:
2.3 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 30 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 30 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 % 10 %
SEVERE 01 % 05 %

What's Up in Space -- 30 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.

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. They recorded a spectacular video of the reentry. To see it, click on the image below:

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 the blistering heat by the capsule's external heat shield. These samples are now being studied by scientists at the Johnson Space Center who believe they may reveal secrets of comets and the origin of the solar system.

BLACK GASH: There's a long black gash on the sun today--a solar filament "about 200,000 miles long," says photographer John Stetson who sends this picture from Falmouth, Maine:

200,000 miles: If you put one end of the filament at Earth, the other end would reach almost to the Moon. Filaments have a tendency to collapse or explode. This one, however, appears stable. If you have a safely-filtered solar telescope, take a look--it's still there.

more images: from Mike Strieber of Newport News, Virginia; from Robert Arnold of Skye, Scotland;



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 30 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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