SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 406.4 km/s
density: 1.1 protons/cm³
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A4 1715 UT Jun19
24-hr: B1 1300 UT Jun19
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 19 Jun '06

New sunspot 896 is growing, but it does not yet pose a threat for solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI

Sunspot Number: 23
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 18 Jun 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
B_total: 3.9 nT
B_z: 0.9 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT

Coronal Holes:

A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole could reach Earth on June 22nd or 23rd. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV telescope.

What's Up in Space -- 19 Jun 2006 Subscribe to Space Weather News Planets. Comets. Auroras. Don't miss them! Sign up for Spaceweather PHONE. ASTEROID PHOTO-OP: Astrophotographers, mark your calendars. On July 3rd, asteroid 2004 XP14 will fly past Earth barely farther away than the Moon. The 600-meter space rock, glowing like a 12th magnitude star, will glide through the Milky Way in only 4 hours, passing many stars and nebulae along the way. Can you say "photo-op"? Stay tuned for details. SPACE STATION SUMMER: The International Space Station (ISS) is doing something unusual: For the next few days it'll be orbiting Earth in almost-constant sunlight. This happens every year around the time of the summer solstice, and it results in many good sighting opportunities. On June 13th, the ISS flew over the home of John Locker in Wirral , UK. The station was so bright, he was able to point his telescope at the moving target and record this video: still frame full video "Nicely illuminated is Canadarm2 (the station's robotic arm), which is fully extended," says Locker. Also visible are "the ribbed sections of the P1 truss radiator." Would you like to know when the ISS is about to fly over your backyard? Sign up for SpaceWeather PHONE. RED vs. RED JR: What do you get when you put the two biggest storms in the solar system together? Know one knows. But we'll find out in July when the Great Red Spot bumps into its younger cousin Red Junior: full story. "Red Jr. is really close to the Great Red Spot now," says Mike Salway of Australia who took this picture using a 10-inch telescope on June 12th: Also shown are Jupiter's moons Io (left) and Ganymede (above right). See the markings on Ganymede? Those are real. Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system, so big that even backyard telescopes can make out its murky details. If Ganymede orbited the Sun, it would be the 8th-largest planet, eclipsing both Mercury and Pluto. See for yourself: Jupiter couldn't be easier to find. Step outside this evening at sunset and look south. Jupiter pops out of the twilight, brighter than any star, even before the sky fades to black: sky map.

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.

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

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.

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; 2005; Jan-Mar 2006;

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