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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: 330.3 km/s
density:
2.4 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT


X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
B1 1845 UT May03
24-hr: B2 0035 UT May03
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 03 May '06

None of these sunspots pose a threat for strong solar flares. solar flares. Credit: SOHO/MDI.


Sunspot Number: 58
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 02 May 2006

Far Side of the Sun

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

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 8.2 nT
Bz:
4.5 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT

Coronal Holes:

A solar wind gust flowing from the indicated coronal hole could reach Earth on May 5th or 6th. 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 May 03 2204 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 2006 May 03 2204 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 10 % 25 %
MINOR 05 % 15 %
SEVERE 01 % 05 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 20 % 30 %
MINOR 10 % 20 %
SEVERE 01 % 10 %

What's Up in Space -- 3 May 2006
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Roses. Candy. Spatulas? Make that the stars: Spaceweather PHONE for Mother's Day.

METEOR SHOWER: Earth is about to pass through a stream of dust from Halley's Comet, and this will produce the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower. It peaks on Saturday morning, May 6th: full story.

PHOTO-OP: On May 8th at approximately 0320 UT (11:20 pm EDT on May 7th), fragment C of dying comet 73P/Schwassmann Wachmann 3 will pass very close to the Ring Nebula in Lyra, a.k.a. M57. The view through backyard telescopes should be wonderful.


Imagine a comet passing in front of this....

The encounter is best seen from Eurasia and eastern parts of North America; elsewhere the comet will be close to or below the horizon. Telescopes trained on the nebula will show fragment C gliding by the ring only a few arcminutes away. The comet's tail could eclipse the nebula. Start watching 30 minutes before closest approach. Sky maps: overview, detail.

NOT A RAINBOW: Sometimes, on a sunny day with no rain clouds in sight, a rainbow strangely encircles the sun. Weimin Zhu of YangZhou, China, photographed this one on April 8th:

Only this is not a rainbow. Rainbows are formed by raindrops, heavy droplets of water falling to the ground, catching sunbeams en route and spreading them in an arc of vivid color.

This is a sun halo. Sun haloes are formed by ice crystals floating in thin, almost transparent cirrus clouds 5 to 10 km above the ground. Like raindrops, these crystals catch sunbeams, but the results are different: a circle rather than an arc, colors muted rather than vivid.

It's all beautiful, so keep looking up.



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 3 May 2006 there were 785 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

May 2006 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE
(UT)

MISS DISTANCE

MAG.

 SIZE
2006 HU50

May 4

3.8 LD

17

~50 m
2006 HX57

May 6

3.0 LD

16

~45 m
Comet 73P-C

May 12

31 LD

4

~1 km
2006 GY2

May 16

6.7 LD

13+

~0.8 km
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

Daily images from the sun -- 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.

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

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

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