Thirty-five new items have just been added to our Meteorite Jewelry collection. Browse the Space Weather Store for something out of this world. |
|
|
BIG
SUNSPOT: One of the largest sunspot
groups in years rotated over the sun's northeastern
limb this weekend. With a least four dark cores
larger than Earth, AR1476 sprawls more than 100,000
km from end to end, and makes an easy target for
backyard solar telescopes. Amateur astronomer Alan
Friedman sends this picture of the behemoth from
his backyard in Buffalo, NY:
"AR1476 is firecrackler,"
says Friedman.
Indeed, the active region is crackling
with impulsive M-class
solar flares. Based on the sunspot's complex 'beta-gamma'
magnetic field, NOAA forecasters estimate a 70%
chance of more M-flares during the next 24 hours.
There is also a 5% chance of powerful X-flares.
"This one is going to be fun
as turns to face us!" predicts Friedman. He
might be right. Solar
flare alerts: text,
phone.
more images: from
John Chumack of Dayton, Ohio; from
Dave Gradwell of Birr, Ireland; from
Dave Gradwell of Birr, Ireland; from
Robert Arnold of Isle of Skye, Scotland; from
Howard Eskildsen of Ocala, Florida; from
Peter Desypris of Athens, Greece; from
Erika Rix of Liberty Hill, Texas
SUPER
LUNAR GREEN FLASH: Over the weekend,
photographer Laurent Laveder learned an important
lesson: Never take your eyes off a super moon. Laveder's
back was turned when the biggest full Moon of the
year rose over coast of Île Garo in Brittany, France.
Fortunately, his camera was running and it caught
the lunar green flash:
"I stitched together the images
from my camera and made a time-lapse
movie," says Laveder. "The fleeting
green flash was visible in only the first frame."
Other coastal effects of the super
moon included high
tides, bright
reflections, and ducks
abroad after curfew. A NASA
video explains why this moon was so influential.
more moonshots: from
Rodney Hale of Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire,
UK; from
Ronny Tertnes of Bergen, Norway; from
Ray Pacion of Morristown, Arizona; from
John E Cordiale of Queensbury, NY; from
Val Germann of Columbia, Missouri; from
Kamila Mazurkiewicz of Janowiec, Poland; from
Mitchell Krog of Magaliesburg, South Africa;
from
Margo Werle of Las Vegas, Nevada; from
David Hoffmann of Ashland, Oregon; from
Mike Hutchinson of Muncie, Indiana; from
Anthony Ayiomamitis of Cape Sounion, Greece;
from
Alberto Lao of Binondo, Manila, Philippines;
from
Marsha Adams of Sedona, Arizona
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
May 7, 2012 there were 1287
potentially hazardous asteroids.
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.
| |
The
official U.S. government space weather bureau |
| |
The
first place to look for information about sundogs,
pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. |
| |
Researchers
call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO
is the most advanced solar observatory ever. |
| |
3D
views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial
Relations Observatory |
| |
Realtime
and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. |
| |
from
the NOAA Space Environment Center |
| |
the
underlying science of space weather |
