They came from outer space--and you can have one! Genuine meteorites are now on sale in the Space Weather Store. |
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SOLAR
WIND: For the third day in a row,
a stream of fast solar wind is buffeting Earth's
magnetic field. NOAA forecasters estimate a 40%
chance of geomagnetic storms around the poles on
June 7th. Magnetic
storm alerts: text,
voice.
HUBBLE
TRANSIT OF VENUS: One of the big
ironies of the 2012 Transit of Venus was that
NASA's greatest telescope didn't dare photograph
the event. Hubble's instruments are so sensitive,
one look at the glaring sun would have crippled
its instruments. Nevertheless, Hubble managed
to join the show. Astrophotographer Theirry Legault
caught the observatory flitting in front of the
sun alongside Venus:
"I was in north-east Australia
for the full transit of Venus and a transit of
Hubble in the middle," says Legault. "My
Nikon D4 digital camera was working at 10 fps
on a Takahashi FSQ-106ED telescope to record 9
images of HST during its 0.9s transit."
This is certainly an historic photo.
Imagine what
James Cook would think of a telescope in space
crossing his field of view as he watched the transit
of 1769 from a beach in Tahiti. Moreover, imagine
what kind of telescopes will be crossing the sun
when the next Transit of Venus occurs in 2117.
Congratulations to Legault for capturing a truly
rare 0.9s slice of history.
More slices of history may be found
in the Transit of Venus Photo Gallery:
Realtime
Transit of Venus Photo Gallery
[Submit your
photos] [NASA videos: 2012
Transit of Venus, ISS
Transit of Venus]
Transit of Venus Web Links:
CHANCE
OF FLARES: The odds of a significant
solar flare are improving as three sunspots develop
complex magnetic fields with energy for M-class
eruptions. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded
this extreme ultraviolet flash (category M3) from
sunspot AR1494 on June 6th:
The impulsive flare hurled a coronal
mass ejection into spacce, but not directly toward
Earth. The cloud should sail mostly south of our
planet on June 8-9.
The other two sunspots that pose a
threat for M-flares are AR1493 and AR1499. Solar
flare alerts: text,
voice.
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
June 7, 2012 there were 1293
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.
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The
official U.S. government space weather bureau |
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The
first place to look for information about sundogs,
pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. |
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Researchers
call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO
is the most advanced solar observatory ever. |
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3D
views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial
Relations Observatory |
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Realtime
and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. |
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from
the NOAA Space Environment Center |
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the
underlying science of space weather |
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