Metallic photos of the sun by renowned photographer Greg Piepol bring together the best of art and science. Buy one or a whole set. They make a stellar gift. | | |
QUIET WEEKEND: None of the sunspots on the Earthside of the sun poses a threat for strong flares. Solar activity should remain low throughout the weekend. Aurora alerts: text, phone.
MOON-JUPITER CONJUNCTION: This morning in the blue dawn skies of South America, the quarter Moon eclipsed the planet Jupiter. In Buenos Aires, amateur astronomer Mariano Ribas photographed the pair in broad daylight just 25 minutes before the occultation:
"It was an incredible sight," says Ribas. "Today, after the sunrise, the Moon eclipsed Jupiter as seen from Argentina. It was the first time for us to see a lunar eclipse of the giant planet since 1998!"
Another beautiful conjunction is in the offing. On Wednesday morning, Sept. 12th, the 15% crescent Moon will pass just a few degrees from brilliant Venus. Look east at daybreak. It's a lovely way to begin the day. [sky map]
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
SUBORBITAL CHICKEN: On Wednesday Sept. 5th a group of California high school students celebrated the 35th anniversary of the launch of Voyager 1 in an unusual way: They launched a rubber chicken. The popular NASA mascot Camilla traveled to the top of our planet's atmosphere on board a suborbital helium balloon. Here is a snapshot from an altitude of approximately 120,000 feet:
Camilla is wearing headphones. Why? Because she's listening to the Golden iPod, the modern-day successor to the Golden Records bolted to the side of the Voyager probes. The students are updating the Golden Records with 21st-century content that the students would like to send into the cosmos. This was just a test flight; in 2013, they hope to launch the Golden iPod into Earth orbit onboard a CubeSat they are building.
At the apex of the Sept. 5th suborbital flight, the helium balloon popped as planned and Camilla parachuted back to Earth. The students, who call their group "Earth to Sky," recovered Camilla and the Golden iPod from a remote landing site in the Nevada wilderness on Sept. 6th. Now they are all enjoying music that has been to the doorstep of space itself.
More information about the flight and the recovery expedition may be found at Earth to Sky's Facebook page. Students who wish to participate in the Golden iPod project can submit their ideas for the iPod's playlist at goldenipod.org.
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
[previous years: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011]
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 September 8, 2012 there were potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Mag. | Size |
2012 QG42 | Sep 14 | 7.4 LD | -- | 310 m |
2012 QC8 | Sep 14 | 22.7 LD | -- | 1.1 km |
1998 UO1 | Oct 4 | 60.1 LD | -- | 2.1 km |
2005 GQ21 | Oct 12 | 77 LD | -- | 1.0 km |
1998 ST49 | Oct 18 | 28.7 LD | -- | 1.3 km |
1991 VE | Oct 26 | 34 LD | -- | 1.1 km |
2012 QF49 | Oct 29 | 77.7 LD | -- | 1.6 km |
2001 CV26 | Oct 30 | 68 LD | -- | 2.4 km |
2007 PA8 | Nov 5 | 16.8 LD | -- | 2.4 km |
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 |