Hang the Transit of Venus on your wall! Hubble-quality images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory are now available as metallic posters in the Space Weather Store. |
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THE UN BRACES FOR
STORM SPACE WEATHER: Forecasters
say solar maximum is due in 2013. To prepare, the
United Nations is taking steps to organize an international
response to stormy space weather. Get the full
story from Science@NASA.
FILAMENT ERUPTION:
Solar activity is low, but not zero. During the
early hours of Feb. 13th, a magnetic filament erupted
near the sun's SW limb. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory
recorded the blast (click to set the scene in motion):
The extreme UV movie shows the filament
flinging itself into space followed by the formation
of a "canyon of fire" marking the channel
formerly occupied by the filament. The glowing walls
of the canyon are formed in a process closely related
to that of arcade
loops, which appear after many solar flares.
As erupting magnetic filaments often
do, this one launched a coronal mass ejection (CME)
into space. NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft spotted the
expanding cloud, which does not appear to be heading
for Earth or any other planet.
Solar flare alerts:
text,
voice.
Realtime
Space Weather Photo Gallery
SUNDOGS:
How many dogs can you count in this picture? Hint:
Don't forget the sundogs. Scroll down past
the sled for a total:
Answer: Six, four huskies plus two
parhelia--a.k.a. "sundogs."
They are bright splashes of light to the left and
right of the sun caused by sunlight shining through
ice crystals in the air.
"They appeared to result from
snowmobiles and dogs kicking snowdust up into the
Artic air," says Ian Collins, who took the
picture on February 9, 2013 from Jukkasjarvi, Sweden.
With northern winter entering its
coldest, snow-dustiest phase, now is a great time
to be alert for the phenomenon. The Iditarod
is coming in March. Can you say photo-op?
Realtime
Space Weather Photo Gallery
Realtime
Comet Photo Gallery
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
February 13, 2013 there were
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 |
