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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 417.7 km/sec
density: 4.2 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2344 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C1
2046 UT Oct14
24-hr: C1
0003 UT Oct14
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 14 Oct 11
Solar activity remains low despite a large number of sunspots dotting the solar disk. Credit: SDO/HMI
Sunspot number: 147
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 13 Oct 2011

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2011 total: 2 days (<1%)
2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 821 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days

Updated 13 Oct 2011


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 138 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 13 Oct 2011

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2
quiet
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 7.6 nT
Bz: 5.6 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2344 UT
Coronal Holes: 14 Oct 11
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on Oct. 15-16. Credit: SDO/AIA.
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2011 Oct 14 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
35 %
35 %
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: 2011 Oct 14 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
50 %
40 %
MINOR
40 %
30 %
SEVERE
05 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
40 %
50 %
MINOR
50 %
40 %
SEVERE
10 %
05 %
 
Friday, Oct. 14, 2011
What's up in space
 

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.

 
Metallic pictures of the Sun

FARSIDE ERUPTION: An active region on the far side of the sun erupted on Oct. 14th and hurled a significant coronal mass ejection (image) toward Mercury and Venus. Analysts at the Goddard Space Flight Center expect the cloud to hit the innermost planet on Oct. 15th around 8:30 UT. [CME forecast track]

SATELLITE RE-ENTRY: The ROSAT X-ray observatory, launched in 1990 by NASA and managed for years by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), will return to Earth within the next two weeks. Current best estimates place the re-entry between Oct. 22nd and 24th over an unknown part of Earth. Although ROSAT is smaller and less massive than UARS, which grabbed headlines when it re-entered on Sept. 24th, more of ROSAT could reach the planet's surface. This is because the observatory is made of heat-tolerant materials. According to a DLR study, as many as 30 individual pieces could survive the fires of re-entry. The largest single fragment would likely be the telescope's mirror, which is very heat resistant and may weigh as much as 1.7 tons.

ROSAT is coming, but it's not here yet. On Oct. 13th, Marco Langbroek photographed the observatory still in orbit over Leiden, the Netherlands:

"I observed ROSAT this evening in deep twilight (sun 8 degrees below horizon)," says Langbroek. "It was bright, magnitude +1, and an easy naked-eye object, zipping across the sky where the first stars just had become visible. The photograph is a 5 second exposure taken with a Canon EOS 450D at ISO 400."

ROSAT will become even brighter in the nights ahead as it descends toward Earth. Local flyby times may be found on the web or on your smartphone.

Also, check the German ROSAT re-entry page for updates.

Note: Solar activity has strongly affected ROSAT's decay. Only a few months ago, experts expected the satellite to re-enter in December. However, they did not anticipate the recent increase in sunspot count. Extreme ultraviolet radiation from sunspots has heated and "puffed up" Earth's atmosphere, accelerating the rate of orbital decay. The massive observatory now has a date with its home planet in October.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Last night, Jupiter and the Moon gathered together only a few degrees apart for a bright and beautiful conjunction. Just in case the neighbors weren't paying attention, "Sasenka J." of Trondheim, Norway, offered some guidance:

The Moon and Jupiter are separating now, but they'll be together again in a little less than a month--on Nov. 8th and 9th. Until then, browse the links below for what you might have missed.

more images: from Nihat Çelik of Ankara,Turkey; from Stan Richard of Urbandale, Iowa; from Stefano De Rosa of Candia Lake (Turin); from C B Devgun SPACE of New Delhi, India; from Monika Landy-Gyebnar of Veszprem, Hungary; from Heiko Ulbricht of Freital, Saxony, Germany; from Paulo Casquinha of Setubal, Portugal; from P-M Hedén of Vallentuna, Sweden; from Marek Nikodem of Szubin, Poland;


September 2011 Aurora Gallery
[previous Septembers: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004]

  Near Earth Asteroids
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 October 14, 2011 there were 1250 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2011 TB4
Oct 10
5.2 LD
--
35 m
2011 SE97
Oct 12
7.9 LD
--
50 m
2011 SS25
Oct 12
69.3 LD
--
1.0 km
2000 OJ8
Oct 13
49.8 LD
--
2.3 km
2009 TM8
Oct 17
0.9 LD
--
8 m
2011 FZ2
Nov 7
75.9 LD
--
1.6 km
2005 YU55
Nov 8
0.8 LD
--
175 m
1994 CK1
Nov 16
68.8 LD
--
1.5 km
1996 FG3
Nov 23
39.5 LD
--
1.1 km
2003 WM7
Dec 9
47.6 LD
--
1.5 km
1999 XP35
Dec 20
77.5 LD
--
1.0 km
2000 YA
Dec 26
2.9 LD
--
80 m
2011 SL102
Dec 28
75.9 LD
--
1.1 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.
  Essential web links
NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
  The official U.S. government space weather bureau
Atmospheric Optics
  The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena.
Solar Dynamics Observatory
  Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever.
STEREO
  3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
  Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  from the NOAA Space Environment Center
Heliophysics
  the underlying science of space weather
Science Central
 
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  for out-of-this-world printing and graphics
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