You are viewing the page for Sep. 26, 2007
  Select another date:
<<back forward>>
SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
SPACE WEATHER
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 407.1 km/sec
density: 2.6 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1650 UT Sep26
24-hr: A0
1120 UT Sep26
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
Daily Sun: 26 Sep 07
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 25 Sep 2007
Far side of the Sun:
This holographic image reveals no large sunspots on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 2
quiet
explanation | more data
Current Auroral Oval:

Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Updated: 2007 Sep 26 2127 UT
What is the auroral oval?
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 1.6 nT
Bz: 1.5 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT
Coronal Holes:
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on Sept. 27th or 28th. Credit: Hinode X-Ray Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2007 Sep 26 2203 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
01 %
01 %
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: 2007 Sep 26 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
40 %
MINOR
05 %
15 %
SEVERE
01 %
05 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
20 %
45 %
MINOR
10 %
20 %
SEVERE
01 %
10 %

What's up in Space
September 26, 2007
Where's Saturn? Is that a UFO--or the ISS? What's the name of that star? Get the answers from mySKY--a fun new astronomy helper from Meade. .

STRANGE COMET: Most sungrazing comets never make it past their first close encounter with the sun. Fierce heat annihilates their fragile icy cores. But SOHO has discovered one that returns to the sun every four years and somehow survives--or rather most of it does. P/2007 R5 (SOHO) is a rare comet without a tail: full story.

HARVEST MOON: There's a full moon Wednesday night and it has a special name--the Harvest Moon. In the days before electric lights, farmers relied on moonlight to help them gather ripening autumn crops. The "Harvest Moon" rising brightly in the east at sunset allowed work to continue late into the night.

Post-Edison, we appreciate the Harvest Moon mainly for its beauty:

This photo, taken just a few hours ago, shows the Harvest Moon rising over rural Bolu, Turkey. "I used a Canon EOS 5D at ISO 400 with an exposure of 1/100 seconds," says photographer Tunç Tezel.

more images: from P-M Hedén of Vallentuna, Sweden; from Martin McKenna of Maghera, Co. Derry, N. Ireland; from Daisuke Tomiyasu of Higashinada, Kobe, Japan; from Mila Zinkova of San Francisco, California; from Edgar at the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, California; from Milan Gucic of Belgrade, Serbia.

WINDOW SEAT: Sylvain Chapeland was flying from Los Angeles to London two nights ago when "a great show erupted over Greenland. The auroras were really nice even through the airplane window." (continued below)


Photo details: Canon EOS 350D, ISO 1600, 10s. More: #1, #2, #3

The display was fueled by a high-speed solar wind stream that hit Earth on Sept. 21st, sparking polar auroras for three nghts in a row--including the night of Chapeland's flight. Get ready for more: Another stream is en route from the sun, due to arrive on Sept. 27th.

Incidentally, Chapland may have pioneered a new method of aurora watching: Book a transcontinental polar night flight when geomagnetic storms are in the offing. Just don't forget the window seat!

September 2007 Aurora Gallery
[August 2007 Aurora Gallery] [Aurora Alerts]

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 September 26, 2007 there were 887 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Sept. 2007 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2007 RF1
Sep. 2
8.5 LD
18
26 m
2007 RS1
Sep. 5
0.2 LD
17
3 m
2007 RJ1
Sep. 16
2.5 LD
16
40 m
2007 RC20
Sep. 20
5.1 LD
19
22 m
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 Links
NOAA Space Environment Center
  The official U.S. government bureau for real-time monitoring of solar and geophysical events, research in solar-terrestrial physics, and forecasting solar and geophysical disturbances.
Atmospheric Optics
  The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena.
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
  Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  From the NOAA Space Environment Center
Current Solar Images
  from the National Solar Data Analysis Center
  more links...
©2007, SpaceWeather.com -- This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips.
©2019 Spaceweather.com. All rights reserved.