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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

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Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment.

SPACE WEATHER
Current
Conditions

Solar Wind
speed: 380.7 km/s
density:
4.3 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT


X-ray Solar Flares

6-hr max:
B2 1650 UT Mar07
24-hr: B2 1620 UT Mar07
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT

Daily Sun: 07 Mar '06

The Earth-facing side of the sun is devoid of sunspots today. Credit: SOHO/MDI


Sunspot Number: 27
What is the sunspot number?
Updated: 06 Mar 2006

Far Side of the Sun

This holographic image reveals possibly one small sunspot on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI

Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 3.1 nT
Bz:
1.2 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT

Coronal Holes:

SOHO ultraviolet images of the sun are temporarily unavailable. Why? The telescope's CCD camera is being baked out.


SPACE WEATHER
NOAA
Forecasts

Solar Flares: Probabilities for a medium-sized (M-class) or a major (X-class) solar flare during the next 24/48 hours are tabulated below.
Updated at 2006 Mar 07 2204 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 2006 Mar 07 2204 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 15 % 20 %
MINOR 05 % 10 %
SEVERE 01 % 05 %

High latitudes
0-24 hr 24-48 hr
ACTIVE 30 % 35 %
MINOR 15 % 20 %
SEVERE 05 % 10 %

What's Up in Space -- 7 Mar 2006
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ASTEROID MOVIE: A mile-wide asteroid (2000 PN9) flew past Earth on March 6th at a close but safe distance of two million miles. Using a 16-inch Meade telescope and a digital video camera, Bob Forrest of Hertford, UK, recorded the encounter: "I was surprised how rapidly the asteroid moved." His video spans 12 minutes and shows the asteroid racing through the constellation Pisces: watch.

JUPITER'S EXTRA MOON: In Falmouth, Maine, yesterday, John Stetson pointed his telescope at Jupiter. What he saw surprised him: "Jupiter has an extra moon!" (continued below)

"From left to right we have Ganymede, Europa, Io (very close to Jupiter), and Callisto all in a line," says Stetson. "The 'extra moon' below the others is nu Librae, a 5th magnitude star."

Got a telescope? Got an alarm clock? Wake up at dawn and you can see the same scene with your own eyes: sky map. nu Librae will remain close to Jupiter masquerading as a moon until about March 10th.

10-MINUTE AURORAS: No sunspots? No problem. On March 6th, the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) tipped south, opening a crack in Earth's magnetosphere. Solar wind flowed in and bright auroras appeared over Scandinavia--no sunspots required.

"The sky turned green for about ten minutes," says photographer Geir Øye of Ørsta, Norway. "The half-Moon illuminated the snowy mountainside through a patchy layer of thin clouds."

March 2006 Aurora Gallery



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 7 Mar 2006 there were 775 known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids

March 2006 Earth-asteroid encounters
ASTEROID

 DATE
(UT)

MISS DISTANCE

MAG.

 SIZE
(meters)
2000 PN9

March 6

7.9 LD

12

~2 km
2006 EH1

March 7

2.0 LD

18

~20 m
2006 EC

March 8

0.7 LD

16

~19 m
Notes: LD is a "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 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. See also Snow Crystals.

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory -- Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. (European Mirror Site)

Daily Sunspot Summaries -- from the NOAA Space Environment Center.

Current Solar Images --a gallery of up-to-date solar pictures from the National Solar Data Analysis Center at the Goddard Space Flight Center. See also the GOES-12 Solar X-ray Imager.

Recent Solar Events -- a nice summary of current solar conditions from lmsal.com.

SOHO Farside Images of the Sun from SWAN and MDI.

The Latest SOHO Coronagraph Images -- from the Naval Research Lab

Daily images from the sun -- from the Big Bear Solar Observatory

List of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

Observable Comets -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

What is the Interplanetary Magnetic Field? -- A lucid answer from the University of Michigan. See also the Anatomy of Earth's Magnetosphere.

Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from NASA's ACE spacecraft. How powerful are solar wind gusts? Read this story from Science@NASA.

More Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Proton Monitor.

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; 2005; Jan-Mar 2006;

Space Audio Streams: (University of Florida) 20 MHz radio emissions from Jupiter: #1, #2, #3, #4; (NASA/Marshall) INSPIRE: #1; (Stan Nelson of Roswell, New Mexico) meteor radar: #1, #2;

Recent International Astronomical Union Circulars

GLOSSARY | SPACE WEATHER TUTORIAL

This site is penned daily by Dr. Tony Phillips: email

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