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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
SPACE WEATHER
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 395.8 km/sec
density: 3.9 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2244 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Nov09
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Nov09
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
Daily Sun: 09 Nov 07
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 08 Nov 2007
Far side of the Sun:
This holographic image reveals no sunspots on the far side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 0 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 1
quiet
explanation | more data
Current Auroral Oval:

Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Updated: 2007 Nov 09 2118 UT
What is the auroral oval?
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 8.3 nT
Bz: 1.8 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
Coronal Holes:
A solar wind stream flowing from this coronal hole could reach Earth as early as Nov. 12th. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2007 Nov 09 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 Nov 09 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
10 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
10 %
10 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %

What's up in Space
November 9, 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.

NEWS FLASH! Is Comet 17P/Holmes losing its tail? Possibly. Photographers are reporting a major "disconnection event" in the blue tail of this exploding comet. Got a telescope? Monitoring is encouraged: sky map, ephemeris.

images: from Jack Newton of the Arizona Sky Village; from Paolo Berardi of L'Aquila, Italy.

SPACECRAFT FLYBY: Europe's Rosetta spacecraft is rapidly approaching Earth for a close flyby on Nov. 13th. The gravity assist maneuver, bringing the probe only 5301 km above the Pacific Ocean, will fling Rosetta toward its 10-year destination: Comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Amateur astronomers with mid-sized backyard telescopes and CCD cameras can observe the approach; Rosetta is a 18th magnitude speck of light in the constellation Lynx: ephemeris.

SOLAR ACTIVITY: "I'm a sucker for beauty and today's prominence is gorgeous," says John Nassr who sends this picture taken just hours ago from his backyard in the Philippines:

Amateur astronomers have been monitoring this magnetic sheet of hot plasma on the sun's southeastern limb for three days. Can it last much longer? Prominences often collapse or erupt in a matter of hours, but this one is persistent, providing a nice and steady photo-op for readers with solar telescopes.

more images: from Paul Haese of Blackwood, South Australia; from Peter Paice of Belfast, Northern Ireland; from Alcaria Rego of Almada, Portugal; from James Kevin Ty of Manila, the Philippines;

3D COMET: Grab your 3D glasses. Graphic artist Patrick Vantuyne has combined two photos of Comet Holmes, one taken by Jack Newton in Arizona and one by Ivan Eder in Hungary, to create an eye-popping stereo portrait:


Click on the image for full effect

"The stereo effect has nothing to do with the different locations of the photographer," notes Vantuyne. "It is a result of the movement of the comet among between the two pictures."

Two weeks after it first exploded, 3D Comet Holmes has faded a little, but it is still a naked-eye object and a fine target for binoculars and backyard telescopes. Look north after sunset for a 3rd-magnitude fuzzball in the constellation Perseus: sky map.

Comet 17P/Holmes Photo Gallery
[Interactive World Map of Comet Photos]
[sky map] [ephemeris] [3D orbit] [Night Sky Cameras]

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 November 9, 2007 there were 901 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Nov. 2007 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2005 GL
Nov. 8
8.0 LD
16
280 m
2007 VA3
Nov. 11
7.0 LD
19
30 m
2007 UL12
Nov. 12
18.4 LD
17
325 m
1989 UR
Nov. 24
27.6 LD
15
880 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 Weather Prediction 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.
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