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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: 611.5 km/sec
density: 1.9 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Oct19
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Oct19
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
Daily Sun: 19 Oct 07
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 18 Oct 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= 3 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 5
mild
explanation | more data
Current Auroral Oval:

Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Updated: 2007 Oct 19 2118 UT
What is the auroral oval?
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.7 nT
Bz: 0.2 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT
Coronal Holes:
Earth is inside a solar wind stream flowing fron the indicated coronal hole. Credit: Hinode X-ray Telescope
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2007 Oct 19 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 Oct 19 2203 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
30 %
15 %
MINOR
20 %
10 %
SEVERE
05 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
30 %
15 %
MINOR
25 %
10 %
SEVERE
10 %
01 %

What's up in Space
October 19, 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.

WEEKEND METEORS: Be alert for meteors this weekend. Earth is orbiting through a stream of dust from Halley's Comet, the source of the annual Orionid meteor shower. The best time to look is Sunday morning, Oct. 21st, during the hours before sunrise. If this year's display is like last year's, observers with dark skies can expect to count 20 to 50 meteors per hour: sky map.

AURORA ALERT: What's better than a meteor shower? A meteor shower inside the aurora borealis. It could happen this weekend. A solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetosphere and causing high-latitude geomagnetic storms. Here is last night's view from the United Kingdom's Shetland Islands:


Photo details: Nikon D200, 18-70mm lens, ISO 400, f3.5, 30 seconds

"I made this 30-second exposure using my Nikon D200," says photographer Austin Taylor. "Later, when I was analyzing the image, I noticed I had also caught three meteors." Take a look at the full-sized version. "They are faint, but they are there--this is an absolute first for me! Fantastic!"

October 2007 Aurora Gallery
[September Gallery] [Aurora Alerts]

WEIRD ORIONIDS--NOT! (Updated: Oct. 19) "I've never seen anything like it," says veteran sky watcher Doug Zubenel. Last week on October 10th he was at the Okie-Tex star party when a handful of Orionid meteors raced across the sky one after another, all in a row:

And then it happened again. And again! "All of these meteors traveled nearly the exact same path through the sky," he says. In total, he captured 16 streaks in a series of seven exposures spanning 70 minutes: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6.

What could make meteors behave in such an odd fashion? It's simple. "They're not meteors," says Dr. Marco Langbroek of the Dutch Meteor Society. "Note how the line of trails is parallel to the celestial equator at approximately -7o declination. That is the geostationary belt. The streaks are flaring geostationary satellites."

Indeed, autumn is the season for flaring geosats. Light from the equinox sun shines almost directly down on these equator-orbiting satellites producing bright glints and flares when sunbeams happen to strike a flat surface. "Geosat flares can rival the brighter stars in the sky," says veteran observer Jeff Umbarger. "They appear in a thin line near the celestial equator, lighting up and dimming down again like a string of diamonds slowly lit by flashlight."

"I had a feeling something was 'not quite right' about these meteors," says Zubenel. On the bright side, these are the first photos of flaring geosats ever published on Spaceweather.com--a long overdue contribution.

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 19, 2007 there were 895 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Oct.-Nov. 2007 Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2007 TL16
Oct. 5
1.6 LD
16
27 m
2007 TC14
Oct. 18
11.7 LD
17
180 m
2340 Hathor
Oct. 22
23.3 LD
16
620 m
2005 GL
Nov. 8
8.0 LD
16
280 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 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.
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