As of 8-6-08 - There were 971 tracked asteroids 
See chart on that date
On October 3, 2008 , there were 986 potentially hazardous asteroids.
See chart on that date
On 10-12-08 - there are 990 potentially hazardous asteroids.
See chart on that date
One - the size of a car exploded over the Sudan on 10-07-08
On 10-29-08 -there are 993 potentially hazardous asteroids.
On 11-6-08 - there are 996 potentially hazardous asteroids.
On 11-24-08 -- there are 999 potentially hazardous asteroids.
On 12-2-08 - there are 1002 potentially hazardous asteroids.
On 12-12-08 - there are 1010 potentially hazardous asteroids.

SPACE WEATHER 2009
 

Dan Linek of North Bay Shore, New York, was one of the eye witnesses. Combining his own observations with those of others, he created a hand-drawn map of sightings and the probable location of the fireball when it exploded:

CALIFORNIA FIREBALL: A remarkable fireball blazed across Califonia on Dec. 27th around 1:50 am PST. Its brilliant blue-green light caught the attention of onlookers (some inside their homes) all the way from San Francisco Bay in the north to the Los Angeles metropolitan area in the south--a range of more than 340 miles. According to one account, the object exploded with a thunderous boom, producing a spray of golden-colored fragments

"It was as if someone had set off a rescue flare that instantly bathed the countryside in whitish blue-green light," reports Grant Bentley of Bishop, CA. "At one point, the path of the meteor went behind a cirrus-stratus cloud that it backlit in snowy green light. After a brilliant show of less than three seconds, it was gone without a trace. This was easily the most massive object I have ever seen burning up as it entered the Earth's atmosphere."

A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole
should arrive on Dec. 30th or 31st.
Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope
 

LAST AURORAS OF 2008: They're coming, the last auroras of 2008. The source of the display is a coronal hole photographed earlier today by Japan's Hinode spacecraft:

Although 2008 has been a year of remarkably low solar activity, polar sky watchers nevertheless have enjoyed many good geomagnetic storms. Galleries: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August September, October, November, December.
 

"Everyone should take a look before the rings begin to open up again at the end of the month," says Casquinha. A nice bonus: When the rings are thin, Saturn's moons become easier to see. "Note the small spot above the rings on the right; that's Rhea."

more images: from Masa Nakamura of Otawara, Tochigi, Japan; from Koshu Endo of Tokyo Japan (note: Endo's video shows an Earth-orbiting satellite zipping by Saturn)

CHRISTMAS PROMINENCE: So, you received a solar telescope for Christmas? Perfect timing. A plume of hot gas is spewing over the northeastern limb of the sun, beckoning for attention. Take a look!

photos: from S. Billings et al of South Portland, Maine; from Mike Borman of Evansville, Indiana; from Francisco A. Rodriguez of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands; from James Screech of Bedford, England; from Peter Desypris of Athens, Greece; from Stephen Ames of Hodgenville, Kentucky;

NASA's Stereo-B spacecraft is stationed over the sun's eastern limb, but it was not taking pictures at the probable time of the eruption, so details of the blast are unknown. The CME could herald an active region (e.g., a sunspot or perhaps an unstable magnetic filament) turning to face Earth in the days ahead. Stay tuned for updates.

Dec. 16, 2008: NASA's five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a breach in Earth's magnetic field ten times larger than anything previously thought to exist. Solar wind can flow in through the opening to "load up" the magnetosphere for powerful geomagnetic storms. But the breach itself is not the biggest surprise. Researchers are even more amazed at the strange and unexpected way it forms, overturning long-held ideas of space physics.

"At first I didn't believe it," says THEMIS project scientist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center. "This finding fundamentally alters our understanding of the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction."

The magnetosphere is a bubble of magnetism that surrounds Earth and protects us from solar wind. Exploring the bubble is a key goal of the THEMIS mission, launched in February 2007. The big discovery came on June 3, 2007, when the five probes serendipitously flew through the breach just as it was opening. Onboard sensors recorded a torrent of solar wind particles streaming into the magnetosphere, signaling an event of unexpected size and importance. One of the THEMIS probes exploring the space around Earth, an artist's concept. [more]

"The opening was huge—four times wider than Earth itself," says Wenhui Li, a space physicist at the University of New Hampshire who has been analyzing the data. Li's colleague Jimmy Raeder, also of New Hampshire, says "10²⁷ particles per second were flowing into the magnetosphere—that's a 1 followed by 27 zeros. This kind of influx is an order of magnitude greater than what we thought was possible."

The event began with little warning when a gentle gust of solar wind delivered a bundle of magnetic fields from the Sun to Earth. Like an octopus wrapping its tentacles around a big clam, solar magnetic fields draped themselves around the magnetosphere and cracked it open. The cracking was accomplished by means of a process called "magnetic reconnection." High above Earth's poles, solar and terrestrial magnetic fields linked up (reconnected) to form conduits for solar wind. Conduits over the Arctic and Antarctic quickly expanded; within minutes they overlapped over Earth's equator to create the biggest magnetic breach ever recorded by Earth-orbiting spacecraft.

Above: A computer model of solar wind flowing around Earth's magnetic field on June 3, 2007. Background colors represent solar wind density; red is high density, blue is low. Solid black lines trace the outer boundaries of Earth's magnetic field. Note the layer of relatively dense material beneath the tips of the white arrows; that is solar wind entering Earth's magnetic field through the breach. Credit: Jimmy Raeder/UNH. [larger image]

The size of the breach took researchers by surprise. "We've seen things like this before," says Raeder, "but never on such a large scale. The entire day-side of the magnetosphere was open to the solar wind."

The circumstances were even more surprising. Space physicists have long believed that holes in Earth's magnetosphere open only in response to solar magnetic fields that point south. The great breach of June 2007, however, opened in response to a solar magnetic field that pointed north.

"To the lay person, this may sound like a quibble, but to a space physicist, it is almost seismic," says Sibeck. "When I tell my colleagues, most react with skepticism, as if I'm trying to convince them that the sun rises in the west."

"So, you can imagine our surprise when a northern IMF came along and shields went down instead," says Sibeck. "This completely overturns our understanding of things."

Northern IMF events don't actually trigger geomagnetic storms, notes Raeder, but they do set the stage for storms by loading the magnetosphere with plasma. A loaded magnetosphere is primed for auroras, power outages, and other disturbances that can result when, say, a CME (coronal mass ejection) hits.

The years ahead could be especially lively. Raeder explains: "We're entering Solar Cycle 24. For reasons not fully understood, CMEs in even-numbered solar cycles (like 24) tend to hit Earth with a leading edge that is magnetized north. Such a CME should open a breach and load the magnetosphere with plasma just before the storm gets underway. It's the perfect sequence for a really big event."

Sibeck agrees. "This could result in stronger geomagnetic storms than we have seen in many years."

A video version of this story may be found here. For more information about the THEMIS mission, visit http://nasa.gov/themis

Preliminary counts by the International Meteor Organization indicate that the shower peaked at 160 meteors per hour during the early hours of Dec. 14th. Earth is now exiting the Geminid debris stream and meteor rates are falling--but not yet to zero. Subsiding activity could continue for several nights to come: live updates.

UPDATED: 2008 Geminid Meteor Gallery
[previous years: 2007, 2006, 2004, 2002, 2001]

A's STEREO spacecraft photographed a coronal mass ejection
(CME) billowing over the limb of the sun.

CME MOVIE http://sungrazer.nrl.navy.mil/images/p2003_sm_short.mov

Now play it again. Did you see the comet? It's just a speck among the stars and billowing debris; look for it along this ). It was discovered in May 2003 by astronomer Eric Christensen and then, as sometimes happens to new comets with poorly-known orbits, it was lost again. Comet Christensen went missing for more than five years until STEREO found it again. Spacecraft (especially SOHO) have discovered many comets, but this is the first time a spacecraft has recovered one: full story.

New-cycle sunspot 1009 is rotating over the sun's western limb. The spot is crackling with B-class solar flares; the explosions could hurl material over the limb as the sunspot disappears. Readers, if you have a solar telescope, keep an eye on the western limb. Credit: SOHO/MDI
 

  AURORA WATCH: A solar wind stream is heading for Earth and it could spark geomagnetic storms around the arctic circle when it arrives on Dec. 11th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.

COLOR-CODED SUNSPOTS: According to one leading solar physicist, the sun is turning blue. David Hathaway of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center is using red and blue to tag sunspots of the old and new solar cycles. When he plots the color-coded sunspot numbers, it's clear a change is taking place.

Feeling blue? Now you know why. Stay tuned for updates

more images: from Hank Bartlett of Newburgh, Ontario, Canada; from Stephen Ames of Hodgenville, Kentucky; from M. Ugro et al. of South Portland, Maine; from Roy Golisano of Milford, New Hampshire

Space Weather News for Dec. 6, 2008
http://spaceweather.com

COLORADO FIREBALL:  Last night, a fireball one hundred times brighter than the full Moon lit up the sky near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Astronomer Chris Peterson photographed the event using an all-sky video camera dedicated to meteor studies. "In seven years of operation, this is the brightest fireball I've ever recorded. I estimate the terminal explosion at magnitude -18."  Meteors this bright are called superbolides; they are caused by small (meter-class) asteroids and are likely to pepper the ground with meteorites when they explode. 

See VIDEO

Fireballs this bright belong to a rare category of meteors called superbolides. They are caused by small asteroids measuring a few to 10 meters in diameter and massing hundreds of metric tons. Superbolides trigger seismic detectors on the ground, produce waves of infrasound that can travel thousands of miles, and they are tracked by military satellites scanning Earth for nuclear explosions. Recent examples include the El Paso fireball of 1997 and the Slovenian Superbolide of 2007.

Last night's fireball is on the low end of the superbolide scale. Nevertheless, it was still a beauty and likely peppered the ground with meteorites when it exploded. Sighting reports are welcomed; they could help guide the tracking and recovery of debris.

LISTEN! 250 miles south of the fireball, radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft of New Mexico photographed the flash and recorded radio echoes from the superbolide's ion trail. Click here to listen.

GREAT CONJUNCTION: Postulate: One moon + two planets = the sky show of the year. The proof may be found in this photo submitted by Jamie Russell from the United Kingdom's Isle of Wight:

All around the world, sky watchers watched with pleasure as Venus, Jupiter and the Moon gathered in one tiny patch of sky and then dispersed again. But was it really the sky show of the year? Browse the gallery and decide for yourself:

GRAND CONJUNCTION PHOTO GALLERY
 

Earth is entering a solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope

A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on Dec. 3rd or 4th. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV

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 December 2, 2008 there were 1002 potentially hazardous asteroids. Dec. 2008 Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid Date(UT) Miss Distance Mag. Size 2008 WY94 Dec. 5 3.2 LD 19 35 m 2008 WG14 Dec. 5 4.8 LD 17 49 m 2006 VB14 Dec. 14 36 LD 15 795 m 2008 EV5 Dec. 23 8.4 LD 13 435 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.

more images: from Stephen O'Meara of Kilauea, Volcano, Hawaii; from Brian Kennedy of Orlando, Florida; from John Gauvreau of Binbrook, Ontario, Canada; from Stephen McCaul on the coast of Scotland overlooking the Isle of Skye; from Claudio Bottari of Locorotondo, Italy; from Bum-Suk Yeom of Daejeon, South Korea; from Mike O'Leary of San Diego, CA; from Bill Smith of Cherry Creek, NY; from Albert Engert of Würzburg, Germany; from Marion Haligowski of Phoenix, Arizona; from Gregg Waldron of Morristown, NJ; from Joe Ricci of Rochester, New York; from Katy and John Stetson of Portland, Maine; from Adrian Guzman of San Jose, California; from Claudio Pincelli of Southampton, Massachusetts; from Thierry Demange of Erstein, Alsace, France; from Martin Mc Kenna of Maghera, Co. Derry, N. Ireland;

THE OTHER CONJUNCTION: While all eyes are on Venus and Jupiter in the evening sky, another conjunction is taking place at high noon. Mars and Mercury are having a close encounter of their own within 3^o of the sun:

NOT-A-SUNSPOT: A large, diffuse magnetic dipole is emerging in the sun's northern hemisphere: map. It's too spread out to form a sunspot, but it may prove interesting nevertheless. In the neutral folds of such regions, dark filaments of plasma are known to form and sometimes erupt.

more images: from Zlatko Pasko of Stara Pazova, Serbia; from Patrick Boomer of Alberta, Canada; from Jens Hackmann of Weikersheim, Germany; from Mahdi Zamani of Kan, Iran; from Cindy Safina of Tsimshatsui, Hong Kong; from Alan Conrad of Liverpool,Nova Scotia; from Jim Werle of Henderson, Nevada; from Martin Mc Kenna of Maghera, Co. Derry, N. Ireland

THANKSGIVING SUN: This morning Greg Piepol of Rockville, Maryland, looked through the eyepiece of his backyard solar telescope and observed a very curious sunspot:

"Happy Thanksgiving!" says Piepol. "I must have been thinking about dinner because when I did a double-take the turkey was gone." The real Thanksgiving sun is pictured here. A new sunspot is forming near the center of the sun's disk but it has not yet formed a dark turkey-core. Stay tuned for updates.

more images: from Andy Yeung of Hong Kong; from Stephen Ames of Hodgenville, Kentucky

Click to view a 1 MB movie

A coronagraph onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is monitoring the progress of the expanding CME. The cloud is not directed at Earth and should cause no geomagnetic activity on our planet. It is, however, a promising "sign of life" on the sun. Slowly but surely, solar minimum is coming to an end.
 

A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth late on Nov. 25th or Nov. 26th. Credit: Hinode X-ray Telescope

Coronal holes are places in the sun's atmosphere where the magnetic field opens up and allows solar wind to escape. In images taken by X-ray telescopes, such as the one Hinode uses, coronal holes appear dark because the hot glowing gas which would otherwise fill them has spilled out in the solar wind. A stream of gas flowing from this particular hole is heading for Earth. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras when it arrives on Nov. 25th or 26th.
  11-22-08  The sun is blank today

Andy Bartlett video-recorded the event from a 10th-floor apartment in Edmonton, Alberta:

Click to play the video

A screen capture from an amateur video sent to Global Television Edmonton of a meteor streaking across the southeastern sky in Edmonton last Thursday, just after dusk.

"The brilliant fireball appeared to be closer than the airplane in the upper right corner of this video," says Bartlett. "I made the movie using a Canon A510."

The fireball was almost certainly a small asteroid disintegrating in Earth's atmosphere. A space rock measuring a few to ten meters wide moving at typical local-asteroid velocities would account for the fireball's speed and brightness. Reentry of manmade space junk has now been ruled out. Fragments of the impactor may have reached the ground; if so, they remain undiscovered and/or unreported.

VIDEO UPDATE: A spectacular video of the fireball was recorded by the dashboard camera of a police car on patrol in Edmonton, Alberta. Click to play.

11-29-08

Nov. 21, 2008: Researchers have found new evidence that the atmosphere of Mars is being stripped away by solar wind. It's not a gently continuous erosion, but rather a ripping process in which chunks of Martian air detach themselves from the planet and tumble into deep space. This surprising mechanism could help solve a longstanding mystery about the Red Planet.

"It helps explain why Mars has so little air," says David Brain of UC Berkeley, who presented the findings at the 2008 Huntsville Plasma Workshop on October 27th.

Billions of years ago, Mars had a lot more air than it does today. (Note: Martian "air" is primarily carbon dioxide, not the nitrogen-oxygen mix we breathe on Earth.) Ancient martian lake-beds and river channels tell the tale of a planet covered by abundant water and wrapped in an atmosphere thick enough to prevent that water from evaporating into space. Some researchers believe the atmosphere of Mars was once as thick as Earth's. Today, however, all those lakes and rivers are dry and the atmospheric pressure on Mars is only 1% that of Earth at sea-level. A cup of water placed almost anywhere on the Martian surface would quickly and violently boil away—a result of the super-low air pressure.

Above: An artist's concept of ancient Mars with abundant air and water. [Larger image]

NOTE:  The Chinese recorded watching Venus go past Mars and rip it's atmosphere off - so there is a discrepancy between what science is telling us and what the Chinese reported.

Brain has uncovered a new possibility--a daily ripping process intermediate between the great cataclysm and slow erosion models. The evidence comes from NASA's now-retired Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft.

In 1998, MGS discovered that Mars has a very strange magnetic field. Instead of a global bubble, like Earth's, the Martian field is in the form of magnetic umbrellas that sprout out of the ground and reach beyond the top of Mars' atmosphere. These umbrellas number in the dozens and they cover about 40% of the planet’s surface, mainly in the southern hemisphere.

For years, researchers thought the umbrellas protected the Martian atmosphere, shielding pockets of air beneath them from erosion by the solar wind. Surprisingly, Brain finds that the opposite can be true as well: "The umbrellas are where coherent chunks of air are torn away."

Above: Solar wind blowing against Mars tears atmosphere-filled plasmoids from the tops of magnetic umbrellas. Credit: Graphic artist Steve Bartlett. [Larger image]

Addressing his colleagues at the Workshop, he described how he made the discovery just a few months ago:

Brain was scrolling through archival data from Global Surveyor's particles and fields sensors. "We have measurements from 25,000 orbits," he says. During one of those orbits, MGS passed through the top of a magnetic umbrella. Brain noticed that the umbrella's magnetic field had linked up with the magnetic field in the solar wind. Physicists call this "magnetic reconnection." What happened next is not 100% certain, but Global Surveyor's readings are consistent with the following scenario: "The joined fields wrapped themselves around a packet of gas at the top of the Martian atmosphere, forming a magnetic capsule a thousand kilometers wide with ionized air trapped inside," says Brain. "Solar wind pressure caused the capsule to 'pinch off' and it blew away, taking its cargo of air with it." Brain has since found a dozen more examples. The magnetic capsules or "plasmoids" tend to blow over the south pole of Mars, mainly because most of the umbrellas are located in Mars' southern hemisphere.

Above: Dave Brain of UC Berkeley presented this slide at the 2008 Huntsville Plasma Workshop to explain in cartoon fashion how plasmoids carry air away from Mars. [Larger image]

Brain isn't ready to declare the mystery solved. "We're still not sure how often the plasmoids form or how much gas each one contains." The problem is, Mars Global Surveyor wasn't designed to study the phenomenon. The spacecraft was only equipped to sense electrons, not the heavier ions which would make up the bulk of any trapped gas. "Ions and electrons don't always behave the same way," he cautions. Also, MGS sampled the umbrellas at fixed altitudes and at the same local time each day. "We need to sample many altitudes and times of day to truly understand these dynamic events."

In short, he told the audience, "we need more data."

Brain is pinning his hopes on a new NASA mission named MAVEN. Short for "Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution," MAVEN is an upper atmosphere orbiter currently approved for launch to Mars in 2013. The probe is specifically designed to study atmospheric erosion. MAVEN will be able to detect electrons, ions and neutral atoms; it will be able to measure both magnetic and electric fields; it will travel around Mars in an elliptical orbit, piercing magnetic umbrellas at different altitudes, angles, and times of day; and it will explore regions both near and far from the umbrellas, giving researchers the complete picture they need.

If magnetized chunks of air are truly being torn free, MAVEN will see it happening and measure the atmospheric loss rate. "Personally, I think this mechanism is important," says Brain, "but MAVEN may yet prove me wrong."

Meanwhile, the Mystery of the Missing Martian Air is shaping up to be a ripping good yarn

From: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/21nov_plasmoids.htm

CONVERGING PLANETS: "The anticipation builds as Venus and Jupiter approach each other for their spectacular conjunction with the Moon on December 1st," says astronomy professor Jimmy Westlake of Colorado Mountain College. "In the meantime, the view of the sky's two brightest planets set against the star clouds of the Milky Way isn't half bad, either!"

Not everyone has skies so dark and starry. Fortunately, you don't need dark skies to witness the ongoing convergence of Jupiter and Venus. The two bright planets beam through clouds, twilight and even urban light pollution. Step outside at sunset and take a look.Sky maps: Nov.19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, Dec 1.

more images: from Doug Zubenel at Kill Creek Park near De Soto, Kansas; from Tyler Burg of Omaha, Nebraska; from Bill Davis of Albuquerque, New Mexico; from Katy Giorgio of Boston, Massachusetts; from Val Germann of Columbia, Missouri;

LEONID OUTBURST: Just as predicted, the Leonid meteor shower surged during the early hours of Nov. 17th. "Earth passed through a filament of debris shed by parent comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle in the year 1466," says forecaster Jérémie Vaubaillon of Caltech. The result was a sharp flurry of meteors numbering almost 90 per hour. "In Slovakia, we saw many bright and quick Leonids during the peak," reports Roman Piffl.
 

The two planets are converging on the Sun and next week, during the days around Thanksgiving in the USA, the trio will gather inside a circle less than three degrees in diameter. Looking up at noon, you'd never

Click here for live images from SOHO.

These images come from P. Edward Murray of Yardley, Pennsylvania: "Last May, I was looking at a National Geographic map of the Moon (left) when suddenly I saw the Basketball Player in the Moon," he says. "Later, I sketched him onto a photo of a full Moon (right) I took using a 4.25-inch Astroscan telescope. My discovery was published in the August 2008 edition of The Lunar Observer, a monthly publication of ALPO. The basketball player can be seen a few days before full Moon and after."

Only one question remains: Which basketball player is it?

LunaBron James, of course.

more images: from Doug Zubenel of De Soto, Kansas; from Becky Ramotowski of Tijeras, New Mexico;

"The sun is waking up and winking at us today," says Wainwright.

The "smile" is a filament of plasma connecting the two magnetic poles of sunspot 1008. Magnetograms of the active region reveal a N-S polarity characteristic of Solar Cycle 24: this is a new-cycle sunspot. The appearance of 1008 continues a recent trend of increasing new-cycle sunspot counts, which began in Oct. 2008. Solar activity is on the rise; if you have a solar telescope, take a look!

more images: from B. Shelzi and J. Stetson of South Portland, Maine; from Paul Haese of Blackwood, South Australia; from Jan Timmermans of Valkenswaard, the Netherlands; from Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from Peter Paice of Belfast, Northern Ireland; from Andy Yeung of Hong Kong;

Using an H-alpha filter tuned to the red glow of solar hydrogen, Pete Lawrence of Selsey UK witnessed "the formation of a lovely magnetic filament" connecting opposite ends of the sunspot group: photo.

Judging from its high latitude, active region 1008 is a member of new Solar Cycle 24. The appearance of 1008 continues a recent trend of increasing new-cycle sunspot counts, which began in Oct. 2008. Solar activity is on the rise; tf you have a solar telescope, take a look!

more images: from Franck Charlier of Marines, Val d'Oise, France; from David Leong of Hong Kong; from Andy Yeung of Hong Kong; from Peter Paice of Belfast, Northern Ireland; from Denis Joye of Boulogne, France; from Catalin M. Timosca of Turda, Romania;

November is picking up where October left off with the formation of yet another new-cycle sunspot, provisionally numbered 1008. It appeared today at the location circled in this SOHO UV image of the sun:

Inside that bright nest of magnetic loops, a dark sunspot is rapidly coelescing. Howard Eskildsen photographed it from his backyard observatory in Ocala, Florida. Readers, if you have a solar telescope, now is your chance to watch sunspot genesis in action.

more images: from Stephen Ames of Hodgenville, Kentucky; from Adrian Guzman of San Jose, California;

"It reminds me of jello," says atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. "Near the horizon the sun always sports a slender green rim. Our sphere-shaped atmosphere acts as a lens to lift the sun's image. The blue and green 'suns' are lifted more than the red one, but we rarely see the blue rim because blue light is mostly scattered away to form the sky color above us. The mirage conditions here have distorted the sun and vertically magnified the green rim to generate mini green flashes."

"The California Coast with its cold ocean currents overlaid by warm winds from the land is ideal for seeing sights like these." Sunset jello: another reason to go to the beach!
  AURORA WATCH: On Nov. 9th, flying photographer Brian Whittaker was 35,000 feet over the Arctic Circle when he looked out the window of his airplane and saw this:

It's time to book another flight. On Nov. 24th or 25th, a solar wind stream will hit Earth and probably spark a new round of Northern Lights. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.

Other observers saw it, too: Stephen Ames of Hodgenville, Kentucky, called it "a real WOWser!" Jan Timmermans of the Netherlands measured the prominence and found it surging "four times higher than Earth itself. It was huge." John Boyd of Santa Barbara, California, said "it was the biggest prominence I've seen in a long time. I'm glad the sun is getting active again."

Indeed it is. The month of October brought four new-cycle sunspots, doubling the total of the previous nine months. For the first time in 2008, new-cycle active regions are outnumbering their old-cycle counterparts. Solar Cycle 24 is definitely picking up steam and this fiery prominence may be a further sign of things to come.

Readers, if you have a solar telescope, take a look at the increasingly active sun.

more images: from David Leong of Hong Kong; from Jan Timmermans of Valkenswaard, the Netherlands; from Steve Irvine of Big Bay, Ontario, Canada; from Adrian Guzman of San Jose, California;

24-hr: A9 1135 UT Nov06
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2355 UT

A solar wind stream flowing from this coronal hole
could reach Earth on Nov. 6th or 7th.
Credit: Hinode X-ray Telescope

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.

more images: from Larry Alvarez of Flower Mound,