SPACE WEATHER 2009
|
12-31-08 - SUN is blank today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 512.6 km/sec
density: 2.6 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 1726 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1725 UT Dec31
24-hr: A0
1725 UT Dec31
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 1725 UT
NEW
ENGLAND FIREBALL:
On Dec.
29th, around 9:30 pm EST,
a blue-green fireball
100+ times brighter than
Venus soared over New
England and exploded
colorfully in mid-air.
Onlookers saw the flash
from at least nine US
states:
eye-witness reports.
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:
 |
12-30-08 - No sunspot today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 326.6 km/sec
density: 18.2 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1915 UT Dec30
24-hr: A0
1050 UT Dec30
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 1915 UT
|
12-29-08 - no sunspot today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 295.5 km/sec
density: 0.3 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec29
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Dec29
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
ALIGNMENT OF THE
MOON, VENUS AND
JUPITER:
This is a
spectacle that will
repeat itself after
44 long years. So get
ready and don’t miss
the chance to observe
the Moon, Venus and
Jupiter lining up in
the space.
The show begins at
around 4:13 local
time when the moon
will join with
Jupiter and Venus.
But the time is
before the sunset and
therefore the planets
will not be clearly
visible from the
naked eye. So take a
binocular and observe
the event as it takes
place.
By 4:25 pm Venus will
be seen with the
naked eye. However
Jupiter will remain
obscure. 25 minutes
later, as the sky
turns darker, all the
planets will flash
like diamonds.
Another spectacular
thing will take place
during this time. The
dark portion of the
moon reflects the
earthshine. Thus it
will have a faint
glow of a blue and
green shade. Though
this can be observed
with the naked eye, a
binocular will make
it even more
prominent.
This extraordinary
cosmic phenomenon has
already taken place
in the Southern half
of the world. There
the event was more
like a “smiley face”
but in the Northern
half it is expected
to resemble a
“frown”.
The same conjunction
between Jupiter and
Venus will take place
in 2011 and 2012. But
both times the two
planets will not have
the Moon with them.
The next time when
the trio will once
again join together
will be 18th November
of 2052. Now that is
a long time ahead.
Do not wait for that
and just go on the
roof and place your
binocular to the
southwest horizon and
thrill yourself.
There the crescent
Moon and the two
planets will form the
triangle, with Venus
below and Jupiter on
the top of it.
Do not waste any of
the minutes as the
show is speculated to
last for not more
than a couple of
hours. Then the Moon
and the planets will
sink below the
horizon making it
invisible.
However the
visibility is one of
the main problems for
the stargazers. If
the sky is clouded
they are helpless.
But there is not need
to feel sorry for
that. Because you can
observe the event for
the next few days as
the trio will repeat
their show. But of
course it will
not be as bright as
the first day.
|
|
|
12-28-08 - No sunspot today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 321.3 km/sec
density: 0.5 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec28
24-hr: A0
0640 UT Dec28
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
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
|
12-27-08 - no sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 321.3 km/sec
density: 0.5 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec28
24-hr: A0
0640 UT Dec28
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
12-26-08 - no sunspot today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 426.1 km/sec
density: 0.8 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 0046 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2355 UT Dec25
24-hr: A2
1300 UT Dec25
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2355 UT
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:

Coronal holes are
places in the sun's
atmosphere where the
sun's magnetic field
opens up and allows
the solar wind to
escape. A stream of
solar wind flowing
from this coronal
hole should reach
Earth on Dec. 30th or
31st. The impact
could light up the
Arctic Circle,
punctuating the year
with aurora borealis.
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.
|
12-25-08 - no sunspot today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 437.0 km/sec
density: 0.9 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec25
24-hr: A2
1300 UT Dec25
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
EDGE-ON FOR THE HOLIDAYS:
You look through the
telescope. Blink. Shake
your head and look again.
The planet you expected
to see in the eyepiece is
not the one that's
actually there. Too much
eggnog? No, it's just
Saturn's crazy Christmas
tilt:

Amateur
astronomer
Paulo Casquinha
took the picture
last night from
his backyard
observatory in
Quinta do Anjo,
Portugal. It
shows how
Saturn's rings
are almost
edge-on to Earth
this holiday
season. Viewed
from the side,
the normally wide
and bright rings
have become a
shadowy line
bisecting
Saturn's two
hemispheres--a
scene of rare
beauty.
"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; |
12-24-08 no sunspot - a sunspot
developing? No
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 499.4 km/sec
density: 0.7 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec24
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Dec24
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
NEW
SUNSPOTS:
This
morning, Dec. 24th,
NASA's STEREO-B
spacecraft photographed a
pair of active regions
emerging in the sun's
southern hemisphere.
Clouds of hot glowing gas
detected by
STEREO's extreme UV
telescope probably mask a
pair of new-cycle
sunspots underneath:

The clouds and
spots are not yet
visible from
Earth. STEREO-B
is stationed over
the sun's eastern
limb where it can
see things up to
three days before
the sun's
rotation turns
them toward our
planet. So,
consider this a
sneak preview.
|
12-23-08 - No sunspot today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 537.5 km/sec
density: 0.5 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec23
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Dec23
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
12-22-08 - No sunspot today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 422.0 km/sec
density: 4.5 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1915 UT Dec22
24-hr: A0
1915 UT Dec22
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
12-21-08 - The sun is blank today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 343.6 km/sec
density: 1.8 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 0006 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2350 UT Dec20
24-hr: A0
0050 UT Dec20
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2350 UT
|
12-20-08 - The sun is blank today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 298.7 km/sec
density: 3.5 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 0440 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2310 UT Dec19
24-hr: A0
2310 UT Dec19
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2355 UT
|
12-19-08 - No sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 326.4 km/sec
density: 2.4 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec19
24-hr: A0
0135 UT Dec19
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
RADIO METEORS:
The
Ursid meteor shower
caused by Comet 8P/Tuttle
peaks this year on Dec.
22nd. About a dozen
meteors per hour will fly
out of the Little Dipper
(Ursa Minor) as Earth
passes through the
comet's debris stream.
Watching these northern
meteors can be a chilling
experience, so why not
stay inside and listen to
them instead?
Spaceweather.com is
broadcasting live audio
from the Air Force Space
Surveillance Radar in
Texas. When a meteor
passes over the radar--"ping"--there
is an echo.
Give it a try;
feedback is
welcomed.
|
12-18-08 - No sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 279.7 km/sec
density: 0.7 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec18
24-hr: A0
0725 UT Dec18
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
12-17-08 - No sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 320.3 km/sec
density: 0.3 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec17
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Dec17
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
12-16-08 - No sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 357.4 km/sec
density: 2.4 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec16
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Dec16
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
SOLAR ACTIVITY:
Hours
ago, something on the far
side of the sun exploded
and hurled a massive
cloud of debris (a CME)
over the eastern limb.
Using a coronagraph to
block the sun's glare,
the Solar and
Heliospheric Observatory
(SOHO) photographed the
cloud expanding into
space:

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.
A
Giant Breach in
Earth's Magnetic
Field
12.16.2008
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."
Here is why they
can't believe
their ears: The
solar wind
presses against
Earth's
magnetosphere
almost directly
above the equator
where our
planet's magnetic
field points
north. Suppose a
bundle of solar
magnetism comes
along, and it
points north,
too. The two
fields should
reinforce one
another,
strengthening
Earth's magnetic
defenses and
slamming the door
shut on the solar
wind. In the
language of space
physics, a
north-pointing
solar magnetic
field is called a
"northern IMF"
and it is
synonymous with
shields up!
"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
|
12-15-08 - No sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 337.9 km/sec
density: 1.4 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec15
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Dec15
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
GREAT
GEMINIDS:
The Geminid meteor
shower peaked over the
weekend and "it was a great
show," says NASA astronomer
Bill Cooke. "On Saturday
night, our all-sky recording
system at the Marshall Space
Flight Center in Alabama
recorded more than 80 bright
Geminids in spite of clouds
and bright moonlight." Click
on the composite image,
below, to launch a 4 MB
movie:

Another NASA camera with
clearer skies in Georgia
recorded even more
meteors including a
rapid-fire flurry of
three at once:
movie. "This could be
one of the best displays
of Geminids we've ever
seen," says Cooke.
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]
|
12-14-08 - No sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 319.4 km/sec
density: 1.5 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec14
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Dec14
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
2008 Geminid Meteor Gallery
[previous years:
2007,
2006,
2004,
2002,
2001]
|
12-13-08 - No sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 394.0 km/sec
density: 0.9 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1915 UT Dec13
24-hr: A0
1915 UT Dec13
explanation |
more data
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.
|
12-12-08 - no sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 427.6 km/sec
density: 2.7 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 1704 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A6
1110 UT Dec12
24-hr: A8
1045 UT Dec12
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 1700 UT
On December 12, 2008 there
were
1010 potentially
hazardous asteroids.
Dec. 2008
Earth-asteroid encounters:
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.
|
12-11-08 - Sunspot 1009 on far
right edge of sun
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 418.1 km/sec
density: 2.6 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A1
1950 UT Dec11
24-hr: B5
0925 UT Dec11
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
12-10-08 New sunspot 1009

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
|
12-9-08 - No sunspot today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 400.1 km/sec
density: 0.6 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 0346 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2355 UT Dec08
24-hr: A0
2355 UT Dec08
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2355 UT
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.
|
12-8-08 - No sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 425.1 km/sec
density: 0.6 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec08
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Dec08
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT

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.
"New Solar Cycle 24 is on the
upswing while old Solar Cycle
23 is decaying," he says. The
sun is still in the pits of a
deep solar minimum, he points
out, but the little blue bars
in Hathaway's plot show that
it won't last forever. An
increasing number of
new-cycle sunspots in the
months ahead should propel
the sun out of the doldrums,
eventually leading to a
full-fledged Solar Max around
2012.
Feeling blue? Now you know
why. Stay tuned for updates
|
12-7-08 No sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 521.7 km/sec
density: 0.4 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 1854 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1810 UT Dec07
24-hr: A0
1810 UT Dec07
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 1845 UT
|
12-6-08 There are no sunspots
today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 515.9 km/sec
density: 1.9 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 1226 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1225 UT Dec06
24-hr: A0
dText">
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 1225 UT
MONSTER PROMINENCE:
Readers, if you have a
solar telescope,
train it on the edge of
the sun. An enormous
filament of plasma is
swirling over the eastern
limb:
SOHO image.
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.

- Camera name: Cloudbait (map)
- Camera description:
Cloudbait Observatory
- Camera coordinates:
N38.786111 W105.483611
- Camera altitude: 2768
meters
- Total events for this
site: 15906
- Event time: 2008-12-06
01:06:28 MST
- Image coordinates:
(0.407,0.251) - (0.516,0.179)
- Azimuth: 79.8 - 117.9
- Altitude: - - -
- Approximate duration: 1.0
seconds (28 video frames)
- Fireball: Yes
See
VIDEO
In seven years of operation,
this is the brightest
fireball I've ever recorded,"
says Peterson. "I estimate
the terminal explosion at
magnitude -18, more than 100
times brighter than a full
Moon."
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.
|
12-5-08 There are no sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 426.3 km/sec
density: 1.5 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 1942 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1945 UT Dec05
24-hr: A0
1945 UT Dec05
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 1945 UT
|
12-4-08 - There are no sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 383.6 km/sec
density: 1.1 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Dec04
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Dec04
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
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:

He opened the shutter of
his
Canon 300D on the
evening of Dec. 1st
moments after Venus
emerged from behind the
Moon. Meanwhile, Jupiter
looked on from above.
Together, the ensemble
beamed down on St.
Catherine's Lighthouse,
built 170 years ago atop
the Niton Undercliffe.
"It was a lovely scene,"
he says.
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
|
12-03-08 - The sun is blank
today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 450.9 km/sec
density: 1.0 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 0145 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2355 UT Dec03
24-hr: A0
2355 UT Dec03
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2355 UT

Earth is entering a solar wind
stream flowing from the indicated
coronal hole. Credit: SOHO
Extreme UV Telescope
|
12-02-08 No sunspot today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 295.5 km/sec
density: 3.7 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
solarWindUpdatedText">
2245 UT Dec02
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Dec02
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
LUNAR OCCULTATION OF
VENUS:
En route to last
night's Great
Conjunction, the Moon ran
right over Venus. The
event, which astronomers
call a "lunar
occultation," happened
directly over Europe
where Romanian
photographer Stanescu
Octavian took this
picture:

I caught Venus just before it
disappeared behind the dark
edge of the Moon," he says.
Venus remained hidden for
more than an hour, then
popped out again to form a
spectacular triangle with
Jupiter and Luna as opposing
vertices. "What a very nice
vision!"
Lunar occultations of
Venus happen about twice a
year. The next two: Feb 28,
2009, over Antarctica and
Apr. 22, 2009, over North
America. The North American
occultation is going to be
good, occuring in a lovely
pre-dawn Spring sky while
Mars hovers nearby. Mark your
calendar.
more images:
from Frank Ryan Jr at The
Burren, Co. Clare, Ireland;
from Erwan Henry of
Saint-Rieul, Brittany,
France;
from Monika Landy-Gyebnar
of Balatonakarattya, Hungary;
from Brian Fitzsimons of
Cavan, Ireland;
from Günther Strauch of
Borken, NRW, Germany;
from James Canvin of
Cullompton, Devon, UK;
from Wojciech Piskorz of
Gliwice, Poland;
from Claudio Bottari of
Sava, Italy;
from Eddie Guscott of
Corringham, Essex, England;
from John Durston of
Plymouth, UK;
from Martin Campbell of
Dungannon, N.Ireland;
from Elias Chasiotis at
the Valley of the Temples,
Agrigento, Sicily, Italy;
from Guenter Kleinschuster
of Feldbach, Styria, Austria;
from John Fitzsimons of
Sligo, Ireland;
from Luigi Fiorentino of
Bari, Italy;
Great Conjunction Photo Gallery
|
12-01-08 - No sunspot today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 298.9 km/sec
density: 1.4 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2210 UT Dec01
24-hr: A0
2210 UT Dec01
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT

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:
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. |
 |
|
|
11-30-08 - No sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 363.2 km/sec
density: 1.1 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Nov30
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Nov30
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
During the next 24 hours,
Luna will continue her
approach, converging with
the two planets to form a
spectacular sunset
triangle on Monday, Dec.
1st. The bright 3-way
conjunction will be
visible from all parts of
world, even from
light-polluted cities. So
pause when the sun goes
down and take a look
outside; you'll be glad
you did. Sky
maps:
Nov. 30,
Dec 1.
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 3o of
the sun:
|
11-29-08 Sun is blank today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 402.5 km/sec
density: 1.1 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 1806 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1320 UT Nov29
24-hr: A0
1320 UT Nov29
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 1805 UT

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.
SUNSET PLANETS:
When the
sun goes down tonight,
step outside and look
southwest. Venus and
Jupiter are having a
stunning close encounter
in the twilight sky.
Saied Bahrami Nezhad
sends this picture from
the Lut desert near
Kerman, Iran:

"Seeing the planets so
close together was a
dreamy experience," says
Nezhad. And it's about to
get dreamier. On Nov.
30th and Dec. 1st, the
crescent moon will leap
up from the horizon,
joining Jupiter and Venus
in a three-way
conjunction that some
astronomers are calling
"the best sky show of the
year." Don't miss a
single night:
Nov. 28,
29,
30,
Dec 1.
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
|
11-28-08 sun is blank today
- Where did yesterday's sunspot go?
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 480.9 km/sec
density: 1.3 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Nov28
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Nov28
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
11-27-08 - A new sunspot forming
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 498.6 km/sec
density: 0.9 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2241 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Nov27
24-hr: A0
1105 UT Nov27
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
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
|
11-26-08 - No sunspot today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 637.3 km/sec
density: 0.5 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2256 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Nov26
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Nov26
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
11-25-08 The sun is blank today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 514.5 km/sec
density: 7.5 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 0816 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
0815 UT Nov25
24-hr: A0
0815 UT Nov25
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 0815 UT
|
11-24-08 The sun is blank today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 282.8 km/sec
density: 3.0 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2242 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Nov24
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Nov24
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
EXPLOSION IN PROGRESS:
An
explosion is underway on
the sun. The source of
the blast lies out of
sight somewhere over the
sun's western limb, but
the ejecta is visible as
it billows into space:

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.
Nov. 2008
Earth-asteroid
encounters:
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.
|
11-23-08 the sun is blank today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 267.5 km/sec
density: 0.6 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Nov23
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Nov23
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT

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
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 284.4 km/sec
density: 3.6 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Nov22
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Nov22
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
11-21-08 The sun is blank today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 280.2 km/sec
density: 0.9 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2242 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Nov21
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Nov21
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
SASKATCHEWAN FIREBALL:
A
brilliant green fireball
startled onlookers across
western Canada on Nov.
20th (5:30 pm MST) when
it split the evening sky
and fragmented during a
series of thunderous
explosions. "The sky was
lit up almost like
daytime for 3 or 4
seconds," reports Gordon Blomgren of Alberta.
Murray McDonnell of
northwestern Saskatchewan
says "my wife and I saw a
brilliant flash of blue
white light, like
lightning. About one
minute later a long
rumbling sound shook the
house."
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.
TheStarPhoenix.com
Published: Tuesday,
November 25, 2008
A University of
Calgary investigation
of the fireball that
lit up the skies of
Alberta and
Saskatchewan on
Thursday has determined
that an asteroid
fragment weighing
approximately 10 tonnes
entered the Earth's
atmosphere over the
prairie provinces.
And U of C
researcher Alan
Hildebrand has outlined
a region in western
Saskatchewan where
chunks of the
desk-sized space rock
are expected to be
found.
According to a
press release, the
fireball first appeared
approximately 80
kilometres above and
just east of the border
city of Lloydminster,
Alberta/Saskatchewan,
and traveled
south-southeast towards
the Battle River
Valley, fragmenting
spectacularly in a
series of explosions.
The fireball penetrated
the atmosphere at a
steep angle of
approximately 60
degrees from the
horizontal and lasted
about five seconds from
5:26:40 p.m. to 5:26:45
p.m. MST with the
largest explosion at
5:26:44 p.m
The fireball was
recorded on all-sky and
security cameras
scattered across
Saskatchewan and
Alberta, in addition to
being witnessed by tens
of thousands of people
who saw it streak
across the sky, saw its
arc-welding blue flash,
or heard the subsequent
explosions.
"Firstly, we are
enormously appreciative
of all the people who
have volunteered
information about the
fireball. The public
response to this
fireball has been the
largest that we have
ever had in Canada."
said Hildebrand, Canada
Research chair in
Planetary Science and
co-ordinator of the
Canadian Fireball
Reporting Centre at the
University of Calgary.
Hildebrand said
the fireball was like a
billion-watt lightbulb
shining in the sky,
turning night into day
with a bluish white
light. It illuminated
the ground for several
hundred kilometres in
all directions,
including as far south
as Vauxhall, Alberta.
"Thanks to
everyone's help we are
now beginning to
delineate the
trajectory of the
fireball, so that its
prefall orbit can be
determined. We have
also outlined an area
where its meteorites
may have fallen,
although we will have
more precise
predictions to come,"
Hildebrand added.
©
The StarPhoenix 2008
11-29-08
Scientists find asteroid
debris
Canadian scientists say
they have located debris from a
10-ton asteroid that exploded
in the skies over Canada's
Prairie provinces earlier this
month.
Dr. Alan Hildebrand and
graduate student Ellen Milley
found several fragments late
Thursday near the
Alberta-Saskatchewan border.
They are searching for
what they say could be
thousands of fragments strewn
over a 20-square-kilometer
(seven-square-mile) area near
the Battle River.
Residents of Manitoba,
Saskatchewan and Alberta were
delighted by the huge fireball
that lit up the night sky on
November 20.
Solar Wind Rips Up
Martian Atmosphere
11.21.2008
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]
So where did the air go?
Researchers entertain several
possibilities: An asteroid
hitting Mars long ago might have
blown away a portion of the
planet's atmosphere in a single
violent upheaval. Or the loss
might have been slow and gradual,
the result of billions of years
of relentless "sand-blasting" by
solar wind particles. Or both
mechanisms could be at work.
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
|
11-20-08 The sun is blank today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 301.4 km/sec
density: 1.3 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Nov20
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Nov20
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
MYSTERIOUS COSMIC RAYS:
An
international team of
researchers has
discovered a puzzling
surplus of high-energy
electrons bombarding
Earth from space. The
source of these cosmic
rays is unknown, but it
must be close to the
solar system and it could
be made of dark matter:
full story.
|
11-19-08 -The sun is blank today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 296.5 km/sec
density: 0.2 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2229 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Nov19
24-hr: A0
1605 UT Nov19
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
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!"

He took the picture last
night from the dark
countryside near
Stagecoach, Colorado.
"Dusk's fading light,
wispy clouds, and
aircraft headed for parts
unknown combined to make
a dramatic night scene,"
he says.
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;
|
11-18-08 - The sun is blank today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 330.8 km/sec
density: 0.8 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1805 UT Nov18
24-hr: A0
1805 UT Nov18
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
11-17-08 sunspot 1008 slides over
the NE edge of the sun
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 382.3 km/sec
density: 1.3 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 1835 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1835 UT Nov17
24-hr: A0
1835 UT Nov17
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 1835 UT
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.
|
11-16-08 - sunspot 1008 on the NE
edge of the sun
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 450.4 km/sec
density: 1.1 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Nov16
24-hr: A0
0500 UT Nov16
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
11-15-08 sunspot 1008 is going
around the corner toward the back of
the sun
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 313.0 km/sec
density: 0.5 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 0626 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
0625 UT Nov15
24-hr: A0
0625 UT Nov15
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 0625 UT
The Solar and
Heliospheric Observatory
(SOHO) has been doing
this trick for years.
Every day the spacecraft
beams back
coronagraph images of
our own sun, revealing
stars, planets, comets
and asteroids that would
otherwise be lost in the
glare. Today's image
captured Mars and
Mercury:

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.
|
11-14-08 sunspot 1008 on the edge of
the sun
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 335.0 km/sec
density: 0.4 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Nov14
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Nov14
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
11-13-08 sunspot 1008 on the
upper NE corner of the sun
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 286.3 km/sec
density: 3.9 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Nov13
24-hr: A2
0645 UT Nov13
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
BASKETBALL PLAYER IN THE
MOON:
It's that time of
year, basketball season,
and if you don't believe
it, just look at
tonight's full Moon.
Etched in moondust and
hardened lava, there's a
game in progress:
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;
|
11-12-08 sunspot 1008 is
growing Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 332.1 km/sec
density: 1.9 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2230 UT Nov12
24-hr: B1
0010 UT Nov12
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
SUNSPOT GROUP 1008:
November is a cloudy
month in South Wales, so
this morning when Steve
Wainwright of Swansea saw
the sun shining through
clear skies, he couldn't
resist a smile. When he
looked at the sun through
his backyard solar
telescope, the sun was
smiling back:
"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;
|
11-11-08
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 342.2 km/sec
density: 2.7 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A1
2105 UT Nov11
24-hr: A2
0835 UT Nov11
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
SUNSPOT GROUP 1008:
A
new group of sunspots is
growing rapidly in the
sun's northern
hemisphere. The active
region, numbered 1008,
contains no fewer than
seven dark cores. Pavol
Rapavy sends this picture
from his backyard
observatory in Rimavska
Sobota, Slovakia:
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;
|
11-10-08 - Sunspot 1008 appeared
today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 407.2 km/sec
density: 2.3 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 0226 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B2
2030 UT Nov10
24-hr: B2
2030 UT Nov10
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2355 UT
SOLAR CYCLE UPDATE:
"Solar minimum is behind
us," declares NASA
sunspot forecaster David
Hathaway. He bases the
assertion on a flurry of
new-cycle sunspots in
October 2008. For the
first time, active
regions from new Solar
Cycle 24 are outnumbering
active regions from old
Solar Cycle 23. Solar
activity remains
generally low, but the
sun is showing
signs of life.
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;
|
11-9-08 sun is blank today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 460.4 km/sec
density: 2.2 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2034 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Nov09
24-hr: A0
1245 UT Nov09
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
SUNSET-FLAVORED JELLO:
"Every time I go to watch
a Pacific sunset I feel
like I'm going out on my
very first date," says
Mila Zinkova of San
Francisco, California.
"Tonight (Nov. 6th) my
date was oh-so
entertaining. A green rim
and green flashes danced
on the top and the sides
of the sun for almost a
minute as it descended
into the Pacific. The
green color was as deep
as the ocean itself." She
captured the scene in a
series of photos:
"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:

"For several hours I
had experienced a
good display of
dynamic green
auroras," says
Whittaker. "The best
view was when we
neared the coast of
Greenland.
Snow-capped peaks and
glaciers were easily
visible in the bright
moonlight while
auroras danced
overhead."
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.
|
11-8-08 sun has no hotspots
today, but solar wind is picking up
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 570.3 km/sec
density: 0.9 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2243 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Nov08
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Nov08
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
11-7-08 Sunspot 1007 sliding
around the corner to the back of the
sun
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 482.1 km/sec
density: 3.7 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2244 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A1
2245 UT Nov07
24-hr: A1
2245 UT Nov07
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
GREAT PROMINENCE:
"The sun
left two gifts on my
doorstep this morning,"
says
Alan Friedman of
Buffalo, New York. "There
was a gorgeous solar
prominence and a glorious
warm November day that
allowed me to observe it
in shirtsleeves!" This
was the view through his
backyard solar telescope:
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;
|
11-6-08 - sunspot 1007 is going
around the corner to the back side of
the sun
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 296.7 km/sec
density: 14.0 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
24-hr: A9
1135 UT Nov06
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2355 UT
|
11-5-08 - sunspot 1007 heading for
the edge of the sun

A
solar wind stream flowing from this
coronal hole
could reach Earth on Nov. 6th or 7th.
Credit: Hinode X-ray Telescope
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 295.6 km/sec
density: 0.2 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1650 UT Nov05
24-hr: B3
1255 UT Nov05
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
On November 6, 2008
there were
996 potentially
hazardous asteroids.
Nov. 2008
Earth-asteroid encounters:
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.
|
11-4-08 sunspot 1007 is heading for
the edge today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 325.9 km/sec
density: 0.5 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2040 UT Nov04
24-hr: B9
0330 UT Nov04
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
11-3-08 - sunspot - 1007

SUNSPOT
1007:
Over the weekend, sunspot
1007
grew into a substantial
active region with two
planet-sized cores connected
by dark magnetic filaments
thousands of kilometers long.
The ensemble bears a curious
resemblence to the pipe of
Sherlock Holmes: "It's
filamentary, my dear Watson!"
says Alan Friedman who sends
this picture from his
backyard observatory in
Buffalo, New York:
The high latitude and
magnetic polarity of
sunspot 1007 identify
it as a member of new
Solar Cycle 24. This
is the fourth
new-cycle sunspot to
breach the sun's
surface in the past
month. In a year of
almost
no sunspots, four
is significant. It
means that the sun is
beginning a slow
ascent out of solar
minimum to a more
active phase of the
sunspot cycle. Solar
minimum is not a
permanent condition!
Readers, if you have
a
solar telescope,
train it on sunspot
1007 to witness a
sign of things to
come.
more
images:
from Larry Alvarez
of Flower Mound,
Texas;
from Stephen W.
Ramsden of
Atlanta, Georgia;
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 409.7 km/sec
density: 1.2 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 1236 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B8
1120 UT Nov03
24-hr: B8
1120 UT Nov03
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 1235 UT
|
11-2-08 Sunspot 1007 developing
- see photos above
SOLAR
ACTIVITY:
New-cycle sunspot 1007
is
growing again and
moreover it is developing a
mixed-polarity magnetic field
that harbors energy for solar
flares. Already,
Earth-orbiting satellites
have detected a series of
minor
B-class eruptions.
Readers, if you have a
solar telescope, point it
at this crackling active
region.
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 401.2 km/sec
density: 0.6 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B2
2015 UT Nov02
24-hr: B4
1505 UT Nov02
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
On November 6, 2008 there
were
996 potentially
hazardous asteroids.
Nov. 2008
Earth-asteroid encounters:
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. |
|
|
11-1-08 sunspot 1007 -
photos above
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 424.7 km/sec
density: 0.7 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A3
2010 UT Nov01
24-hr: A3
2010 UT Nov01
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
Magnetic
Portals Connect Sun and Earth |
10.30.2008
|
Oct. 30, 2008:
During the time it takes you
to read this article,
something will happen high
overhead that until recently
many scientists didn't
believe in. A magnetic portal
will open, linking Earth to
the sun 93 million miles
away. Tons of high-energy
particles may flow through
the opening before it closes
again, around the time you
reach the end of the page.
"It's called a flux transfer
event or 'FTE,'" says space
physicist David Sibeck of the
Goddard Space Flight Center.
"Ten years ago I was pretty
sure they didn't exist, but
now the evidence is
incontrovertible."
Indeed, today Sibeck is
telling an international
assembly of space physicists
at the 2008 Plasma Workshop
in Huntsville, Alabama, that
FTEs are not just common, but
possibly twice as common as
anyone had ever imagined.
Right: An
artist's concept of Earth's
magnetic field connecting to
the sun's--a.k.a. a "flux
transfer event"--with a
spacecraft on hand to measure
particles and fields. [Larger
image]
Researchers have long known
that the Earth and sun must
be connected. Earth's
magnetosphere (the magnetic
bubble that surrounds our
planet) is filled with
particles from the sun that
arrive via the solar wind and
penetrate the planet's
magnetic defenses. They enter
by following magnetic field
lines that can be traced from
terra firma all the
way back to the sun's
atmosphere.
"We used to think the
connection was permanent and
that solar wind could trickle
into the near-Earth
environment anytime the wind
was active," says Sibeck. "We
were wrong. The connections
are not steady at all. They
are often brief, bursty and
very dynamic."
Several speakers at the
Workshop have outlined how
FTEs form: On the dayside of
Earth (the side closest to
the sun), Earth's magnetic
field presses against the
sun's magnetic field.
Approximately every eight
minutes, the two fields
briefly merge or "reconnect,"
forming a portal through
which particles can flow. The
portal takes the form of a
magnetic cylinder about as
wide as Earth. The European
Space Agency's fleet of four
Cluster spacecraft and NASA's
five THEMIS probes have flown
through and surrounded these
cylinders, measuring their
dimensions and sensing the
particles that shoot through.
"They're real," says Sibeck.
Now that Cluster and THEMIS
have directly sampled FTEs,
theorists can use those
measurements to simulate FTEs
in their computers and
predict how they might
behave. Space physicist Jimmy
Raeder of the University of
New Hampshire presented one
such simulation at the
Workshop. He told his
colleagues that the
cylindrical portals tend to
form above Earth's equator
and then roll over Earth's
winter pole. In December,
FTEs roll over the north
pole; in July they roll over
the south pole.
Right: A
"magnetic portal" or FTE
mapped in cross-section by
NASA's fleet of THEMIS
spacecraft. [Larger
image]
Sibeck believes this is
happening twice as often as
previously thought. "I think
there are two varieties of
FTEs: active and passive."
Active FTEs are magnetic
cylinders that allow
particles to flow through
rather easily; they are
important conduits of energy
for Earth's magnetosphere.
Passive FTEs are magnetic
cylinders that offer more
resistance; their internal
structure does not admit such
an easy flow of particles and
fields. (For experts: Active
FTEs form at equatorial
latitudes when the IMF tips
south; passive FTEs form at
higher latitudes when the IMF
tips north.) Sibeck has
calculated the properties of
passive FTEs and he is
encouraging his colleagues to
hunt for signs of them in
data from THEMIS and Cluster.
"Passive FTEs may not be very
important, but until we know
more about them we can't be
sure."
There are many unanswered
questions: Why do the portals
form every 8 minutes? How do
magnetic fields inside the
cylinder twist and coil?
"We're doing some heavy
thinking about this at the
Workshop," says Sibeck.
Meanwhile, high above your
head, a new portal is
opening, connecting your
planet to the sun.
|
|
10-31-08 - sunspot 1007
NEW-CYCLE SUNSPOT:
A sunspot is
emerging in the sun's
northern hemisphere and it
appears to be a member of new
Solar Cycle 24. Sunspot 1007
is located at high latitude,
as new-cycle sunspots always
are, and it has the
magnetic polariity
expected of a Cycle 24 active
region:
This is the
fourth time in October that a
new-cycle sunspot has
breached the sun's surface.
(The previous three occasions
were Oct. 4th, 11th and
17th.) In a year of almost
no sunspots, four in a
single month is a large
number, and their association
with the new solar cycle is
significant. It is a sign
that the sun is beginning a
slow ascent out of solar
minimum to a more active
phase in the months and years
ahead. Solar minimum is not a
permanent condition!

Readers, if
you have a
solar telescope, train it
on sunspot 1007 to witness a
sign of things to come.
more
images:
from J. Fairfull and J.
Stetson of South
Portland, Maine;
from Peter Paice of
Belfast, Northern Ireland;
from Pavol Rapavy of
Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia;
from Stephen Ames of
Hodgenville, Kentucky;
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 547.5 km/sec
density: 0.4 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2256 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Oct31
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Oct31
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
10-30-08 The sun is blank
today:
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 667.9 km/sec
density: 1.4 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
2325 UT Oct30
more data
Updated: Today at: 2325 UT
|
10-29-08 The sun is blank
today-

Earth is inside a solar wind stream
flowing from the indicated coronal
hole.
Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 669.8 km/sec
density: 2.1 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2355 UT Oct29
24-hr: A0
2355 UT Oct29
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2355 UT
COLORADO FIREBALL:
Multi-station
observations of last
night's Colorado fireball
reveal its nature: it was
a natural meteoroid and
not the reentry of
manmade space junk. "This
image was taken by my
all-sky camera in Guffey,
Colorado, and shows the
meteor passing directly
overhead," reports
astronomer Chris
Peterson. "The meteor had
a ground path about 170
miles long, and traveled
from east to west at 34
km/s (76,000 mph)." As
bright as a full Moon,
the fireball cast shadows
through windows more than
300 miles away, as
described in
this report from
Thomas Ashcraft near
Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Click to view videos of the fireball
On Oct. 28th at
7:29 pm Mountain Daylight Time, a
random meteoroid hit Earth's
atmosphere and disintegrated with the
luminosity of a full Moon. The
impact, which could've happened
anywhere, took place directly above
an all-sky video camera in Guffey,
Colorado.
"I've
received more than 100
eyewitness
reports," says astronomer
Chris Peterson, who
operates the camera as part
of a nightly fireball
monitoring program. Combining
the data at hand, he
estimates that "the meteor
had a
ground path about 170
miles long and traveled from
east to west at 34 km/s
(76,000 mph)."
"I was lucky
enough to see it myself from
inside my house through a
window," adds Thomas
Ashcraft. What's amazing
about that is he was located
300 miles away in
New Mexico. "It was brilliant
turquoise and green and
lasted more than nine
seconds." Ashcraft is an
amateur radio astronomer and
his receivers picked up
echoes of distant TV
transmitters bouncing off the
fireball's ionized trail:
listen.
Using a
computer model of Earth's
meteoroid environment, Bill
qa3n3uvdbktfc4pmr5u0">
that fireballs
this bright come along once
every five months or so.
Rarely, however, are they
witnessed. About 70% of all
fireballs streak over
uninhabited ocean while half
appear during the day,
invisible in sunny skies. To
catch one in the crosshairs
of a meteor camera on a dark
albeit cloudy night is good
luck indeed.
AURORA WATCH:
A
solar wind stream hit
Earth last night,
sparking brief but
intense Northern
Lights over Alaska.
Lance Parrish took
this picture from
Skiland, a small town
20 miles northeast of
Fairbanks:

Photo
details:
Nikon D3, ISO 1600, 3
secs
"The auroras
were very fast moving
and trimmed with pink
edges," he says.
"Some of the lights
went
directly
overhead."
Gusts of solar
wind continue to
buffet Earth's
magnetic field and
this could spark
another round of
geomagnetic storms
tonight. High
latitude sky watchers
should remain
alert for
auroras.
Oct. 2008 Aurora
Gallery
[Previous
Octobers:
2007,
2006,
2004,
2003,
2002,
2001,
2000]
Asteroids near
earth on these dates.
|
10-28-08 The sun is blank today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 525.9 km/sec
density: 2.9 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Oct28
24-hr: A0
0215 UT Oct28
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
10-27-08 - The sun is blank today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 347.7 km/sec
density: 0.2 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2244 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2025 UT Oct27
24-hr: A0
2025 UT Oct27
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
SOLAR EXPLOSION:
On
October.
27th, something exploded on
the far side of the sun. The
blast hurled a coronal mass
ejection (CME) over the sun's
western limb where the Solar
and Heliospheric Observatory
caught it in flight:

Click
to launch a 0.3 MB
movie
The CME was not aimed
at Earth (for the
record, it is heading
in the general
direction of Saturn),
so there will be no
space weather
consequences for our
planet. What caused
the explosion?
Possibilities include
a farside sunspot or
a collapsing magnetic
filament. Whatever
the source, it was a
break from the
relentless calm of
recent months. The
sun is alive, after
all.
ORIONID
METEORS:
Photographing Orion in
late October can be tricky.
The problem is, meteors keep
getting in the way. Just last
night, Oct. 26th, German
photographer
Jens Hackmann was
wrapping up a 33 minute
exposure when an orange
meteor flashed by the
Hunter's shoulder:
Hackmann's
camera, a
Canon 40D, caught a piece
of Halley's Comet hitting
Earth's atmosphere. Every
year around this time, Earth
crosses a stream of debris
from Halley and the encounter
creates a meteor shower
called the Orionids. This
year's display was not only
strong (a maximum of
40 meteors/hr on Oct.
21st) but also persistent:
The shower lasted for five
days and is only now
subsiding. Browse the gallery
for more meteors "getting in
the way":
2008 Orionid Meteor Gallery
[IMO
meteor counts] [2006
Orionids]
|
10-26-08 The sun is blank
today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 390.6 km/sec
density: 2.5 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1900 UT Oct26
24-hr: A0
1900 UT Oct26
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
10-25-08 The sun is blank
today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 290.6 km/sec
density: 0.9 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Oct25
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Oct25
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
10-24-08 No sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 373.5 km/sec
density: 1.0 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 0836 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
0830 UT Oct24
24-hr: A0
0830 UT Oct24
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 0830 UT
AURORA FORECAST:
A solar
wind stream is heading
for Earth and it could
spark a geomagnetic storm
when it arrives on Oct.
28th. Sky watchers around
the Arctic Circle should
be alert for
auroras.

A solar wind stream
flowing from the
indicated coronal hole
should reach Earth on or
about Oct. 28th. Credit:
SOHO Extreme UV Telescope
FLASHBACK:
One
year ago today, on
Oct. 24, 2007, Comet
17P/Holmes shocked
astronomers when it
suddenly exploded,
brightening a
million-fold to
naked-eye visibility.
Within three days of
the blast, the comet
was bigger than
Jupiter, and within
three weeks it was
larger than the sun
itself. Spanish
photographers Vicent
Peris and José Luis
Lamadrid recorded
this view on Nov. 1,
2007, using little
more than a 7-inch
telescope:

What happened to
Comet Holmes?
Just-released
observations by
NASA's Spitzer Space
Telescope define the
mass and velocity of
the explosion: "The
energy of the blast
was about 1014
joules and the total
mass was of order 1010
kg," says Bill Reach
of Caltech. In other
words, Holmes
exploded like 24
kilotons of TNT and
ejected 10 million
metric tons of dust
and gas into space.
These numbers fit a
model favored by
Reach in which a
cavern of ice some
hundred meters
beneath the comet's
crust changed phase,
from amorphous to
crystalline,
releasing in
transition enough
heat to cause Holmes
to blow its top.
Holmes has
exploded twice in
recorded history--in
1892 and 2007. Two
caverns down, how
many to go? No one
knows. Browse the
gallery for a preview
of what the next
blast might look
like:
Comet
Holmes Photo Gallery
[JPL
press release] [Night
Sky Cameras]
Also see:
http://www.greatdreams.com/comets/comets-2007.htm
|
10-23-08 No sunspots today Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 373.9 km/sec
density: 2.3 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2248 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Oct23
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Oct23
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
ORIONID OUTBURST:
The 2008
Orionid meteor shower put
on a surprisingly good
show. At maximum on Oct.
21st, observers around
the world
counted 40+ meteors
per hour, about twice the
usual rate. A fireball
monitoring station at the
Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville,
Alabama, recorded this
flurry:

Click to
view a larger movie (2 MB
gif)
In the movie, the
"floodlight" arcing
slowly across the sky is
the Moon. "Lunar glare
should have spoiled the
show, but the shower was
so bright, we saw it
despite the Moon's
interference," says Bill
Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid
Environment Office.
The source of the
Orionid meteor shower is
Halley's Comet. Every
year in October, Earth's
crosses a stream of
Halley-dust, and meteors
fly out of the
constellation Orion. The
extra Orionids of 2008
probably came from a
denser-than-usual
filament of dust. This is
the third October in a
row Orionids have surged,
suggesting a trend. Maybe
next year's outburst
won't be such a surprise!
UPDATED:
2008 Orionid Meteor
Gallery
[IMO
meteor counts] [2006
Orionids]
|
10-22-08 - No sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 422.6 km/sec
density: 1.3 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 1745 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1745 UT Oct22
24-hr: A0
1745 UT Oct22
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 1745 UT
ORIONID OUTBURST:
The 2008
Orionid meteor shower put
on a surprisingly good
show. Observers around
the world
counted 40+ meteors
per hour, about twice the
usual rate. The display
included a substantial
number of fireballs and
exploding meteors, like
this one over Sedona,
Arizona, on Tuesday
morning, Oct. 21st:

"The explosion left a
bubble of glowing debris
that expanded for at
least 15 minutes," says
photographer Marsha
Adams. She took pictures
at one minute intervals
and assembled them to
show
the aftermath of the
blast.
Orionid meteors are
specks of debris from
Halley's Comet. The extra
Orionids of 2008 probably
came from a
denser-than-usual
filament of comet dust
crossing Earth's orbit.
This is the third October
in a row this has
happened, suggesting a
trend. Maybe next year's
outburst won't be such a
surprise!
|
10-21-08 - No sunspot today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 380.0 km/sec
density: 0.8 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Oct21
24-hr: A0
0100 UT Oct21
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
LONG-RANGE FORECAST:
Approximately nine days
from now, a solar wind
stream will hit Earth.
That's a long-range
forecast made possible
for the first time by
NASA's
Stereo-B spacecraft.
The stream is flowing
from a coronal hole
photographed this morning
by the spacecraft's
extreme ultraviolet
telescope:
In years past, the
longest-range forecasts
of solar wind streams
amounted to six or seven
days. Stereo-B has
extended the range to
eight or nine days. It
does this trick by
looking over the sun's
eastern horizon to find
coronal holes before they
can be seen from Earth.
The orbit of Stereo-B is
similar to Earth's, yet
it lags 38o
behind our planet,
giving it an
"around-the-bend" view of
the sun.
Arctic sky watchers
should be alert for
auroras at the end of the
month. A Halloween storm
could be brewing.
|
10-20-08 - No sunspot today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 405.4 km/sec
density: 1.6 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2135 UT Oct20
24-hr: A0
2135 UT Oct20
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
AURORA SURPRISE:
No
geomagnetic storm was
predicted for Oct. 19th,
but one happened anyway.
"We had an outburst of
beautiful auroras here in
Finland," reports Sauli
Koski. He recorded the
green skies behind
moonlit trees using his
Nikon D3:
What happened? The
interplanetary magnetic
field (IMF)
near Earth tipped south,
opening
a crack in our
planet's magnetic
defenses against the
solar wind. Solar wind
poured in and fueled the
display.
"The clouds cleared
just in time for some
heavy auroras," says
Thomas Hagen of Tromsø,
Norway. "[It's] the
greatest show on Earth!"
|
10-19-08
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 355.6 km/sec
density: 0.7 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 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
SOLAR ACTIVITY:
It pays
to keep an eye on the
sun. Yesterday, with
little warning, an
enormous prominence
surged into view. "It was
the biggest I'd ever
seen," says longtime
observer Emiel Veldhuis
of the Netherlands. Here
is the view through his
Personal Solar Telescope:
Held aloft by solar
magnetism, the cloud of
glowing hydrogen
stretched more than 20
Earth diameters from end
to end. It curled
backwards over the sun's
horizon and for a while
seemed to promise days of
unfolding entertainment.
Then it collapsed. All
that's left today is
smooth horizon.
more images:
from Pete
Lawrence of Selsey,
West Sussex, UK;
from Thierry Legault
of Paris, France;
from Kristian Molnar
of Senec, Slovakia;
from Cai-Uso Wohler
of Bispingen, Germany;
from Denis Joye of
Boulonge, France;
from James Screech of
Bedford, England;
from Stephen Ames of
Hodgenville, Kentucky;
from Alan C Tough of
Elgin, Moray, Scotland
|
10-18-08 - No sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 280.2 km/sec
density: 2.1 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Oct18
24-hr: A6
1200 UT Oct18
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
MONSTER PROMINENCE:
Readers, if you have a
solar telescope,
train it on the sun. A
prominence is
surging over the
sun's northeastern limb
and "it's a monster,"
reports Pete Lawrence. He
sends this picture from
his backyard observatory
in Selsey, UK:
"It's so big that I
couldn't fit it all in
one frame--a stunning
arch of plasma that now
appears to be reaching
back towards the surface
at the other end," he
says.
more images:
from Emiel Veldhuis
of Zwolle, the
Netherlands;
from Cai-Uso Wohler
of Bispingen, Germany;
from Denis Joye of
Boulonge, France;
from James Screech of
Bedford, England;
from Stephen Ames of
Hodgenville, Kentucky;
|
10-17-08

Tiny fading sunspots 1005 and 1006
are both members of Solar Cycle 24.
Credit: SOHO/MDI
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 286.0 km/sec
density: 0.8 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 0231 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1845 UT Oct17
24-hr: A3
0110 UT Oct17
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2355 UT
|
10-16-08 Sunspot - still
visible - see photo below
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 311.0 km/sec
density: 1.7 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Oct16
24-hr: A0
0500 UT Oct16
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
SOLAR
HOT SPOTS:
NASA's
Stereo-B spacecraft is
monitoring a string of hot
spots where magnetic fields
are poking through the solar
surface. All four are located
at high latitude, a sign that
they belong to new Solar
Cycle 24:

Stereo-B enjoys a
unique view of the
sun. Because it lags
38o
behind Earth in
its orbit, Stereo-B
is able to look down
on a broad swath of
sun invisible from
our planet. The
spacecraft's
"over-the-horizon"
view clearly reveals
the line of active
regions.
Does this mean
Solar Cycle 24 is
picking up steam?
Probably, yes, but
only a little. Just
one of these active
regions is a
full-fledged sunspot
(numbered 1005),
while the others are
merely
"proto-sunspots"
without a dark
sunspot-core. It
beats another
blank day on the
sun! Stay tuned for
developments
|
10-15-08 Sunspot 1005 moving
across sun
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 365.2 km/sec
density: 2.8 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2244 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Oct15
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Oct15
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
ORANGE SEAS:
The Moon
is more than just shades
of gray. Lunar seas are
suffused with blue,
purple, orange and other
colors--you just can't
see them at first glance.
Last night,
Catalin Timosca of
Turda, Romania, took a
picture that revealed the
hidden palette of the
Hunter's Moon:

The colors are
real. Blue hues
reveal
titanium-rich
areas while
orange and purple
colors show
regions that are
low on iron.
For the
record, she used
a
Nikon D40X
digital camera,
but it wasn't the
camera that did
the trick.
Careful but
straightforward
processing in
Photoshop can
turn almost any
digital photo of
the full Moon
into a mineral
map. Astronomers
working with the
Hubble Space
Telescope use
similar
techniques to
find
valuable ores
for future lunar
settlements.
Look at the
Moon tonight.
Does it
really seem
so gray?
moon
photos:
from Piotr
Majewski of
Torun, Poland;
from Mohammad
Soltanolkottabi
of Esfahan, Iran;
from Thad V'Soske
of Grand Valley,
Colorado;
from P-M Hedén
of Vallentuna,
Sweden;
from Elias
Chasiotis of
Markopoulo,
Greece;
from Martin Mc
Kenna of
Maghera, Co.
Derry, N.
Ireland;
from Tamas
Ladanyi of
Veszprem,
Hungary;
from C.J. Wood
of Ridgely,
Maryland;
from Mila Zinkova
of San Francisco,
California;
from Hunter
Outten of
Frankford,
Delaware;
from Edmund E
Kasaitis of
Manchester,
Maryland;
from Don
Poggensee of
Ida Grove, Iowa;
|
10-14-08 - Sunspot 1005 moving
across sun Current conditions
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2115 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Oct14
24-hr: A1
1220 UT Oct14
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
10-13-08 Sunspot 1005
appears
NEW-CYCLE SUNSPOT:
A "new-cycle" sunspot
belonging to Solar Cycle 24 has
emerged near the sun's northeastern
limb. Sunspot 1005 has a two dark
cores (one of them busily
fragmenting) and a simple bipolar
magnetic field that poses no threat
for solar flares. "It's a lovely
little group of spots," says Pete
Lawrence, who sends this picture from
his backyard observatory in Selsey,
UK:

This is the third time in as
many weeks that a new-cycle
sunspot has interrupted the
year's remarkable run of
blank suns. The
accelerating pace of
new-cycle sunspot production
is an encouraging sign that,
while solar activity remains
very low, the sunspot cycle
is unfolding more or less
normally. We are not stuck in
a permanent solar minimum.
more images:
from Mike Borman of
Evansville, Indiana;
from Alan Friedman of
Buffalo, NY;
from Pete Lawrence of
Selsey, UK;
from Wouter Verhesen of
Sittard, The Netherlands;
from J. Fairfull and J.
Stetson of South
Portland, Maine;
from Greg Piepol of
Rockville, Md;
from Tibor Horvath of
Hegyhatsal, Hungary;
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 523.8
km/sec
density: 2.2
protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 1322 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
0735 UT Oct12
24-hr: A0
0735 UT Oct12
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 1325
UT
|
10-12-08 sunspot 1005 appears -
see photos above
NEW-CYCLE
SUNSPOT: A
"new-cycle" sunspot belonging to
Solar Cycle 24 has emerged near the
sun's northeastern limb. Sunspot 1005
has two fast-growing dark cores wider
than Earth and a simple bipolar
magnetic field that poses no threat
for solar flares.
Alan Friedman sends this picture
from his backyard observatory in
Buffalo, New York:

This is the third time in as
many weeks that a new-cycle
sunspot has interrupted the
year's remarkable run of
blank suns. The
accelerating pace of
new-cycle sunspot production
is an encouraging sign that,
while solar activity remains
very low, the sunspot cycle
is unfolding more or less
normally. We are not stuck in
a permanent solar minimum.
Readers with
solar telescopes should
train them on the sun this
weekend to observe sunspot
genesis in action.
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 523.8 km/sec
density: 2.2 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 1322 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
0735 UT Oct12
24-hr: A0
0735 UT Oct12
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 1325 UT
On October 12, 2008
there were
990 potentially
hazardous asteroids.
Oct. 2008
Earth-asteroid encounters:
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. |
|
|
10-11-08 NEW SUNSPOT: 1005
-see above A
"new-cycle" sunspot belonging to
Solar Cycle 24 is emerging near the
sun's northeastern limb. This is the
third time in as many weeks that a
new-cycle sunspot has interrupted the
year's remarkable run of blank suns.
The accelerating pace of new-cycle
sunspot production is an encouraging
sign that, while solar activity
remains very low, the sunspot cycle
is unfolding more or less normally.
We are not stuck in a permanent solar
minimum. Readers with solar
telescopes should train them on the
sun this weekend to observe sunspot
genesis in action.
MAGNETIC STORM:
A solar wind
stream hit Earth on Oct.
11th, sparking the strongest
geomagnetic storm of 2008.
The disturbance registered 7
on the 0-to-9 K-index scale
of geomagnetic activity.
Bright auroras spread across
Finland, where
Sauli Koski took this
picture:

Finally some good
auroras and no
clouds!" he says.
Bright moonlight
added beauty to the
scene by illuminating
the landscape. Koski
made
a series of
exposures using a
Nikon D3 digital
camera, opening the
shutter for 6 seconds
at 800 ASA.
High-latitude sky
watchers should
remain
alert for auroras
as the solar wind
continues to blow.
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 534.9 km/sec
density: 1.7 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Oct11
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Oct11
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
10-10-08 no sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 331.6 km/sec
density: 10.8 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Oct10
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Oct10
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
10-09-08 no sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 303.8 km/sec
density: 1.4 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2218 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Oct09
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Oct09
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
Click to
launch a 1.4 MB movie
NASA's
STEREO-A spacecraft
recorded this spectacular
prominence on Sept. 29th. No
sunspot was involved. A
magnetic filament snaking
around the sun's north pole
suddenly became unstable and
erupted, disgorging a cloud
of hydrogen large enough to
swallow a hundred Earths.
How and why prominences
erupt is a topic of ongoing
research. The blasts are
unpredictable, which is why
today's sun is so full of
promise:
image. By the standard of
prominences, solar
activity is looking up.
|
10-08-08 no sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 321.2 km/sec
density: 1.6 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT Oct08
24-hr: A0
2245 UT Oct08
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT

(Updated Oct. 15th) Last
week when asteroid
2008 TC3 entered Earth's
atmosphere over Sudan, "classified
assets" were watching. Without naming
names, the US government has
released a summary of what they
saw: "Sensors aboard US satellites
detected the impact of a bolide over
Africa on 7 October 2008 at 02:45:40
UT. Initial observations put the
object at 65.4 km altitude at 20.9o
N, 31.4o E. The object
detonated at an altitude of
approximately 37 km at 20.8 o
N, 32.2o E. The
total radiated energy was
approximately 4.0X1011
joules, equivalent to ~0.1 kilotons
of TNT."
(Updated Oct. 8th)
On Oct. 7th, asteroid
2008 TC3 hit Earth and
exploded in the atmosphere over
northern Sudan. An
infrasound array in Kenya
recorded the impact:
map. Dr. Peter Brown of the
University of Western Ontario has
inspected the data and he
estimates that the asteroid hit
at 0243 UTC with an energy
between 1.1 and 2.1 kilotons of
TNT. The explosion was imaged by
the weather satellite Meteosat 8:
"The explosion was
visible in all 12 of the
satellite's spectral
channels, covering
wavelengths from 0.5 to
14 microns," says
Jiri Borovicka
of the Czech Academy of
Sciences, who is
analyzing the data. "The
satellite takes pictures
every five minutes; the
fireball appeared at 0245
UTC and had faded away by
0250 UTC."
So far, no ground
pictures of the fireball
have been submitted; the
impact occurred in a
remote area with few and
possibly no onlookers
capable of recording the
event. The only report of
a visual sighting comes
from
Jacob Kuiper, General
Aviation meteorologist at
the National Weather
Service in the
Netherlands:
"Half an hour before
the predicted impact of
asteroid 2008 TC3, I
informed an official of
Air-France-KLM at
Amsterdam airport about
the possibility that
crews of their airliners
in the vicinity of impact
would have a chance to
see a fireball. And it
was a success! I have
received confirmation
that a KLM airliner,
roughly 750 nautical
miles southwest of the
predicted atmospheric
impact position, has
observed a short flash
just before the expected
impact time 0246 UTC.
Because of the distance
it was not a very large
phenomenon, but still a
confirmation that some
bright meteor has been
seen in the predicted
direction. Projected on
an infrared satellite
image from Meteosat
7, I have indicated the
position of the plane (+)
and the predicted impact
area in Sudan (0)."
2008 TC3 was
discovered on Oct. 6th by
astronomers using the Mt.
Lemmon telescope in
Arizona as part of the
NASA-funded Catalina Sky
Survey for near-Earth
objects. Asteroids the
size of 2008 TC3 hit
Earth 5 to 10 times a
year, but this is the
first time one has been
discovered before
it hit.
BONUS:
2008 TC3 was so close to
Earth, different
observers around the
globe saw the asteroid
trace different paths
among the stars. This
effect, called
parallax, is
beautifully illustrated
in a compilation of 566
published observations
prepared by Matthias
Busch:
image.
|
10-07-08
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 368.0 km/sec
density: 1.8 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1700 UT Oct07
24-hr: A0
1700 UT Oct07
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT

MOUNTAIN VIEW -- Nasa
scientists at Ames Research Center in
Mountain View say scientists did
something Monday night that they've
never been able to do before. They
were able to predict where and when
an asteroid would enter the earth's
atmosphere.
The asteroid was about the size of
a car and entered the atmosphere over
the African country of Sudan going
about eight miles a second.
So far there are no reports of
damage. It is believed that the space
rock burned up before reaching the
ground, although small pieces could
have made it to the ground.
Scientists said space rocks of
that size usually enter the earth's
atmosphere about once or twice a
year.
But this time, they were able
to predict the impact 12 hours in
advance. David Morrison, of the NASA
Lunar Science Institute, said "Our
Spaceguard telescopes, the telescopes
looking up and doing a catalog of
asteroids happened by good luck to
see this just one night before it
hit."
Morrison added that the Spaceguard
Project began ten years ago, but
until now had never been able to
forecast an asteroid collision. "The
earth orbits the sun in a kind of
celestial shooting gallery and we are
certainly hit by all size objects. If
you think about the surface of the
moon, all those craters, the earth
would be just as heavily cratered."
An asteroid collision with
earth has been a subject of science
fiction for many years. In reality,
it's happened in the past and will
likely happen again in the future.
"If it's big enough to get through
the atmosphere, it hardly slows down.
It hits the ground 3 or 4 seconds
after it enters the atmosphere, and
there's just an explosion. It's like
a big bomb going off," said Morrison.
In Arizona, there is a meteor
crater measuring about one mile
across. Scientists say that was made
by an asteroid the size of a ten
story building some 50,000 years ago.
Some people believe the
dinosaurs disappeared 65 million
years ago because a space rock ten
miles across smashed into the earth.
The impending arrival of an
asteroid doesn't bother some people,
but others are concerned. Blair
Hardee of Mountain View said, "It
worries me because if a small
asteroid like that can come into the
atmosphere then a bigger one
definitely could too." Al Lewis also
of Mountain View countered, "That's
something I really can't worry about
so I try to worry about the things I
can do something about."
Nasa's David Morrison sees a
practical application. "If you
predicted the impact with just a few
days or weeks warning, you could at
least evacuate. If you have decades
of warning then we have the space
technology to go out with a space
craft and actually deflect it, so it
misses the Earth a little bit."
Scientists say it is just a matter
of time.
Copyright 2008
by
KTVU.com.
ASTEROID 2008 TC3: A small, newly-discovered
asteroid named 2008 TC3 is approaching Earth and
chances are good that it will hit. Measuring only
a few meters across, the space rock poses no
threat to people or structures on the ground, but
it should create a spectacular fireball,
releasing about a kiloton of energy as it
disintegrates and explodes in the high
atmosphere. At least one expert estimates that
atmospheric entry will occur on Oct 7th at 0246
UTC over northern Sudan.
|
10-06-08 no sunspots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 412.6 km/sec
density: 0.8 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2256 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Oct06
24-hr: A5
0250 UT
Oct06
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
10-05-08 No sunspots today - the previous 1002
and 1003 have faded away
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 446.8 km/sec
density: 0.6 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 1504 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
1505 UT
Oct06
24-hr: A5
0250 UT
Oct06
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 1505 UT
Earth is exiting the solar wind
stream that caused the display, but
another stream is on the way. Sky
watchers around the Arctic Circle
should
be alert for auroras when it
arrives on Oct. 8th or 9th.
|
10-04-08 - sunspot 1003
NEW SUNSPOT:
Magnetic fields are punching through the
solar surface and coalescing to form a
sunspot near the sun's southeastern limb.
This SOHO magnetic map of the sun shows
the region's location and polarity:

The high southern latitude of the
active region means it is probably a
member of new Solar Cycle 24. The sun
has been
relentlessly blank for most of
2008, signifying a deep and sleepy
minimum of the solar cycle. This tiny
spot, and other recent ones like it,
show that the sun is awakening again,
albeit very slowly.
|
10-03-08 - No sunspots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 621.9 km/sec
density: 1.4 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 1425 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
1420 UT
Oct03
24-hr: A0
0820 UT
Oct03
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 1420 UT

HOW ROUND IS THE SUN?
Scientists using NASA's
RHESSI spacecraft have measured the
roundness of the sun with unprecedented
precision, and they find that it is not a
perfect sphere. During years of high solar
activity the sun develops a rough "cantaloupe
skin" that increases the sun's oblateness
The crinkles, shown here in a July 2005
photo taken by astrophotographer
Gary
Palmer, brighten and fatten the "stellar
waist," adding more than 10 milli-arcseconds
to the sun's equatorial angular diameter.
Solar physicists have long known about these
crinkles, which are made of magnetism and
trace bubbling "supergranules" on the sun's
surface, but only now has RHESSI revealed
their unexpected effect on the sun's global
shape. This research has far ranging
implications for solar physics and theories
of gravity:
full story
|
10-02-08 No sunspots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 697.2 km/sec
density: 0.5 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2135 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Oct02
24-hr: A0
2245 UT
Oct02
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
10-01-08 No sunspots today
SPOTLESS SUN:
Astronomers who
count sunspots have announced that 2008
has become the "blankest year" of the
Space Age. Sunspot counts are at a
50-year low, signifying a deep minimum in
the 11-year cycle of solar activity. Get
the
full story from Science@NASA.
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 591.7 km/sec
density: 1.1 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2256 UT
X-ray
Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245
UT Oct01
24-hr: A0
2245
UT Oct01
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT

Earth is
inside a solar wind stream flowing
from the
indicated coronal hole.
Credit: Hinode X-ray
|
9-30-08 - Two proto sunspots are
emerging

PROTO-SUNSPOTS:
Magnetic fields
are poking through the sun's surface and
struggling to form a pair of new
sunspots. Their locations are indicated
on this morning's SOHO magnetic map of
the sun:
The magnetic orientation of
the northern hemisphere
proto-spot identifies it as a
member of new
Solar Cycle 24. The other
spot near the equator may be a
member of old
Solar Cycle 23. During the
long transition from one solar
cycle to the next, it is not
unusual to see members of both
cycles on the sun at the same
time.Readers, if you
have a solar telesscope,
monitoring is encouraged.
more images:
from Pavol Rapavy of Rimavska
Sobota, Slovakia
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 474.5 km/sec
density: 6.0 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2142 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2335 UT
Sep30
24-hr: A0
2335 UT
Sep30
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2335 UT
|
9-29-08 - no sunspots today

A solar wind
stream flowing from
the indicated coronal hole
should
reach Earth on Oct. 1st or 2nd.
Credit:
SOHO Extreme UV
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 364.7 km/sec
density: 1.1 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2255 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Sep29
24-hr: A0
0835 UT
Sep29
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
GREAT PROMINENCE:
A prominence of rare
beauty is dancing along the sun's southern
rim.

"That was the view through my
Coronado PST on Sept. 28th," says
Jerome Grenier of Paris, France. "What a
great prominence!"
A prominence is a cloud of hot gas
held in the grip of solar magnetic
fields. With that in mind,
watch the movie again. The motions
you just witnessed are a
major puzzle for solar physicists. No
one understands why the top of the
prominence cascades down as fast as it
does; the "magnetic diffusion
coefficient" of the medium shouldn't
allow it. At the same time, swirls and
vortices indicate an exquisite degree of
magnetic control so far impossible to
duplicate in Earth laboratories. How does
the sun do these things? It's a beautiful
mystery. If you have a
solar telescope, take a look.
more images:
from Jack Newton of Osoyoos, British
Columbia;
from Wouter Verhesen of Sittard, The
Netherlands;
from Larry Alvarez of Flower Mound,
Texas;
from Didier Favre of
Brétigny-sur-Orge, France;
from Robert Arnold of Isle of Skye,
Scotland;
from Cai-Uso Wohler of Bispingen,
Germany;
from P-M Hedén of Vallentuna,
Sweden;
from Steve Wainwright of Swansea,
South Wales;
from Les Cowley of the UK;
from Emiel Veldhuis of Zwolle, the
Netherlands;
from Stephen Ames of Hodgenville,
Kentucky;
from Adrian Guzman of San Jose,
California;
|
9-28-08 No sunspots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 357.5 km/sec
density: 3.0 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2256 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Sep28
24-hr: A0
2245 UT
Sep28
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
9-27-08 No sunspots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 342.7 km/sec
density: 3.4 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2256 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Sep27
24-hr: A0
2245 UT
Sep27
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT

A solar
wind stream flowing
from the indicated
coronal hole
should reach Earth on or about
Oct. 1st. Credit: Hinode X-ray Telescope
|
9-26-08 No sunspots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 330.2 km/sec
density: 2.5 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2256 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Sep26
24-hr: A0
0935 UT
Sep26
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
9-25-08 - No sunspot today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 336.3 km/sec
density: 6.8 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
1650 UT
Sep25
24-hr: A0
1650 UT
Sep25
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
9-24-08 - Sunspot 1002 fades
The real excitement about the active
region was not its size or duration, but
rather its polarity. The orientation of
the sunspot's magnetic field identified
it as a member of new
Sunspot Cycle 24. Because the year
2008 has brought so many blank suns, some
observers have wondered if we are ever
going to climb out of the ongoing deep
solar minimum. Sunspot 1002 is an
encouraging sign that the 11-year solar
cycle is indeed progressing, albeit
slowly.
more images:
from Alan Friedman of Buffalo, New
York;
from N. Hebert et al. of South
Portland, Maine
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 297.4 km/sec
density: 3.6 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Sep24
24-hr: A0
1050 UT
Sep24
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
9-23-08 See sunspot 1002 below in
closeup
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 290.0 km/sec
density: 3.3 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
<{>
X-ray
Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245
UT Sep23
24-hr: A0
0020
UT Sep23
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT

This is a closeup of sunspot 1002
Solar
Wind Loses Power, Hits 50-year Low
Sept. 23, 2008: In a
briefing today at NASA headquarters, solar
physicists announced that the solar wind is
losing power.
"The average pressure of the solar wind has
dropped more than 20% since the mid-1990s,"
says Dave McComas of the Southwest Research
Institute in San Antonio, Texas. "This is the
weakest it's been since we began monitoring
solar wind almost 50 years ago."
McComas is principal investigator for the
SWOOPS solar wind sensor onboard the Ulysses
spacecraft, which measured the decrease.
Ulysses, launched in 1990, circles the sun in
a unique orbit that carries it over both the
sun's poles and equator, giving Ulysses a
global view of solar wind activity:

Above: Global
measurements of solar wind
pressure by Ulysses. Green curves
trace the solar wind in
1992-1998, while blue curves
denote lower pressure winds in
2004-2008. [Larger
image]
Curiously, the speed of
the million mph solar wind hasn't
decreased much—only 3%. The
change in pressure comes mainly
from reductions in temperature
and density. The solar wind is
13% cooler and 20% less dense.
"What we're seeing is a long term
trend, a steady decrease in
pressure that began sometime in
the mid-1990s," explains Arik
Posner, NASA's Ulysses Program
Scientist in Washington DC.
How unusual is this event?
"It's hard to say. We've only
been monitoring solar wind since
the early years of the Space
Age—from the early 60s to the
present," says Posner. "Over that
period of time, it's unique. How
the event stands out over
centuries or millennia, however,
is anybody's guess. We don't have
data going back that far."
Flagging solar wind has
repercussions across the entire
solar system—beginning with the
heliosphere.
The heliosphere is a bubble of
magnetism springing from the sun
and inflated to colossal
proportions by the solar wind.
Every planet from Mercury to
Pluto and beyond is inside it.
The heliosphere is our solar
system's first line of defense
against galactic cosmic rays.
High-energy particles from black
holes and supernovas try to enter
the solar system, but most are
deflected by the heliosphere's
magnetic fields.
"The solar wind isn't inflating
the heliosphere as much as it
used to," says McComas. "That
means less shielding against
cosmic rays."
In addition to weakened solar
wind, "Ulysses also finds that
the sun's underlying magnetic
field has weakened by more than
30% since the mid-1990s," says
Posner. "This reduces natural
shielding even more."
Unpublished Ulysses cosmic ray
data show that, indeed, high
energy (GeV) electrons, a minor
but telltale component of cosmic
rays around Earth, have jumped in
number by about 20%.
These extra particles pose no
threat to people on Earth's
surface. Our thick atmosphere and
planetary magnetic field provide
additional layers of protection
that keep us safe.
But any extra cosmic rays can
have consequences. If the trend
continues, astronauts on the Moon
or en route to Mars would get a
higher dose of space radiation.
Robotic space probes and
satellites in high Earth orbit
face an increased risk of
instrument malfunctions and
reboots due to cosmic ray
strikes. Also, there are
controversial studies linking
cosmic ray fluxes to cloudiness
and climate change on Earth. That
link may be tested in the years
ahead.
|
9-22-08

NEW SUNSPOT: For the first
time in months, a significant sunspot is emerging
on the sun. It is a fast-growing active region
with two dark cores, each larger than Earth. The
magnetic polarity of the sunspot identifies it as
a member of new Sunspot Cycle 24. Because the
year 2008 has brought so many blank suns, some
observers have wondered if we are ever going to
climb out of the ongoing deep solar minimum.
Today's new sunspot is an encouraging sign that
the 11-year solar cycle is indeed progressing,
albeit slowly.
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 313.6 km/sec
density: 4.4 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 1705 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
1255 UT
Sep22
24-hr: A0
1255 UT
Sep22
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 1705 UT
 |
9-21-08 No sunspots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 296.4 km/sec
density: 2.9 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2256 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2145 UT
Sep21
24-hr: A0
2145 UT
Sep21
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
SOLAR ACTIVITY:
By the
standard of sunspot counts, solar
activity is low. Maybe there should
be another standard:
"The face of the sun was pretty
bare today, but the limb was a
different story. There was a really
big prominence," says
Larry Alvarez of Flower Mound,
Texas. "It looked like a raging 'wire
of fire.' I took the picture using my
Coronado 90mm
solar filter and a homemade ccd
camera."
FOOTBALL-SHAPED PLANET:
The International
Astronomical Union (IAU) has just named the
solar system's fifth dwarf planet,
Haumea, after the Hawaiian goddess of
childbirth and fertility. Located just beyond
Pluto, Haumea spins so rapidly that it has
been elongated like a football approximately
2200 km long. The strange planet has two
moons, Hi'iaka and Namaka:
IAU press release.
|
9-20-08 No sunspots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 327.6 km/sec
density: 2.6 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Sep20
24-hr: A0
2245 UT
Sep20
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
9-19-08 No sunspots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 363.3 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
Sep19
24-hr: A0
0800 UT
Sep19
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
MICKEY MOUSE
EARS:
Ultraviolet photos taken by the Solar
and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)
reveal the a strange pair of "Mickey
Mouse" ears on the sun. They've been
sighted many times in recent weeks
and are especially prominent today:
What are they?
Coronal cavities--regions of low
density, high temperature gas
contained by loops of magnetic field.
Coronal cavities are where
prominences are born. Indeed, there
is a prominence inside the righthand
cavity; look for it in the red image,
above, also from SOHO.
There's more to this
story. The two ears appear to be two
distinct cavities. In fact, they are
one. The actual cavity is a collosal
ring encircling the north pole of the
sun. Geometrically, it is similar to
the
auroral ovals of Earth. The two
ears are cross-sections of the
translucent ring, distinctly visible
because they hang out over the edge
of the solar disk.
The ring-shaped
cavity is also known as the sun's
"polar crown" and it spawns some
truly beautiful prominences. The
polar crown is easiest to see during
solar minimum when the sun is not
cluttered with spots--so now is the
perfect time. Look for the ears in
daily images from SOHO.
|
9-18-08 No sunspots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 357.2 km/sec
density: 1.4 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2257 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2250 UT
Sep18
24-hr: A0
2250 UT
Sep18
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2250 UT
LUNAR TRANSIT:
Last night,
photographer John Stetson drove to
Goosefair Bay in Maine, set up his
camera, and waited for a winged form
to flit across the Moon. Right on
time, it appeared:
"It's the International Space
Station," says Stetson. "The ISS was
233 miles above Goosefair Bay when it
passed directly in front of the 89%
illuminated Moon." Because the ISS
was in Earth's shadow at the time of
the overpass, it made a dark-as-night
silhouette against the gray lunar
surface.
An even better time to see the ISS
is when it is out of Earth's
shadow. Sunlight striking the
behemoth space station turns it into
one of the brightest objects in the
night sky, second only to the Moon
and sometimes Venus. Its easy to spot
if you know
when to look.
more images:
from Ralf Vandebergh of the
Netherlands;
from Thomas Dorman of Horizon
City, Texas;
from Mike Salway of Central
Coast, NSW Australia;
from John C McConnell of
Maghaberry Northern Ireland;
|
9-17-08\ - no sunspots today - no black corona
holes either
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 383.3 km/sec
density: 2.0 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 0042 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2355 UT
Sep17
24-hr: A0
2355 UT
Sep17
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2355 UT
NOT-SO-BLANK SUN:
Yes, the sun is
utterly blank--no sunspots.
But the
featureless sun is still a good target
for photography, provided your neighbors
have trees:
\\
Yesterday, I was
testing the focus on my
H-alpha scope as the sun was
rising,"
says
Stephen W. Ramsden of
Atlanta, Georgia. "By accident I
got this weird
shot of tree limbs
in my neighborhood in front of
the violent solar disc."
Hundreds of miles
away in Flower Mound, Texas,
photographer
Larry Alvarez
reports that, while "the sun
has hit rock bottom,"
trees are
not required for a good
shot. "The sun is still
pure gold for the solar
imager."
more
images:
from James Kevin Ty of
Manila, Philippines;
from Stephen Ames of
Hodgenville, Kentucky;
from Alan Friedman of
Buffalo, NY;
from Cai-Uso Wohler of
Bispingen, Germany;
from N. Hebert, J. Fairfull and
J. Stetson of South Portland,
Maine |
9-16-08 No sun spots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 524.3 km/sec
density: 0.5 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 1815 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
1815 UT
Sep16
24-hr: A0
0920 UT
Sep16
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 1815 UT
|
9-15-08 no sun spots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 551.9 km/sec
density: 1.9 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Sep15
24-hr: A0
2245 UT
Sep15
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
JULES VERNE:
Two weeks from now, on
Sept 29th, ESA's
Jules Verne spacecraft will re-enter
Earth's atmosphere and disintegrate as a
fireball over the south Pacific Ocean.
Until then, the doomed ship is circling
Earth in plain view of sky watchers.
This movie of Jules Verne gliding by
Polaris (the North Star) was recorded on
Sept. 10th by Kevin Fetter of Ontario,
Canada. People in North America and
Europe are favored with plenty of similar
passes in the week ahead. Check the
Simple Satellite Tracker for viewing
times.
more images:
from Thomas Dorman of Horizon
City,Texas;
from John C McConnell of Maghaberry,
Northern Ireland.
AURORA WATCH:
A solar wind
stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic
field and causing geomagnetic storms
around the Arctic Circle. "The auroras
were visible tonight (Sept. 14) in spite
of twilight and bright moonlight," says
Bjorn Jorgensen, who sends this picture
from Tromso, Norway:

Also in Tromso, Martin Ratcliffe reports
activity lasting more than two hours
"with a five minute period of especially
intense curtains dancing across the
entire sky."
More storms are in the offing as the
solar wind continues to blow. Sky
watchers from Alaska to Scandinavia
should be alert for auroras.
|
9-14-08 no sun spots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 390.5 km/sec
density: 14.0 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Sep14
24-hr: A0
2245 UT
Sep14
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
9-13-08 - No sunspot today - yesterday's
sunspot disappeared again.
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 285.6 km/sec
density: 3.2 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 0546 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
0545 UT
Sep14
24-hr: A0
0545 UT
Sep14
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 0545 UT
|
9-12-08 - sunspot 1001 just appeared - its
very small
EMERGING SUNSPOT:
A new sunspot is
emerging near the sun's equator.
"
Finally!" says Pavol Rapavy who sends
this picture from Rimavska Sobota,
Slovakia.
Readers with
solar telescopes, take a look.
Lesson on sunspot numbers
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 322.1 km/sec
density: 1.0 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2317 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2315 UT
Sep12
24-hr: A0
1630 UT
Sep12
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2315 UT
HARVEST MOON:
This weekend's
full Moon (Sept. 14/15) has a special
name--the Harvest Moon. It's the full
moon closest to the northern autumnal
equinox (Sept. 22). In years past,
farmers depended on the light of the
Harvest Moon to gather ripening crops
late into the night. Post-Edison, we
appreciate it mainly for its beauty. Be
alert in the nights ahead for Harvest
Moon
halos,
coronas and 'dogs.
|
9-11-08 no sunspot today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 361.5 km/sec
density: 3.6 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Sep11
24-hr: A0
2245 UT
Sep11
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT |
9-10-08 no sunspot today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 434.0 km/sec
density: 2.2 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Sep10
24-hr: A0
2245 UT
Sep10
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
CORONAL HOLE: Japan's
Hinode spacecraft is monitoring a dark hole in
the sun's atmosphere--a coronal hole:
Coronal holes are places where the sun's
magnetic field opens up and allows the
solar wind to spill out. A stream of
solar wind from this hole will hit Earth
on Sept. 13th, possibly sparking
geomagnetic storms. High-latitude sky
watchers should be alert for auroras this
weekend.

|
9-9-08 0 no sunspots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 477.3 km/sec
density: 4.9 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2231 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2355 UT
Sep09
24-hr: A0
2355 UT
Sep09
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2355 UT
FIREBALL OUTBURST:
Yesterday, Sept. 9th, with no warning whatsoever,
a flurry of bright fireballs lit up the skies of
North America. "Our SENTINEL all-sky camera
picked up 25 bright meteors in a shower that
began at 0620 UT and lasted approximately 4
hours," reports NASA astronomer Bill Cooke of the
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,
Alabama. This video "frame-stack" shows the
outburst at a glance:

"Most appear to have a radiant near
Perseus (3.3h, +43o),
leading us to hypothesize an outburst of
the September Perseids," says Cooke. The
September Perseids come from an unknown
comet and typically produce no more than
a handful of dim meteors per hour when
the shower peaks on Sept. 8th and 9th.
This is the first time
they have been caught bursting in this
fashion. Most of the meteors recorded by
the NASA camera were magnitude -2 or
brighter, i.e., as bright as
Jupiter or Venus.Ongoing analyses of
this outburst may reveal the orbit of the
meteoroids, the location of the parent
comet (if a comet is indeed the parent),
and whether more outbursts are in the
offing. Stay tuned for updates.

A solar wind
stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole
should reach Earth on or about Sept. 13th.
Credit: Hinode X-ray Telescope
|
9-8-09 no sunspots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 534.3 km/sec
density: 2.1 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2242 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Sep08
24-hr: A0
2245 UT
Sep08
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
9-7-08 no sunspots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 549.2 km/sec
density: 2.3 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2241 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2355 UT
Sep07
24-hr: A0
0200 UT
Sep07
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2355 UT

Earth
is inside a solar wind stream flowing from
the indicated coronal hole. Credit: Hinode
X-Ray Telescope
PILLARS OF FIRE:
"In Greek
mythology, Hercules built pillars to hold
up the sky and thus freed Atlas the
Titan. I used to think it was just a
beautiful legend," says
Mila Zinkova of San Francisco,
California, "until I witnessed the
pillars myself." She found them beneath
the setting sun on Sept. 1st:

Photo details:
Canon XTI, 300 mm; 1/4000s,
f/10, ISO100
"The sun held up by
pillars?" asks atmospheric optics
expert Les Cowley. "We might say
'Nonsense, it's only
a mirage.' But which is the
mirage and which is the real sun?
Layers of different
temperature air have distorted
the sun's rays and produced
several
solar images. All of them
are illusions. Even the top
bright one is
raised up in the sky and
flattened."
FIND
THE PLEIADES:
When in
Iceland, where do you look
for the Pleiades? Scan the
photo for hints as you scroll
down for the answer:

Through a gap in
the Northern Lights,
of course.
Click here.
Sean Scully took
the picture on Sept.
6th just outside of
Akureyri, Iceland.
"The sunsets are now
early enough that the
sky is dark after 10
p.m. and we can see
the auroras again."
This display was
caused by a solar
wind stream buffeting
Earth's magnetic
field.
Good news: the
solar wind is still
blowing and more
auroras are possible
tonight. Sky watchers
in Alaska, Canada,
Iceland and
Scandinavia should be
alert for Pleiades
peeking through the
green.
|
9-6-08 no sunspots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 594.8 km/sec
density: 3.5 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Sep06
24-hr: A0
2245 UT
Sep06
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
AURORA WATCH:
This
morning (Sept. 6th) in Alaska, "the
whole sky lit up with strong auroras
directly overhead," reports Lance
Parish who sends this photo from
Skiland, not far from Fairbanks:

The source of
the display was a solar wind stream,
now buffeting Earth's magnetic field
for the third day in a row.
NOAA
forecasters estimate a 15% chance of
continued geomagnetic activity
tonight.
Sky watchers in Alaska,
Canada and Scandinavia should remain
alert for auroras.
|
9-5-08 no sunspots today
Current conditions
Solar wind
speed: 522.3 km/sec
density: 3.1 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT
X-ray
Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245
UT Sep05
24-hr: A0
0700
UT Sep05
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
NASA
to Explore "Secret Layer" of the Sun
A "SECRET LAYER" OF THE SUN:
NASA researchers are preparing to
launch an experimental telescope that can see
a "secret layer" of the sun thought to be the
birthplace of space weather.
09.05.2008
Sept. 5, 2008: Next April,
for a grand total of 8 minutes, NASA
astronomers are going to glimpse a secret
layer of the sun.
Researchers call it "the transition region."
It is a place in the sun's atmosphere, about
5000 km above the stellar surface, where
magnetic fields overwhelm the pressure of
matter and seize control of the sun's gases.
It's where solar flares explode, where
coronal mass ejections begin their journey to
Earth, where the solar wind is mysteriously
accelerated to a million mph.
It
is, in short, the birthplace of space
weather.
Researchers hope it is about to yield its
secrets.
Right: Not far above the
surface of the sun lies the "transition
region" where magnetic fields seize control
of solar gases.

Photo credit: NASA/TRACE.
"Early next year, we're going to launch an
experimental telescope that can measure
vector magnetic fields in the transition
region," explains Jonathan Cirtain of the
Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Previous
studies have measured these fields above
and below the transition region—but
never inside it. "We hope to be the first."
The name of the telescope is SUMI, short for
Solar Ultraviolet Magnetograph Investigation.
It was developed by astronomers and engineers
at the MSFC and is currently scheduled for
launch from White Sands, New Mexico, in April
2009.
SUMI works by means of "Zeeman splitting."
Dutch physicist Pieter Zeeman discovered the
effect in the 19th century. When a glass tube
filled with incandescent gas is dipped into a
magnetic field, spectral lines emitted by the
gas get split into two slightly different
colors—the stronger the field, the bigger the
splitting. The same thing happens on the sun.
Here, for instance, are some spectral lines
from gaseous iron being split by the magnetic
field of a sunspot:

Above: Zeeman splitting of
spectral lines from a strongly-magnetized
sunspot. [more]
By measuring the gap, astronomers estimate
the strength of the sunspot's magnetic field.
Furthermore, by measuring the polarization of
the split line, astronomers can figure out
the direction of the magnetic field. Strength
+ direction = everything you ever wanted to
know about a magnetic field!
This trick has been applied to thousands of
sunspots on the solar surface, but never to
the transition region just a short distance
above.
Why not?
"Just bad luck, really," says Cirtain. "Gas
in the transition region doesn't produce many
strong spectral lines that we can see at
visible wavelengths." It does, however,
produce lines at UV wavelengths invisible
from Earth's surface.
"That's
why we have to leave Earth."
SUMI will blast off inside the nose cone of a
Black Brant rocket on a sub-orbital flight
that takes it to an altitude of 300 km.
"We'll be above more than 99.99% of Earth's
atmosphere," says Cirtain. About 68 seconds
into the flight, payload doors will open,
affording SUMI a crystal-clear view of the UV
sun. "From that moment, we've only got 8
minutes to work with. We'll target an active
region and start taking data."
Right: A Black Brant
sounding rocket of the type that will carry
SUMI above Earth's atmosphere.
SUMI's "vector magnetograph" is tuned to
study a pair of spectral lines: one from
triply-ionized carbon (CIV) at 155 nanometers
and a second from singly-ionized magnesium (MgII)
at 280 nanometers. "There's nothing special
about those ions," notes Cirtain. "They just
happen to produce the best and brightest
lines at temperatures and densities typical
of the transition region."
Cirtain anticipates how it will feel to have
his precious instrument hurtling 300 km above
Earth at 5,000 mph: "Eight minutes of
terror." He'll start breathing again when the
payload doors close and SUMI begins its
descent back to Earth. Cirtain ticks off the
stages: "Reentry into the atmosphere. Open
parachutes. Landing back at White Sands.
Recovery."
The short flight probably won't lead to
immediate breakthroughs. "But it will
demonstrate the SUMI concept and show us if
it's going to work." A successful flight
would lead to more flights and eventually to
a SUMI-style magnetograph permanently
installed on a space telescope.
"That's the dream," he says. Transition
region, prepare to yield...
FROM:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/05sep_sumi.htm

Earth is
inside a solar wind stream flowing from the
indicated coronal hole. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV
Telescope
AURORA WATCH:
"Last night's
Northern Lights were by far the most
incredible I've seen this year," reports
Remi
Boucher in Dawson City, Yukon. "They
were bright and moved very quickly." He
took this picture looking straight up:

Similar displays could appear
tonight. A solar wind stream is buffeting
Earth's magnetic field, causing
intermittent geomagnetic storms. Sky
watchers in Alaska, Canada and
Scandinavia should
be
alert for auroras.
|
9-4-08 - no sunspots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 557.9 km/sec
density: 1.8 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Sep04
24-hr: A0
1310 UT
Sep04
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
9-3-08 - The sun is blank - no sunspots
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 479.9 km/sec
density: 5.9 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 0315 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2355 UT
Sep03
24-hr: A0
2355 UT
Sep03
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2355 UT

AURORA
WATCH:
A solar wind stream is
buffeting Earth's magnetic
field and causing auroras
around the Arctic Circle.
"Lights danced most of the
night (Sept.2-3) until the
sky got cloudy at 2:30 a.m.,"
reports Yuichi Takasaka, who
sends this picture from
Yellowknife in the Northwest
Territories of Canada:

The coronal hole on the sun
responsible for this activity is a
broad one, which means the solar wind
could blow unabated for days. NOAA
forecasters estimate a 10% chance of
geomagnetic storms during the next 24
hours; high-latitude sky watchers
should remain
alert for auroras.
On September 3, 2008 , there were
977
potentially hazardous asteroids.
Sept. 2008
Earth-asteroid encounters:
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. |
9-2-08 - no sun spots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 317.9 km/sec
density: 5.0 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Sep02
24-hr: A0
2245 UT
Sep02
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
LUNAR PERSEIDS:
Amateur
astronomers watching last month's Perseid
meteor shower saw meteoroids hitting not
only Earth but also the Moon. The
impacts, which they recorded using
backyard telescopes and off-the-shelf
video cameras, are featured in
today's story from Science@NASA.

KASATOCHI MOON:
Colorful
sunsets caused by the August eruption
of Alaska's
Kasatochi volcano are still
underway in the United States and
Europe. Last night, however, "the
crescent Moon stole the show," says
Edmund E Kasaitis, who sends this
picture from Manchester, Maryland:
Compared to previous nights,
"the sunset colors and rays
seem to have subsided a bit,"
notes Kasaitis. This could be
a result of east winds in the
stratosphere carrying
Kasatochi's aerosols away
from the United States and
toward Europe. Indeed, last
night in Vallentuna, Sweden,
P-M Hedén witnessed an
advance of strange high
clouds and a new wave of
volcanic colors:
photos. "It was a lovely
sight!"
No matter where you live,
look west at tonight's
sunset. The crescent Moon is
out again and, if the winds
are willing, it might be a
Kasatochi Moon.
more images:
from Bill Jamison of San
Diego, CA;
from Kevin Jung of Grand
Rapids, Michigan;
from Christian Pierson of
North Ridgeville, Ohio;
from Doug Zubenel near De
Soto, Kansas;
from Adam Kraft of
Jackson, Michigan;
from Andrew Catsaitis of
Peats Ridge, NSW, Australia;
from Rick Gens at Starved
Rock State Park in Utica,
Illinois;
from Jeffrey Berkes at
the Assateague Island
National Seashore, Maryland;
from Tom Soetaert of
Lawrence, Kansas;
from Karen Webb of
Ridgecrest, California;
from Scott Sparrow of
Pasadena, CA;
from David Smoyer of
Truckee, CA;
|
9-1-08 - no sunspots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 322.6 km/sec
density: 2.5 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2247 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Sep01
24-hr: A0
2245 UT
Sep01
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT

A solar
wind stream flowing from the indicated
coronal hole
should reach Earth on Sept. 3rd
or 4th. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope
|
8-31-08 - no sunspots - very small coronal hole
- see photo below Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 355.2 km/sec
density: 4.8 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2006 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2000 UT
Aug31
24-hr: A0
2000 UT
Aug31
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2000 UT
|
8-30-08 - no sunspots
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 305.6 km/sec
density: 3.9 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
2245 UT
Aug30
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
EARLY WARNING:
NASA's
STEREO-B
spacecraft follows Earth around the sun,
lagging behind our planet by 33o
("B" stands for "behind"). This allows the
spacecraft to see a portion of the sun we on
Earth cannot. Here is an example:

The sprawling coronal hole,
photographed this morning by
STEREO-B, is only
partially visible from Earth.
STEREO-B thus provides an early
warning system: The coronal hole is
spewing a solar wind stream that will
eventually reach our planet. STEREO-B
reveals the hole's location, its full
extent, and the likely dates of solar
wind impact: Sept. 3rd - 5th. High
latitude sky watchers, mark your
calendar for auroras.
|
8-29-08 - no sun spots stoday There are no
coronal black holes either
Solar wind
speed: 344.0 km/sec
density: 11.8 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 1425 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
1405 UT
Aug29
24-hr: A0
1405 UT
Aug29
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 1420 UT
|
8-28-08 - no sun spots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 332.4 km/sec
density: 2.3 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2245 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Aug28
24-hr: A0
2245 UT
Aug28
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
SOLAR ACTIVITY:
Warning. This
story contains material that may make
you feel very small.
For the past two days, a colossal
prominence has been dancing along the
northwestern limb of the sun. "Here's
a photo from Aug. 27th," offers
Pete Lawrence of Selsey, UK. "The
Earth has been added for scale."

"It does makes you
feel small, doesn't it?"
Lawrence's photo frames a
towering sheet of hydrogen
gas stretched 75,000 km high
by solar magnetic fields. The
foreground is filled by a
"shag carpet" of spicules--Texas-sized
jets of gas that shoot up
from the sun's surface and
fall back again on 10 minute
time scales. Spicules are the
smallest thing in the photo
and they're as big as Texas.
Have you ever driven across
Texas?
The prominence is still
active today and makes an
easy target for backyard
solar telescopes. Take a
look, that is, if you can
reach the eye piece.
more images:
from J. Fairfull and John
Stetson of South
Portland, Maine;
from Stephen Ames of
Hodgenville, Kentucky;
from James Kevin Ty of
Manila, the Philippines;
from Roger G. Williams of
Kalamazoo, Michigan;
from B. Atkins et al of
South Portland, Maine;
from Pavol Rapavy of
Rimavská Sobota, Slovakia
|
8-27-08 No sun spots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 312.1 km/sec
density: 4.7 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Aug27
24-hr: A0
2245 UT
Aug27
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
PROMINENCE ALERT: For the
second day in a row, astronomers are monitoring
a
lively
prominence
on the sun's northwestern limb. It
is at least five times taller than Earth and an
easy target for backyard
solar telescopes.
|
8-26-08 - The sun is blank again
Solar wind
speed: 320.5 km/sec
density: 3.8 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 0414 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2355 UT
Aug26
24-hr: A0
0635 UT
Aug26
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2355 UT
SOLAR ACTIVITY:
How many
gigantic dancing, spinning magnetic
eruptions can a person watch at one
time?
Click on the image below and
start counting:

Movie formats:
4 MB Quicktime,
7 MB mpg,
31 MB Quicktime
If you
counted fewer than four,
play it again. In the
movie, made by NASA's
STEREO-A spacecraft on August
15 and 16, every quadrant of
the sun has at least one
magnetic prominence surging
over the limb. Prominences
are clouds of hydrogen held
aloft, twisted and sheared,
and ultimately hurled into
space or pulled back into the
inferno by solar magnetic
fields. It's a form of solar
activity that continues even
when
sunspots are scarce. The
sun: this is as "quiet" as it
gets.
|
8-25-08 No sunspots today
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 286.9 km/sec
density: 4.3 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Aug25
24-hr: A0
1550 UT
Aug25
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
8-24-08 PROTO NEW-CYCLE
SUNSPOT: For the
second time this month, a new-cycle
sunspot is struggling to form. SOHO
magnetograms of the sun's surface reveal
a planet-sized magnetic dipole with the
telltale polarity of
Solar Cycle 24:

Last week, these magnetic
fields briefly coelesced into a pair of
dark cores, then subsided. The
apparition was too ephemeral to be
included in official daily sunspot
counts. For now, put this active region
in the category of "struggling
proto-sunspot."
Sometimes the ongoing
solar minimum
seems like it will never end. This
proto-sunspot, as well as a similar one
in early August, offers hope to
observers that the solar cycle is
actually moving forward. The calm won't
last forever.
more images:
from Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West
Sussex, UK;
from Michael Buxton of Ocean Beach,
California
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 297.3 km/sec
density: 1.8 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 1346 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0
1345 UT Aug25
24-hr: A0
1345 UT Aug25
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 1345 UT
|
8-23-08 - sunspot not pictured
yet Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 333.1 km/sec
density: 8.1 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 2246 UT
X-ray Solar
Flares
6-hr max: A0
2245 UT
Aug23
24-hr: A0
2245 UT
Aug23
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at: 2245 UT
|
8-22-08 -
For the first
time in a month, a new sunspot is emerging. The
relatively small spot poses no threat for solar
flares. It doesn't show enough to be worthy of a
photo yet either.
Credit: SOHO/MDI
Current
conditions
Solar wind
speed: 351.0 km/sec
density: 5.7 protons/cm3
explanation |
more data
Updated: Today at 1857 UT
|