Sunspot 1260 has developed a delta-class magnetic field that harbors energy for powerful X-class solar flares. Such an eruption today would be Earth-directed as the sunspot turns to face our planet.Sunspot 1260 is leading a parade of big sunspots across the solar
A surprise meteor shower spotted in February was likely caused by cosmic “bread crumbs” dropped by an undiscovered comet that could potentially pose a threat to Earth.The tiny meteoroids that streaked through Earth’s atmosphere for a few hours on Feb. 4 represent a
NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has found the very first asteroid that (more or less) shares an orbit with Earth! Called 2010 TK7, this asteroid is about 300 meters (roughly 1000 feet) across, and is the first in an up-to-now theoretical class of
After more than a week of quiet, solar activity is picking up. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory is monitoring two big sunspot groups now emerging over the sun’s eastern limb. Click on the image to view a 40-hour movie.The leading sunspot group, AR1260, is crackling
When two small NASA rockets launched into suborbital space to probe the Earth’s ionosphere this month, they kicked off a surprisingly busy week for rockets around the world. No less than seven rockets blasted off from the United States, Russia, China and India in as
Five years after Pluto was stripped of its planet status, astronomers have discovered yet another moon in orbit around it, bringing its entourage to four. The tiny body may have been born in the same collision that gave birth to Pluto's other moons.The Hubble Space
The solar wind is at elevated levels and this may stir up minor activity at very high latitudes.Solar windspeed: 622.5 km/secdensity: 3.8 protons/cm3Planetary K-indexNow: Kp= 5 storm24-hr max: Kp= 5 stormInterplanetary Mag.
On June 7, 2011, Earth-orbiting satellites detected a flash of X-rays coming from the western edge of the solar disk. Registering only “M” (for medium) on the Richter scale of solar flares, the blast at first appeared to be a run-of-the-mill eruption- that is, until
The CME was not squarely Earth-directed and is not traveling at great speed, only minor geomagnetic storming is expected when the cloud arrives. A coronal mass ejection (CME) that billowed away from sunspot 1247 on July 9th could hit Earth's magnetic field on…
During the early hours of July 9th, a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) billowed away from new sunspot 1247. A preliminary analysis of data from NASA's twin STEREO-A and -B spacecraft suggests that the flank of the CME could hit Earth's magnetic field sometime on July
