Genuine meteorites are now on sale in the Space Weather Store.

What's up in space

They came from outer space--and you can have one! Genuine meteorites are now on sale in the Space Weather Store. They make a unique Valentine's gift. SUBSIDING STORMS: The geomagnetic storms of March 10th and 11th are subsiding. Earth's magnetic field began shaking on March 10th in response to a CME impact. That first wave of activity sent auroras spilliing over the US-Canadian border into lower-48 states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota. "At one point the lights filled more than half of the entire sky," says Travis Novitsky, who sends this self-portrait from Grand Portage, MN: "We stood in awe at not only the movements but also the colors we were seeing-- green, red, purple, and white," says Novitsky. "I was almost in a trance staring at this amazing show and I had to remind myself to keep taking pictures!" The storm could kick up again on March 12th and 13th when a solar wind stream is expected to reach Earth. NOAA forecasters estimate a 35% chance of geomagnetic activity during the next 24 hours. Get your aurora alerts here! UPDATED: March 2011 Aurora Photo Gallery [previous Marches: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002] X-FLARE: March 9th ended with a powerful solar flare. Earth-orbiting satellites detected an X1.5-class explosion from behemoth sunspot 1166 around 2323 UT. A movie from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows a bright flash of UV radiation plus some material being hurled away from the blast site: Movie formats: 4 MB gif, 1.2 MB iPad, 0.3 MB iPhone UPDATE (March 10 @ 1800 UT): Newly-arriving coronagraph data from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory show no bright CME emerging from this eruption. Some material was surely hurled in our direction, but probably not enough for significant Earth-effects. After four years without any X-flares, the sun has produced two of the powerful blasts in less than one month: Feb. 15th and March 9th. This continues the recent trend of increasing solar activity, and shows that Solar Cycle 24 is heating up. NOAA forecasters estimate a 5% chance of more X-flares during the next 24 hours. SOLAR FLARE ALERTS: Would you like a call when the next X-flare erupts? Sign up for Spaceweather PHONE. 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 March 12, 2011 there were 1204 potentially hazardous asteroids. Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid Date(UT) Miss Distance Mag. Size 2011 EY11 Mar 7 0.3 LD -- 9 m 2011 EM40 Mar 7 0.7 LD -- 12 m 2011 EL40 Mar 8 3.4 LD -- 23 m 2011 EC12 Mar 8 3.3 LD -- 30 m 2000 PN9 Mar 10 45.5 LD -- 2.6 km 2011 EU20 Mar 11 1.6 LD -- 15 m 2011 BE38 Apr 10 48 LD -- 1.0 km 2002 DB4 Apr 15 62.5 LD -- 2.2 km 2008 UC202 Apr 27 8.9 LD -- 10 m 2009 UK20 May 2 8.6 LD -- 23 m 2008 FU6 May 5 75.5 LD -- 1.2 km 2003 YT1 May 5 65.3 LD -- 2.5 km 2002 JC Jun 1 57.5 LD -- 1.6 km 2009 BD Jun 2 0.9 LD -- 9 m 2002 JB9 Jun 11 71.5 LD -- 3.2 km 2001 VH75 Jun 12 42.2 LD -- 1.1 km 2004 LO2 Jun 15 9.9 LD -- 48 m Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach. Essential web links NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center The official U.S. government space weather bureau Atmospheric Optics The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. Solar Dynamics Observatory Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever. STEREO 3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. Daily Sunspot Summaries from the NOAA Space Environment Center Heliophysics the underlying science of space weather Conquest Graphics for out-of-this-world printing and graphics Science Central more links...