The latest. Cool site.
http://www.spaceweather.com/
4700 DANGEROUS SPACE ROCKS: NASA has just released a new count of asteroids that come close to the orbit of Earth and could survive entry through our planet's atmosphere. Using an infrared space telescope to track even the darkest space rocks, researchers say there are 4700 +/- 1500 potentially hazardous asteroids. [full story]
RADIATION STORM: A radiation storm around Earth is
subsiding. The storm began during the early hours of May 17th when a strong M5-class flre accelerated a fusillade of solar protons in our direction. At its peak, the
S2-class storm was capable of confusing spacecraft imaging systems and causing 'single event upsets' in orbiting electronics.
Radiation storm alerts: text,
phone.
The explosion that caused the radiation storm also hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. SOHO recorded the cloud racing away from the sun faster than 1500 km/s:
The speckles in the movie are caused by energetic protons hitting the observatory's detector. This kind of "snow" is a sign that a radiation storm is underway.
This CME is not heading for Earth. It will, however, deliver a glancing blow to Mercury. According to a
forecast track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the cloud will reach the innermost planet on May 17th at 15:09 UT (+/- 7 hr).
SOLAR ECLIPSE THIS WEEKEND: On Sunday, May 20th, the Moon will pass in front of the Sun, producing an annular solar eclipse visible across the Pacific side of Earth. The path of annularity, where the sun will appear to be a "ring of fire," stretches from China and Japan to the middle of North America: