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In spite of solar minimum, there seems to be plenty of action on the sun," reports amateur astronomer Peter Schlatter of Wohlen, Switzerland, who yesterday witnessed a spectacular vortex swirling on the sun's eastern horizon. Indeed, the limb of the sun is where the action is. "A huge prominence emerged today looking like a monster rising from a sea of fire," reports David Leong of Hong Kong. None of this activity is explosive or threatens to cause geomagnetic storms on Earth--it's just a pretty show.

Asteroid 2007 BB to pass between 0.0026 au or 0.0025 au. The distance to the moon is 0.00256 au(238,855 miles). Earth is okay from any impact. Just for your information.

The three giant sunspots that caused so much space weather in recent weeks are now on the farside of the sun. There are hints that the three are still active. Witness these CMEs hurled over the sun's limb by farside explosions: Nov. 6th (pictured right), Nov. 7th, and Nov. 9th. Using a technique called helioseismic holography, researchers can "see" a portion of the sun's farside. In a few days their images should tell us if two of the sunspots (486 and 488) are indeed still big. The sun's 27-day rotation is carrying these spots back toward the Earth-facing side of...

<p>A gigantic blast of scorching gas from the sun crashed into the Earth's magnetic field yesterday. While static touched a few television programs, larger disruptions were averted, thanks to the advanced forecast of the flare supplied by the Space Environment Center (SEC).</p>

 HOT COMET: Comet NEAT (C/2002 V1), which is perilously close to the Sun, has entered the field of view of SOHO coronagraphs. The comet has grown spectacularly bright in recent days and its tail is many times bigger than the Sun itself. (continued below)Above: A SOHO coronagraph image of Comet NEAT and the Sun on Feb. 17, 2003. The horizontal line near the head of the comet is a digital imaging artifact caused by saturation of camera pixels. [more]On Feb. 18th, the date of closest approach or "perihelion," Comet NEAT will lie just 0.1 AU from the Sun--well inside the...

A storm of particles and radiation from the Sun, a kind of disturbance that has disabled or destroyed satellites on dozens of occasions, crossed the path of the space shuttle Columbia just as it was making its descent to Earth, scientists said yesterday. The disturbance was detected by at least two NASA space probes as it passed from deep space toward Earth on Feb. 1, said Dr. Devrie S. Intriligator, director of the space plasma laboratory at the Carmel Research Center, a private laboratory in Santa Monica, Calif., who discovered the event by examining data from the probes. Experts...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 August 17 Asteroid 2002 NY40 Credit: K. Zwintz (Univ. Viena), H. Tirado and A. Gomez (CTIO, NOAO) Explanation: Asteroid 2002 NY40 will fly by planet Earth early in the morning August 18 Universal Time (late in the evening August 17 Eastern Daylight Time). Approaching to within about 530,000 kilometers or 1.3 times the Earth-Moon distance 2002 NY40 will definitely not be close enough to pose any danger...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 August 15 Meteors and Northern Lights Credit & Copyright: Wade B. Clark Jr. Explanation: Skygazers report that the annual Perseid meteor shower went pretty much as predicted, producing a meteor every few minutes during the dark early morning hours of August 12 and 13. And as the constellation Perseus rose above the horizon on the night of August 11, astrophotographer Wade Clark was anticipating recording images of...