"HUGE ASTEROID" HYPE: Major news outlets are reporting the close approach of a "huge asteroid" to Earth on February 17-18. 2000 EM26 is about as wide as 2 football fields and it is flying past our planet 2 million miles away at 27,000 mph. It's all true. It's also all hype. This asteroid is little different than half-a-dozen other space rocks that have already whizzed passed Earth at similar distances in February, including one, 2006 DP14, that is almost 4 times larger. The sudden attention to 2000 EM26 is disproportionate to its actual uniqueness or potential impact. For a real close encounter, click here.
'RADIOACTIVE' ERUPTION: On Feb. 17th at approximately 04:50 UT, a magnetic filament erupted from the sun's western limb. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this high-resolution image of the blast:
Because of its location on the sun's western limb, the eruption did not send a CME toward Earth. However, there was an effect on our planet: Shortwave radio loudspeakers roared with static, an event called a Type II radio burst.
Here's how it works: The explosion sent shock waves rippling through the sun's atmosphere. Those shock waves, in turn, triggered plasma instabilities in the solar corona that emit strong radio emissions. The static-y "roar" of the explosion was picked up by solar observatories and ham radio stations across the dayside of our planet. Based on the sweep of radio frequencies from 20 MHz to 500 MHz, analysts estimate a shock velocity of 776 km/s or 1.7 million mph. That may sound fast, but it is typical for this type of eruption. Solar flare alerts: text, voice
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Solar wind
speed: 397.6 km/sec
density: 1.2 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 1937 UT
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X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C1 1325 UT Feb18
24-hr: C4 0133 UT Feb18
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 1900 UT
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Daily Sun: 18 Feb 14
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Earth-facing sunspot AR1977 has a 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI
