Report for 3/16/12

Sunspot AR1429, which caused a flurry of solar events last week, unleashed a massive M8-class solar flare on March 10th and M7-class flare on March 13th. The latter blast was followed by a coronal mass ejection (CME) that caused yesterday's geomagnetic storm (Kp=6). AR1429 has been so active that sky watchers in the Arctic Circle have witnessed auroras for almost two weeks straight.

Comet SWAN, a Kreutz sungrazer comet, rocketed toward the Sun on March 14th, but did not survive. This comet was much smaller than Comet Lovejoy, a sungrazer comet that got a great deal of attention last December for making it around the Sun and surviving its journey.

Do you think there will be any major solar events this weekend? Submit your forecast and let us know what you think!

Comet SWAN (bottom left) races to the Sun (blocked out by center disc).
SOHO captured this footage on March 14th.

Report for 12/21/11

As of today, the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center forecasts a very low chance of solar flares in the next few days (see image to the right). They also predict a low chance (15%) of geomagnetic storm activity. Over the past week, the predicted chances of solar storms were similarly low and there have been no reports of any major space weather events.

This doesn't mean that the past week wasn't exciting, however!

Last Thursday, a thrilling event was captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Comet Lovejoy, a large Kreutz comet (also called a "sungrazer" comet), passed by the Sun and, to many people's surprise, it survived! These comets are often burned up by the Sun as they pass by it in their orbital paths; however, Lovejoy could be seen emerging from the other side of the Sun after passing behind it. Many of our fans followed along with us on Twitter and our Comet Lovejoy website to see the event as it unfolded!

Sightings of the comet's tail have recently been reported by many folks living in the Southern Hemisphere. Click here to watch a neat video of the comet's tail filmed in Australia this morning.

Comet Lovejoy heads to the Sun (taken by SOHO).