[Bluearrowll]

Daily Suspicious0bserver's Weather Post:
September 24, 2014

What's in the sky tonight?
September 24, 2014

-Today, the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) near Earth is tilting south, not much, but enough to open a crack in Earth's magnetosphere. Solar wind is pouring through the opening to fuel beautiful polar auroras. NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% chance that a full-fledged geomagnetic storm could develop in the next 24 hours.

-Northern autumn began with a bang, albeit only a medium-sized one. Big sunspot AR2172 erupted on Sept. 23rd at 2316 UT, producing an impulsive M2-class solar flare. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the extreme ultraviolet flash.

The explosion might have hurled a CME toward Earth, but SOHO and STEREO coronagraph data are not yet available to confirm this possibility. Stay tuned for updates in the hours ahead.

Meanwhile, more flares are in the offing. AR2172 continues to grow and it has a 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for strong explosions. NOAA forcasters estimate a 30% chance of M-class flares and a 5% chance of X-flares on Sept. 24th.

Astro Picture of the Day:
September 24, 2014

Source:
The large majestic Lagoon Nebula is home for many young stars and hot gas. Spanning 100 light years across while lying only about 5000 light years distant, the Lagoon Nebula is so big and bright that it can be seen without a telescope toward the constellation of Sagittarius. Many bright stars are visible from NGC 6530, an open cluster that formed in the nebula only several million years ago. The greater nebula, also known as M8 and NGC 6523, is named "Lagoon" for the band of dust seen to the left of the open cluster's center. A bright knot of gas and dust in the nebula's center is known as the Hourglass Nebula. The featured picture is a newly processed panorama of M8, capturing five times the diameter of the Moon. Star formation continues in the Lagoon Nebula as witnessed by the many globules that exist there.