Category - Blog

A newly discovered near-Earth asteroid “2014 HQ124” now dubbed “The Beast” will make its closest approach to the Earth on June 8, 2014. Just before 06:00 UTC “The Beast” will fly-by our planet at a close but safe distance of 0.0084 AU (3.3 LD, 1.25 million km).

2014 HQ124 is on the list of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHA). An asteroid is considered a PHA if its minimum orbit intersection distance with respect to Earth is less than 0.05 AU (7.5 million km, 4.6 million miles, approximately 19.5 LD) and its diameter is at least 100 to 150 meters (330 to 490 ft).

This is big enough to cause regional devastation to human settlements unprecedented in human history in the case of a land impact, or a major tsunami in the case of an ocean impact. NEOWISE data estimates that there are 4,700 ± 1,500 potentially hazardous asteroids with a diameter greater than 100 meters. Asteroids larger than 35 meters across can pose a threat to a town or city.

According to JPL, asteroid 2014 HQ124 has an estimated diameter of 320 m. It will fly-by Earth at the speed of 14.5 km/s.

Pictured is a time-lapse video taken last Sunday detailing the formation of one such violent supercell in eastern Wyoming, USA. Starting as part of a large and dark thunderstorm complex, the supercell comes together along with a large rotating updraft of air known as a mesocyclone.

During the middle part of the video, the kilometer-wide supercell can be seen swirling ominously with a nearly flat bottom. Toward the end of the video, another swirling supercell cloud forms but then quickly dissipates.

Click image to see the movie.

Andorra 2
Algeria 4
Argentina 9
Aruba 
Australia 40
Austria 273
Belarus 10
Belgium 217
Bosnia Herzegovenia 18
Brazil 47
Bulgaria 69
Canada 60
Chile 
China 10
Colombia 2 
Costa Rica 
Croatia 80
Cuba 4
Cyprus 1
Czech Republic 335
Denmark 35
Estonia 12
Finland 122
France 340
Germany 2,096
Georgia 2
Greece 89
Honk Kong
Hungary 130
Iceland 3
India 3
Indonesia 9 
Italy 457
Ireland 19
Israel 26
Japan 2,300
Jordan 
Kazakhstan 7
Kuwait 1
Latvia 4
Liechtenstein 1 
Lithuania 39
Luxembourg 7
Macau 
Macedonia 11
Malta 7
Malaysia 
Mexico 4
Moldova 10
Monaco 3
Netherlands 247
New Caledonia 2 
New Zealand 15
Norway 48
Oman 1
Panama 
Paraguay 
Peru 
Philippines 2
Poland 236
Portugal 26 
Qatar 1
Romania 73
Russian Fed 944
Serbia 38
Singapore 1 
Slovenia 100
Slovakia 135
South Africa 7
South Korea 21
Spain 579
Sri Lanka 
Sweden 213
Switzerland 90
Taiwan 2
Thailand 10
Turkey 3 
Ukraine 489
United Kingdom 117
Uruguay 4
USA 
W0 68
W1 92
W2 86
W3 76
W4 53
WW4 34
W5 63
W6 68
W7 69
W8 65
W9 78
WP3 – 6 
WL7- 5
WH6 – 4
Venezuela 57

Rare footage of an eruption of solar material surging off the sun has been captured by Nasa.

A coronal mass ejection (CME) happens when huge clouds of superheated particles are emitted from the sun’s corona – the outermost and hottest layer – and can reach speeds exceeding one million miles per hour.

The CME, captured on the 9th May was the first seen by Nasa’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS.

To capture the phenomenon, the IRIS must be pointed at the sun a day ahead of time and involves a degree of luck, according to Nasa.

The field of view seen in the footage is about five Earth’s wide and about seven and a half Earth’s tall.

Click image to see movie.

Qsl Cards for VK2/G7VJR (OC-001) and TO4C (NA-007) arrived this morning and all have been processed. Direct cards will be mailed this week and bureau cards first week in June with my next batch.

Your Qsl Cards are NOT required so please do not send them via the Bureau.

The fastest way to receive any Qsl Card I manage is to request them via M0OXO OQRS

ZM90DX is a special event station celebrating 90 years of DX in ZL.

Great news from the team in that they have now passed the 50,000 qso mark and still have around 6 months of the event still to run.

”1923 and 1924 marked the zenith of long distance communication records and which culminated on the 18th of October 1924 with the First Trans-Global radio contact. Between 0615 and 0730 UTC Frank Bell (a sheep farmer) Z4AA (ZL4AA) in Shag Valley Otago New Zealand and Cecil Goyder (an 18 year old student) at Mill Hill School in London using the school callsign G2SZ communicated on the 90 metre band”.

Thanks to all that have supported and worked the station so far.

A beautiful Award is available for contacts wmade with ZM90DX and the special Callsign will run until October 31, 2014, See their website for more information http://www.zm90dx.com/.

Jupiter’s trademark Great Red Spot – a swirling anti-cyclonic storm larger than Earth — has shrunk to its smallest size ever measured.

Recent NASA Hubble Space Telescope observations confirm the Great Red Spot now is approximately 10,250 miles across, less than half the size of some historical measurements. Astronomers have followed this downsizing since the 1930s.

Historic observations as far back as the late 1800s gauged the storm to be as large as 25,500 miles on its long axis.  NASA Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 flybys of Jupiter in 1979 measured it to be 14,500 miles across. In 1995, a Hubble photo showed the long axis of the spot at an estimated 13,020 miles across. And in a 2009 photo, it was measured at 11,130 miles across.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft is hurtling toward Jupiter now, due to reach the giant planet in July 2016.  Point-blank examination by Juno’s instruments will undoubtedly help unravel the mystery.

Thanks to Yoshi JJ8DEN for 3 IOTA confirmations received yesterday.

FO/KH0PR IOTA Tour in 2013 gave me PukaPuka Atoll (OC-062), Napuka Atoll (OC-094) and Reao Atoll (OC-238), all 3 party of the islands that make up the Tuamotu Islands in French Polynesia.

Thanks Yoshi-San!

A new milestone achieved this morning when I did my latest upload to Logbook of the World (LOTW).

I now have 300 DXCC (Mixed) confirmed with 318 DXCC (Mixed) worked. Mode breakdowns are;

DXCC Mixed (All time) 321 (W) 303 (C)

DXCC Mixed (Current) 318 (W) 300 (C)

DXCC SSB (Current) 318 (W) 295 (C)

DXCC CW (Current)  293 (W) 253 (C)

DXCC RTTY (Current) 186 (W) 156 (C)

All the above are Statistics for LOTW only.

Huge Solar Plasma eruption in progress right now! Here it is shown with Earth to scale.

The sunspot number is increasing this week as a crowd of dark cores emerges over the sun’s eastern limb.