This is an AI Free Zone: Text created by Large Language Models is engulfing the Internet. It's slick, prolific, and some readers say it makes them feel seasick. For better or worse, all of the text on Spaceweather.com was written by a real human being.
|
|
|
DEATH VALLEY BALLOON RECOVERY: Updates to Spaceweather.com might be delayed today. Dr. Tony Phillips is in the Death Valley Wilderness recovering a high-altitude balloon payload, which launched and landed on March 4th. It's a 22 mile hike with cosmic ray data waiting at the end!
CIR HITS EARTH, SPARKS AURORAS: If you've never heard of a co-rotating interaction region (CIR), just think of it as a mini CME. One hit Earth on March 8th, sparking more than 10 hours of geomagnetic storms. "The auroras in Minnesota were some of the brightest I’ve seen in awhile," reports Anna Eastman, who watched the show from the Agassiz Wildlife Refuge:
"Even with a bright Moon, it was a beautiful light show," she says.
CIRs are transition zones between fast- and slow-moving streams of solar wind. They contain magnetic fields and shock waves akin to those of CMEs. While CMEs require some sort of explosion on the sun, CIRs do not. They form gently from the sandwiching of solar wind streams--no solar flare required.
The arrival of the CIR on March 8th immediately caused a G1-class (Minor) storm, intensifying to category G2 (Moderate) on March 9th. Sky watchers in Iceland, Canada and multiple US states from New York to Utah saw the geomagnetic glow.
Click on the inset diagram to learn more about CIRs.
A fast-moving solar wind stream has arrived on the heels of the CIR. This is the same stream that created the CIR in the first place by compressing a region of slower solar wind ahead of it. Blowing almost 600 km/s, the fast stream could cause additional category G1 (Minor) storms on March 10th.. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
YOU CAN HAVE THIS FAR-OUT SCIENCE EXPERIMENT: This gift started out as a science project. The young scientists of Earth to Sky Calculus wanted to see what Earth looked like when viewed through a spherical lens. The answer: very cool.
We flew this crystal ball to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray balloon and photographed the planet behind it from an altitude of 111,640 feet. After the balloon exploded (as planned) the payload parachuted back to Earth, landing safely in the volcanic tablelands north of Bishop, California.
You can have it for $141.95. The crystal sphere has the continents of Earth lightly laser-etched on its surface, making it a unique "art meets science" conversation piece. It comes with a greeting card showing the sphere in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
THE HOT NIGHT SIDE OF VENUS: Venus is approaching the sun for an inferior conjunction on March 22nd. Between now and then, Venus will be turning its night side toward Earth. You might suppose the night side of Venus would be dark, but astronomers are seeing it. Maximilian-Vlad Teodorescu sends this picture from the Institute of Space Science in Romania:
These images of Venus may remind some readers of a crescent Moon with Earthshine. There's a big difference, though. The night side of the Moon shines with light reflected from Earth. The night side of Venus, however, produces its own light. It's glowing because it is incredibly hot.
"I used a 1 μm infrared filter," explains Teodorescu. "That allows me to photograph Venus's thermal emission."
Ten years ago, Japan's Akatsuki spacecraft (also known as the "Venus Climate Orbiter") used infrared cameras to map the surface of Venus. According to the data, the average surface temperature is 698 K (800 F), hot enough to melt lead. Here is a global map from Akatsuki:
In this map, colors represent temperature. The white contours trace altitude measured by a radar on the Magellan spacecraft. High places are cooler; low places are warmer. Some of these cool regions (Ishtar terra, Aphrodite terra, Alta Regio, and Beta Regio) also appear in Teodorescu's image.
Amateur astronomers with infrared filters are encouraged to check out Venus this month. The night side is hot stuff.
more images: from Philip Smith of Manorville, NY; from Frank J Melillo of Holtsville, NY
Realtime Venus Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
THE EMERALD PEARL NECKLACE: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider the Emerald Pearl Necklace, launched to the edge of space Jan. 15th onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon. Here it is, floating 111,202 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California:
You can have it for $179.95. This 10mm freshwater white pearl, surrounded by a splash of emerald-green cubic zirconia, spent more than 2 hours in the stratosphere while sensors inside the payload measured cosmic rays. Later, it parachuted back to Earth, landing in the Inyo Mountains near Bishop, California. The pearl had a wild ride and the students got great data for their atmospheric radiation monitoring project.
The necklace comes with a greeting card showing the pearl in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
Every night, a network
of
NASA
all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United
States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software
maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office
calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth
in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics.
Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com.
On Mar 08, 2025, the network reported 3 fireballs.
(3 sporadics)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue).
[Larger image] [movies]
Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (
PHAs)
are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that
can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the
known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet,
although astronomers are finding
new
ones all the time.
On March 11, 2025 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent
& Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT) |
Miss Distance |
Velocity (km/s) |
Diameter (m) |
| 2025 EA1 |
2025-Mar-05 |
16.8 LD |
10.7 |
38 |
| 535844 |
2025-Mar-05 |
9.6 LD |
7.9 |
148 |
| 2025 DU2 |
2025-Mar-06 |
1.4 LD |
17.4 |
49 |
| 2025 DT3 |
2025-Mar-06 |
17.7 LD |
11.8 |
39 |
| 2025 DS3 |
2025-Mar-06 |
17.1 LD |
16.8 |
32 |
| 2025 EW1 |
2025-Mar-06 |
2.1 LD |
11.8 |
7 |
| 2025 DJ5 |
2025-Mar-06 |
19.3 LD |
8.5 |
33 |
| 2025 EX1 |
2025-Mar-06 |
0.6 LD |
5.6 |
3 |
| 2025 ES1 |
2025-Mar-06 |
11.5 LD |
10.8 |
58 |
| 2025 EW |
2025-Mar-06 |
0.9 LD |
3.4 |
12 |
| 2025 DL8 |
2025-Mar-07 |
13.2 LD |
6.7 |
32 |
| 2025 EZ1 |
2025-Mar-07 |
1.2 LD |
15.3 |
7 |
| 2017 EV |
2025-Mar-07 |
3.1 LD |
8.2 |
16 |
| 2025 DD22 |
2025-Mar-07 |
7.9 LD |
7.8 |
27 |
| 2025 DV24 |
2025-Mar-08 |
9.4 LD |
2.4 |
8 |
| 2025 DZ1 |
2025-Mar-08 |
3.9 LD |
16.9 |
37 |
| 2025 DK7 |
2025-Mar-08 |
9.6 LD |
7 |
12 |
| 2025 DF8 |
2025-Mar-08 |
3.4 LD |
5.6 |
11 |
| 2025 EN2 |
2025-Mar-08 |
5.1 LD |
4.7 |
7 |
| 2018 RC2 |
2025-Mar-08 |
2 LD |
12.5 |
85 |
| 2025 ED |
2025-Mar-08 |
10.8 LD |
9.7 |
19 |
| 2025 EM3 |
2025-Mar-08 |
16.7 LD |
10.3 |
18 |
| 2025 EC2 |
2025-Mar-09 |
1.5 LD |
4.4 |
17 |
| 2025 DZ6 |
2025-Mar-09 |
13.1 LD |
9.9 |
35 |
| 2025 EH1 |
2025-Mar-10 |
7.1 LD |
8 |
16 |
| 2025 DB5 |
2025-Mar-10 |
5.9 LD |
2 |
9 |
| 2021 EU3 |
2025-Mar-10 |
10.7 LD |
4.4 |
13 |
| 2025 DP3 |
2025-Mar-11 |
20 LD |
7.9 |
28 |
| 2025 DB7 |
2025-Mar-11 |
9.7 LD |
2.6 |
13 |
| 2025 DA7 |
2025-Mar-12 |
17.6 LD |
9.7 |
48 |
| 2025 EB1 |
2025-Mar-12 |
5.6 LD |
6.5 |
13 |
| 2025 DY5 |
2025-Mar-12 |
9.7 LD |
8.5 |
29 |
| 2025 DC22 |
2025-Mar-12 |
9.3 LD |
5.9 |
24 |
| 2025 DL22 |
2025-Mar-12 |
7.5 LD |
9.9 |
27 |
| 2025 DM3 |
2025-Mar-12 |
19.2 LD |
10.6 |
53 |
| 2025 CT1 |
2025-Mar-13 |
19.4 LD |
2.9 |
29 |
| 2025 DS6 |
2025-Mar-14 |
19.5 LD |
2.7 |
14 |
| 2025 ES2 |
2025-Mar-14 |
5.7 LD |
8.9 |
11 |
| 2025 EG2 |
2025-Mar-15 |
19.4 LD |
11.6 |
44 |
| 2025 DV4 |
2025-Mar-15 |
18 LD |
7 |
27 |
| 2020 FO |
2025-Mar-15 |
13.4 LD |
20.6 |
23 |
| 2025 DO27 |
2025-Mar-15 |
17.2 LD |
15.3 |
43 |
| 2025 CX1 |
2025-Mar-15 |
19.8 LD |
8.4 |
41 |
| 2025 EC1 |
2025-Mar-16 |
8.6 LD |
6.5 |
20 |
| 2025 DU25 |
2025-Mar-18 |
2.9 LD |
5.3 |
15 |
| 2025 EQ2 |
2025-Mar-19 |
5.2 LD |
6.2 |
15 |
| 2021 FH1 |
2025-Mar-21 |
3.9 LD |
13.8 |
31 |
| 2025 DA15 |
2025-Mar-23 |
16.9 LD |
7.8 |
36 |
| 2014 TN17 |
2025-Mar-26 |
13.3 LD |
21.5 |
174 |
| 2025 DW5 |
2025-Mar-26 |
16.5 LD |
5.6 |
43 |
| 2025 DV22 |
2025-Mar-27 |
16.5 LD |
12.2 |
61 |
| 2020 VA4 |
2025-Mar-30 |
11.6 LD |
5.6 |
12 |
| 2022 FR3 |
2025-Apr-01 |
6.6 LD |
7.4 |
105 |
| 2020 XT2 |
2025-Apr-04 |
13.6 LD |
6.2 |
41 |
| 2023 GC2 |
2025-Apr-04 |
17.3 LD |
6.3 |
12 |
| 2020 FH4 |
2025-Apr-04 |
12.8 LD |
3 |
7 |
| 2025 BC10 |
2025-Apr-05 |
9.7 LD |
22.9 |
479 |
| 2007 SQ6 |
2025-Apr-05 |
10.9 LD |
6.6 |
129 |
| 2025 DV40 |
2025-Apr-06 |
16.8 LD |
13.1 |
113 |
| 2003 GQ22 |
2025-Apr-07 |
19.6 LD |
8.9 |
180 |
| 2025 DL28 |
2025-Apr-08 |
16.2 LD |
5.6 |
40 |
| 2023 HG |
2025-Apr-11 |
3.7 LD |
8.6 |
14 |
| 2023 KU |
2025-Apr-11 |
2.8 LD |
18 |
119 |
| 2023 RX1 |
2025-Apr-13 |
18.1 LD |
1.4 |
3 |
| 2023 UH |
2025-Apr-15 |
8.8 LD |
11 |
21 |
| 2022 UO |
2025-Apr-15 |
19.8 LD |
16.2 |
18 |
| 2025 DC36 |
2025-Apr-15 |
14.2 LD |
4.9 |
59 |
| 2017 RN16 |
2025-Apr-17 |
10.9 LD |
8.7 |
6 |
| 2014 HS124 |
2025-Apr-22 |
10.9 LD |
8.9 |
93 |
| 2019 FY2 |
2025-Apr-24 |
12.8 LD |
5.3 |
12 |
| 462959 |
2025-Apr-25 |
12.9 LD |
9.5 |
213 |
| 2024 BF |
2025-May-01 |
9.5 LD |
4.6 |
47 |
| 2024 JM2 |
2025-May-03 |
7.2 LD |
11.3 |
62 |
| 2021 JN1 |
2025-May-06 |
18.3 LD |
16.3 |
39 |
| 2021 HZ |
2025-May-08 |
20 LD |
10.2 |
30 |
Notes: LD means
"Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance
between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256
AU.
| |
Cosmic Rays in the Atmosphere |
SPACE WEATHER BALLOON DATA: Almost once a week, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus fly space weather balloons to the stratosphere over California. These balloons are equipped with sensors that detect secondary cosmic rays, a form of radiation from space that can penetrate all the way down to Earth's surface. Our monitoring program has been underway without interruption for 10 years, resulting in a unique dataset of in situ atmospheric measurements.
Latest results (Nov. 2024): Atmospheric radiation is decreasing in 2024. Our latest measurements in November registered a 10-year low:
What's going on? Ironically, the radiation drop is caused by increasing solar activity. Solar Cycle 25 has roared to life faster than forecasters expected. The sun's strengthening and increasingly tangled magnetic field repels cosmic rays from deep space. In addition, solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) sweep aside cosmic rays, causing sharp reductions called "Forbush Decreases." The two effects blend together to bring daily radiation levels down.
.Who cares? Cosmic rays are a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. They can alter the chemistry of the atmosphere, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. According to a study from the Harvard T.H. Chan school of public health, crews of aircraft have higher rates of cancer than the general population. The researchers listed cosmic rays, irregular sleep habits, and chemical contaminants as leading risk factors. A number of controversial studies (#1, #2, #3, #4) go even further, linking cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death.
Technical notes: The radiation sensors onboard our helium balloons detect X-rays and gamma-rays in the energy range 10 keV to 20 MeV. These energies span the range of medical X-ray machines and airport security scanners.
Data points in the graph labeled "Stratospheric Radiation" correspond to the peak of the Regener-Pfotzer maximum, which lies about 67,000 feet above central California. When cosmic rays crash into Earth's atmosphere, they produce a spray of secondary particles that is most intense at the entrance to the stratosphere. Physicists Eric Regener and Georg Pfotzer discovered the maximum using balloons in the 1930s and it is what we are measuring today.
| |
The
official U.S. government space weather bureau |
| |
The
first place to look for information about sundogs,
pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. |
| |
Researchers
call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO
is the most advanced solar observatory ever. |
| |
3D
views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial
Relations Observatory |
| |
Realtime
and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. |
| |
information about sunspots based on the latest NOAA/USAF Active Region Summary |
| |
current counts of failed and deployed Starlink satellites from Jonathan's Space Page. See also, all satellite statistics. |
| |
Authoritative predictions of space junk and satellite re-entries |
| |
from
the NOAA Space Environment Center |
| |
fun to read, but should be taken with a grain of salt! Forecasts looking ahead more than a few days are often wrong. |
| |
from the NOAA Space Environment Center |
| |
the
underlying science of space weather |
 |
Got a chipped or cracked windshield that prevents you from seeing space weather events while driving? Get windshield replacement from SR Windows & Glass with free mobile auto glass service anywhere in the Phoenix area. |
|
BestCSGOGambling is the best site for everything related to CSGO gambling on the web |
| |
These links help Spaceweather.com stay online. Thank you to our supporters! |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
