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SOLAR ACTIVITY IS LOW: It's probably temporary, but the sun has become quiet this week with only a smattering of C-class solar flares. The quiet is likely to continue. All of the sunspots currently facing Earth have stable magnetic fields unlikely to explode. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
SUNSET COMET ALERT: We know three things about Comet ATLAS (C/2024 G3). It survived yesterday's close encounter with the sun. It brightened to magnitude -2.5. And it is now a photo-op in the sunset sky. "I was truly surprised to see it," says Erik Norlund of Alberone di Cento, Italy, who photographed the comet about 7 minutes after sunset on Jan. 14th:
"The comet looked very nice with my 200mm Newtonian telescope, with a small tail and a bright nucleus," adds Norlund. "Then I also saw it with a small binocular."
What will happen next? Nick James of the British Astronomical Association speculates: "If it follows predictions, the comet's magnitude will drop from around -2.5 now to possibly +3 or fainter in a week's time. It is quite difficult to predict how the comet will behave after its near-death encounter with the sun, so it may be a lot brighter or fainter than our predictions. We also don't really know how the currently spectacular tail will perform. The only way to find out is by observing it. That is what makes comets so much fun."
Many observers are now submitting photos of Comet ATLAS in the sunset sky. Browse the links below for photo settings and anecdotes.
more images: from Petr Horálek of Tiszacsermely, Hungary; from Mike Androsch of Oberneukirchen, Upper Austria, Europe; from Sven Melchert of Stuttgart, Germany; from Karl Kaiser of Aigen-Schlägl, Bohemian Forest, Upper Austria; from Andreas Walker of Zetzwil, Switzerland, Europe;
Realtime Comet Photo Gallery
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LUNAR OCCULTATION OF MARS: Last night, Jan. 13th, the Full Moon passed directly in front of Mars. Selín Alejandro Gonzalez caught the Red Planet half-in and half-out over Toluca, Mexico:
"Mars was partially hidden and then emerged in a very spectacular way," says Gonzalez. "Even though some clouds were passing over, the excitement of witnessing this astronomical event was at its best. In the photo, we can see clearly the contrast between the glowing lunar surface and the faint reddish disk of Mars."
The occultation was widely visible across North America, and many photographers are submitting images. See them all in the Realtime Lunar Occultation Photo Gallery:
Realtime Lunar Occultation Photo Gallery
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"ALWAYS AND FOREVER" RUBY HEART PENDANT: Are you looking for a far out Valentine's Day gift? Consider the Always and Forever Space Pendent. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $219.95. Engraved with the words "I love you always and forever", this sterling silver pendant has a heart-shaped ruby crystal in the middle surrouunded by a ring of glittering 5A cubic zirconia nuggets. It is a visually striking necklace perfect for Valentine's Day, anniversaries, or romantic birthdays.
The students are selling space pendants to pay the helium bill for their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its trip to the stratosphere and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
A COMET IN BROAD DAYLIGHT: Astronomer Petr Horálek was crouching behind his car yesterday when he took this picture. It shows Comet ATLAS (C/2024 G3) high above the clouds of Pribylina, Slovakia, shining brightly enough to photograph in broad daylight:
"I drove 300 km to find a place with clear skies," says Horálek. "By the time I parked at 1 pm, the sun and the comet were high in the sky. I hid my camera, its mount, and myself in the shadow of my car so the sun was not shining into the optics. Then I took 72 single short exposures, which I stacked into one image and processed. Voilà--the comet popped out!"
At the time of Horálek's photo, Comet ATLAS was making a close approach to the sun (0.09 AU) deep inside the orbit of Mercury. It survived the heat of the sun at point-blank range, setting the stage for a lot of rare blue-sky images.
more images: from Chris Schur of Payson, Arizona; from Greg Hogan of Georgia, USA; from Marko Posavec of Koprivnica, Croatia; from Richard Nugent of Framingham, Massachusetts, USA; from Shahrin Ahmad of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia;
Realtime Comet Photo Gallery
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Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
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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 Jan 14, 2025, the network reported 12 fireballs.
(12 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 January 14, 2025 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
| 2024 PT5 | 2025-Jan-09 | 4.7 LD | 1 | 12 |
| 2024 YD13 | 2025-Jan-09 | 14.6 LD | 7.3 | 24 |
| 2025 AU3 | 2025-Jan-09 | 8.3 LD | 19.5 | 30 |
| 2023 OS3 | 2025-Jan-09 | 19.9 LD | 3.1 | 10 |
| 2024 YW9 | 2025-Jan-09 | 2.7 LD | 7.8 | 20 |
| 2008 AU28 | 2025-Jan-09 | 12.6 LD | 10.8 | 39 |
| 2024 YD5 | 2025-Jan-10 | 15.1 LD | 7.2 | 20 |
| 2012 UK171 | 2025-Jan-11 | 10.7 LD | 6.4 | 46 |
| 2025 AV2 | 2025-Jan-11 | 7.8 LD | 16.9 | 21 |
| 2025 AZ3 | 2025-Jan-11 | 0.6 LD | 8.2 | 23 |
| 2025 AF1 | 2025-Jan-11 | 4.7 LD | 4.9 | 10 |
| 2024 YZ12 | 2025-Jan-12 | 3.2 LD | 8.5 | 17 |
| 2025 AK3 | 2025-Jan-12 | 13.4 LD | 7.5 | 21 |
| 2022 EE6 | 2025-Jan-13 | 15.5 LD | 8.7 | 45 |
| 2025 AX2 | 2025-Jan-13 | 8.2 LD | 10.4 | 15 |
| 2005 YU128 | 2025-Jan-14 | 19.1 LD | 7 | 31 |
| 2025 AS | 2025-Jan-14 | 16.1 LD | 9.2 | 46 |
| 2024 YX5 | 2025-Jan-14 | 11.7 LD | 10.6 | 25 |
| 2023 OS | 2025-Jan-15 | 16.5 LD | 10.9 | 48 |
| 2022 CE2 | 2025-Jan-16 | 11.1 LD | 13.3 | 120 |
| 2024 YF2 | 2025-Jan-17 | 4.4 LD | 4.4 | 17 |
| 2025 AO2 | 2025-Jan-17 | 2 LD | 10.3 | 19 |
| 2025 AF | 2025-Jan-17 | 19.8 LD | 8.8 | 35 |
| 2022 OB5 | 2025-Jan-18 | 8.9 LD | 1.4 | 6 |
| 2024 YB10 | 2025-Jan-18 | 15.1 LD | 2.5 | 16 |
| 2024 WY70 | 2025-Jan-18 | 16.5 LD | 10.2 | 261 |
| 2024 YQ5 | 2025-Jan-19 | 17.6 LD | 5 | 29 |
| 2025 AY2 | 2025-Jan-20 | 17.7 LD | 23.3 | 71 |
| 2024 YY5 | 2025-Jan-26 | 12.5 LD | 2.4 | 14 |
| 2022 BX6 | 2025-Jan-28 | 19.7 LD | 14.3 | 24 |
| 2015 DJ155 | 2025-Jan-31 | 18.6 LD | 9.2 | 56 |
| 2018 RE3 | 2025-Feb-03 | 15.5 LD | 11.1 | 12 |
| 2022 AV4 | 2025-Feb-03 | 16.9 LD | 3.4 | 25 |
| 2002 CC14 | 2025-Feb-04 | 8.4 LD | 12.7 | 39 |
| 2016 CO248 | 2025-Feb-07 | 13.5 LD | 5.9 | 11 |
| 2020 GZ2 | 2025-Feb-07 | 17.7 LD | 8.9 | 9 |
| 2022 PK1 | 2025-Feb-07 | 15 LD | 11 | 33 |
| 2012 PB20 | 2025-Feb-09 | 3.5 LD | 4.3 | 37 |
| 2004 XG | 2025-Feb-16 | 15.6 LD | 9.1 | 54 |
| 2024 UD26 | 2025-Feb-16 | 16.8 LD | 9.3 | 250 |
| 2014 CE13 | 2025-Feb-18 | 15.2 LD | 18.4 | 55 |
| 2022 DG2 | 2025-Feb-19 | 11.5 LD | 10.4 | 7 |
| 2016 AX165 | 2025-Feb-20 | 14.9 LD | 9.2 | 89 |
| 2015 BK509 | 2025-Feb-25 | 9.4 LD | 14.6 | 119 |
| 2023 RW3 | 2025-Feb-25 | 7.4 LD | 5.1 | 18 |
| 535844 | 2025-Mar-05 | 9.6 LD | 7.9 | 149 |
| 2021 EU3 | 2025-Mar-10 | 10.7 LD | 4.4 | 13 |
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 |
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