This is an AI Free Zone: AI is everywhere -- except here. Spaceweather.com is written by Dr. Tony Phillips, a carbon-based lifeform with 30 yrs of forecasting experience. If you find a mistake, rest assured it was made by a real human being.
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A MINOR CME IS COMING: Another CME is heading for Earth. Estimated time of arrival: June 14th. NOAA models suggest the impact will be weak, sparking no more than a minor G1-class geomagnetic storm. If such a storm does materialize, high-latitude sky watchers could catch some auroras. The phase of the Moon on June 14th will provide dark skies for photography. CME Impact alerts: SMS Text.
AN UNUSUAL SATELLITE JUST BURNED UP OVER CALIFORNIA: Early this morning, June 10th, a bright fireball crawled across the skies of the US West Coast. It was the re-entry of Clarity-1, an unusual satellite launched in March 2025 by Albedo Space. "I saw it almost directly overhead at 1:43 am PDT," reports Richard Sears, who photographed the disintegration from Ballico, California:
Clarity-1 is unusual because it was designed to operate in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO), a region of space less than 400 km above Earth's surface. Orbiting at only half the altitude of a typical Earth-observing satellite, Clarity-1 could see and photograph objects on the ground with a resolution of only 10 cm.
VLEO is not an easy place to be. Aerodynamic drag at such low altitudes can be 10 times higher than in normal orbits, pulling satellites down in a matter of weeks. In addition, relatively high levels of atomic oxygen could degrade satellite surfaces and solar arrays.
Clarity-1 spent more than a year in this harsh environment. For the first 9 months after launch, onboard electric propulsion helped it maintain a steady orbit. In late 2025, however, Albedo lost contact. Nature did the rest, pulling Clarity-1 to its doom over California this morning.
Despite the fiery end, Albedo almost certainly considers this to be a successful mission. Before Clarity-1, only a handful of government missions, such as ESA's GOCE gravity satellite (224 km) and Japan's SLATS technology demonstrator (167 km, a Guinness world record), had ventured so deep for so long. Clarity-1 showed that a commercial satellite could do it, too.
Clarity-1 thus sets the stage for -- you guessed it -- an entire constellation of VLEO satellites. Albedo hopes to launch as many as 24 more using the same technology that Clarity-1 tested. Flying far closer to Earth than Starlink, they're expected to appear strikingly bright in the night sky, albeit nowhere near as numerous.
Now for the good news: When they fail, they disintegrate rapidly. Stay tuned for more fireballs.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Space Weather Newsletter
THIS IS *REAL* MONEY FROM SPACE: Last month, the US Mint released new $1 coins to honor one of America's greatest innovators: Steve Jobs. On May 14, 2026, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched them to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have a single coin for $49.95 or an entire unbroken roll for $299.95 (25 coins). No longer available from the US Mint, these rare coins flew 111,113 feet above the Sierra Nevada. One side shows Steve Jobs in a meditative pose; the other side features the Statue of Liberty in profile. The coin is inscribed with the words "MAKE SOMETHING WONDERFUL."
The students are selling space coins to support to support their cosmic ray research program. (Helium is expensive!) Each order comes with a greeting card showing the coins in flight and telling the story of their journey to the stratosphere and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
VENUS, JUPITER AND FROSTED METEOR SMOKE: When Alan Dyer went outside at sunset to photograph this week's conjunction of Venus and Jupiter, he found something else as well. The bright planets were shining through electric-blue veils of frosted meteor smoke:
"Venus and Jupiter were embedded in what looked like glowing noctilucent clouds (NLCs)," says Dyer.
He's right, the summer season for noctilucent clouds has begun. NLCs form every year around his time when plumes of water vapor rise up from the Earth to the mesosphere. Water molecules stick to fine particles of meteor smoke (the remains of disintegrated meteoroids), crystallizing into icy electric-blue NLCs.
Watch the evening sky this week. Venus, Jupiter, Mercury and the crescent Moon will all be there. There's a chance of NLCs as well. Sky maps: June 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.
more images: from Petr Horálek of Ústupky, Seč, Czech Republic; from Gwenael Blanck of Foligno, Italy; from Marina Prol Franco of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands (Spain); from Sim Jaehyun of Seoul, S. Korea; from Marcus Prazniak of Tonopah, NV; from Giovanni Passalacqua of Sicily, Italy; from Miroslav Grnja of Bratislava, Slovakia; from S. Sabet of Alborz, Karaj, Iran
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Space Weather Newsletter
Realtime Aurora 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 June 9, 2026, the network reported 6 fireballs.
(6 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 June 10, 2026 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
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Recent
& Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT) |
Miss Distance |
Velocity (km/s) |
Diameter (m) |
| 2026 LE |
2026-Jun-05 |
4 LD |
10.1 |
24 |
| 2026 LC |
2026-Jun-05 |
1.6 LD |
11.3 |
20 |
| 2026 LH |
2026-Jun-05 |
11.9 LD |
7.9 |
38 |
| 2026 LB |
2026-Jun-05 |
3.7 LD |
6.8 |
17 |
| 2026 LW |
2026-Jun-06 |
1.5 LD |
10.7 |
28 |
| 2026 LL |
2026-Jun-06 |
5.5 LD |
7.9 |
10 |
| 2026 LX |
2026-Jun-07 |
0.2 LD |
8.1 |
6 |
| 2018 GE |
2026-Jun-07 |
16.4 LD |
3.1 |
11 |
| 2026 LY |
2026-Jun-07 |
4.8 LD |
17.7 |
26 |
| 2026 LA1 |
2026-Jun-08 |
1.6 LD |
14.3 |
15 |
| 2026 LT |
2026-Jun-08 |
4.5 LD |
8.3 |
11 |
| 2026 KM3 |
2026-Jun-09 |
6.1 LD |
8.7 |
35 |
| 2026 LD |
2026-Jun-09 |
3 LD |
9.3 |
53 |
| 2026 LB1 |
2026-Jun-10 |
0.7 LD |
3.7 |
4 |
| 2016 VS |
2026-Jun-12 |
20 LD |
11.1 |
12 |
| 2026 LA |
2026-Jun-12 |
19.8 LD |
9.9 |
38 |
| 530520 |
2026-Jun-12 |
16.1 LD |
14.6 |
152 |
| 2026 LV |
2026-Jun-16 |
3.1 LD |
5.6 |
15 |
| 2003 LN6 |
2026-Jun-18 |
3.7 LD |
3.9 |
40 |
| 2025 WC4 |
2026-Jun-21 |
10.2 LD |
19.2 |
305 |
| 2015 LM24 |
2026-Jun-22 |
18.2 LD |
13.8 |
71 |
| 152637 |
2026-Jun-27 |
6.7 LD |
8.9 |
947 |
| 523808 |
2026-Jul-04 |
9.1 LD |
16.8 |
479 |
| 2023 YO1 |
2026-Jul-05 |
6.5 LD |
2.7 |
23 |
| 2007 AA2 |
2026-Jul-11 |
17.8 LD |
7.2 |
43 |
| 2025 PN7 |
2026-Jul-17 |
11.6 LD |
2.6 |
19 |
| 2025 MB90 |
2026-Jul-19 |
5.1 LD |
9.6 |
54 |
| 2020 OM |
2026-Jul-21 |
9.1 LD |
9.5 |
15 |
| 2026 KU3 |
2026-Jul-24 |
7.7 LD |
8.6 |
80 |
| 2020 UR1 |
2026-Jul-25 |
18.8 LD |
7.6 |
28 |
| 2015 BF |
2026-Jul-26 |
17.3 LD |
12.5 |
17 |
| 2025 OW |
2026-Jul-30 |
16.1 LD |
20.1 |
70 |
| 2024 RM10 |
2026-Aug-05 |
13.6 LD |
7.5 |
24 |
Notes: LD means
"Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance
between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256
AU.
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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 sharply 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.
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The
official U.S. government space weather bureau |
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The
first place to look for information about sundogs,
pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. |
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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. |
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information about sunspots based on the latest NOAA/USAF Active Region Summary |
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current counts of failed and deployed Starlink satellites from Jonathan's Space Page. See also, all satellite statistics. |
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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 |
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the
underlying science of space weather |
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