This is an AI Free Zone: AI isn't all bad. Large language models are good writers with access to vast stores of data. There's still no substitute for a human being with decades of space weather forecasting experience. This website is 100% human.
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GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH (UPDATED): NOAA forecasters say that G1-class geomagnetic storms are possible tomorrow, June 26th, when a stream of solar wind is expected to hit Earth. The gaseous material is flowing from an equatorial hole in the sun's atmosphere. High latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras. Aurora alerts: SMS Text
DID SPACEX MAKE THESE NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS? Maybe it's just a coincidence. Shortly after midnight on June 24th, people in Europe watched a rocket glide silently overhead. A few hours later, noctilucent clouds (NLCs) filled the sky.
"It was incredible," reports Stanislaw Rokita from Torun, Poland, the hometown of Copernicus. "Silver filaments spread over almost half the horizon and rose all the way to the zenith."
Similar displays were seen in Berlin, Paris and other European cities.
NLCs are a natural phenomenon. They form when summertime wisps of water vapor rise up to the mesosphere (83 km high) and frost specks of meteor smoke. We see them every year during weeks around the summer solstice. This, however, was an unusually bright and widespread display.
Some onlookers wondered if the rocket had anything to do with it. The rocket was SpaceX's Transporter-14 mission, launched the previous evening from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base. Onboard were 70 payloads, including cremated human remains and small surveillance satellites. A fuel dump from the rocket's second stage was widely observed only a few hours before the NLCs appeared.
This picture from Nicolas Rossetto of Jura, France, shows the rocket (inset) trailed by a cloud of discarded propellant:
"This was about 15 minutes past midnight," says Rossetto.
Could Transporter-14 be responsible for the NLCs? Theoretically, yes. Studies show that space traffic does indeed amplify noctilucent clouds. Rocket engines emit water vapor--a key ingredient of NLCs. Moreover, a video of the Transporter-14 launch shows the second stage engine burning through the mesosphere and spewing water exactly where NLCs form.
But there's a problem with this idea. The burn happened over the coast of California, not Europe. To make morning clouds over Paris and Berlin, the water vapor would need to travel 10,000 km in less than 6 hours--*very* unlikely.
The display was probably natural. If so, more NLCs could be in the offing--no rockets required.
Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
GOLDEN SAPPHIRE SPACE PENDANT: Are you looking for an unforgettable gift? Consider the Golden Sapphire Space Pendent. On Feb. 20, 2025, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $199.95. Engraved with the words "I love you always and forever", this 18K gold-plated sterling silver pendant features a synthetic sapphire crystal surrounded by a heart-shaped ring of glittering 5A cubic zirconia nuggets. It is a visually striking premium pendant.
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
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
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 Jun 25, 2025, the network reported 19 fireballs.
(19 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 25, 2025 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) |
| 2025 MK |
2025-Jun-21 |
14.6 LD |
12.3 |
27 |
| 2025 MR |
2025-Jun-21 |
5 LD |
10.8 |
43 |
| 2025 LC1 |
2025-Jun-21 |
10.8 LD |
8 |
33 |
| 2025 MY1 |
2025-Jun-22 |
13.1 LD |
12.9 |
87 |
| 2025 MZ |
2025-Jun-22 |
2.2 LD |
14 |
25 |
| 2003 AY2 |
2025-Jun-22 |
14.2 LD |
15.9 |
386 |
| 2025 MX1 |
2025-Jun-22 |
1.5 LD |
6.6 |
6 |
| 2025 MP |
2025-Jun-23 |
8 LD |
14.6 |
37 |
| 2025 LT |
2025-Jun-23 |
3.4 LD |
14.5 |
44 |
| 2025 MQ1 |
2025-Jun-23 |
1.5 LD |
13.3 |
11 |
| 2025 ML2 |
2025-Jun-23 |
4.2 LD |
7.1 |
29 |
| 2025 MB1 |
2025-Jun-24 |
11.2 LD |
12 |
43 |
| 2025 MS1 |
2025-Jun-24 |
0.8 LD |
6.3 |
4 |
| 2025 MP1 |
2025-Jun-25 |
2.7 LD |
5.4 |
17 |
| 2025 MK2 |
2025-Jun-26 |
7.1 LD |
4.7 |
14 |
| 2025 MT1 |
2025-Jun-27 |
15.5 LD |
2.4 |
20 |
| 2014 DH |
2025-Jun-28 |
17.1 LD |
12.1 |
17 |
| 2025 MZ1 |
2025-Jun-28 |
3.4 LD |
4.6 |
15 |
| 2025 MS88 |
2025-Jun-28 |
4.4 LD |
10.1 |
22 |
| 2025 ML |
2025-Jun-28 |
6.7 LD |
11.7 |
25 |
| 2025 MM |
2025-Jul-01 |
5.4 LD |
10.7 |
41 |
| 2025 MN88 |
2025-Jul-06 |
1.9 LD |
7.8 |
21 |
| 2025 MO |
2025-Jul-07 |
6.7 LD |
4.6 |
9 |
| 2019 JM |
2025-Jul-09 |
16.6 LD |
6.9 |
14 |
| 2019 NW5 |
2025-Jul-09 |
15.2 LD |
16.5 |
65 |
| 2005 VO5 |
2025-Jul-11 |
15.9 LD |
14.4 |
382 |
| 2025 MD1 |
2025-Jul-11 |
18 LD |
8.9 |
46 |
| 2025 MG1 |
2025-Jul-12 |
13.2 LD |
7.2 |
43 |
| 2022 YS5 |
2025-Jul-17 |
17.4 LD |
6.1 |
38 |
| 2018 BY6 |
2025-Jul-19 |
13.7 LD |
7.4 |
69 |
| 2019 CO1 |
2025-Aug-08 |
17.8 LD |
10.5 |
65 |
| 2022 QB1 |
2025-Aug-10 |
8.9 LD |
3.9 |
6 |
| 2021 PJ1 |
2025-Aug-15 |
4.4 LD |
9.3 |
24 |
| 2025 CO3 |
2025-Aug-16 |
19.8 LD |
8.4 |
90 |
| 1997 QK1 |
2025-Aug-20 |
7.9 LD |
9.8 |
322 |
| 2022 QD3 |
2025-Aug-21 |
15 LD |
6.9 |
35 |
| 2023 PX |
2025-Aug-22 |
2.4 LD |
8.3 |
23 |
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 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. |
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3D
views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial
Relations Observatory |
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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 |
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from
the NOAA Space Environment Center |
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fun to read, but should be taken with a grain of salt! Forecasts looking ahead more than a few days are often wrong. |
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from the NOAA Space Environment Center |
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the
underlying science of space weather |
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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. |
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