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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NEW! BACKYARD ASTRONOMY ALERTS: We're proud to announce a new service from Spaceweather.com: Backyard Astronomy Alerts. We love this product. Subscribers receive real-time alerts about space station flybys, aurora outbursts, planetary conjunctions, meteor showers and more -- all easy to see with the naked eye. SMS text messages tell you to go outside right now while the event is happening, and companion emails include sky maps and detailed observing tips. Check out the Father's Day Special, 50% off!
HOW TO DEFEAT A SOLAR STORM: Is it bonkers? Or brilliant? You decide: A new paper published in the June issue of Space Weather describes how a small fleet of spacecraft could be used to partially neutralize approaching CMEs--even Carrington-class monsters--by releasing clouds of gas in the CME's path. The editors of Science magazine called it an "orbital airbag" for solar storms.
Above: An artist's concept of the "air bag" solar storm defense--not to scale!
The researchers, led by Brian Walsh of Boston University, got their inspiration from Earth itself. During major geomagnetic storms, Earth's upper atmosphere naturally releases a fountain of oxygen ions into space. These ions "mass-load" the magnetic field, reducing magnetic reconnection and, in effect, making Earth's magnetic field harder to push around.
The new study asks a simple question: What if we amplified this natural defense using spacecraft?
Walsh's team simulated the great geomagnetic storm of May 2024 and found they could cut some of its effects by as much as 84% using six spacecraft releasing 384 tons of a barium-like gas.
That might sound like a lot of gas, but consider this: A typical CME weighs about a billion tons. The proposed shield contains less than one millionth as much mass, yet still weakens the storm's impact. Their scheme punches far above its weight.
Now for the problems: Once the spacecraft deploy their defenses, their tanks would quickly empty. A refill requires launching about six Starship-class tankers. Also, the environmental effects are unknown. Injecting hundreds of tons of ionized gas into Earth's magnetosphere could alter the radiation belts, interfere with satellites, and create an artificial plasma environment unlike anything near Earth today. Researchers still need to understand these risks.
Indeed, the paper is best seen not as a concrete proposal but rather as a provocative thought experiment. Defeating solar storms is within our reach. We just don't know if it's a good idea. Let the conversation begin.
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GIVE THE GIFT OF THE STARS FOR FATHER'S DAY: Father's Day is this Sunday. Do you need a last-minute gift? Consider our new Backyard Astronomy Alert Service. Subscribers receive real-time alerts about space station flybys, aurora outbursts, planetary conjunctions, meteor showers and more -- all easy to see with the naked eye.
How it works: SMS text messages tell Dad to go outside right now while the event is happening, and companion emails include sky maps and detailed observing tips.
For Father's Day, it's 50% off. You can give an entire year of stargazing for $49.95 (regularly $99.95). We'll send Dad a gift card and activation code immediately or on Father's Day itself, whichever you prefer.
Bonus: You can buy this gift for yourself at the same half-off price.
Give the Gift of the Stars at backyardalerts.com/gifts.
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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 June 18, 2026, the network reported 13 fireballs.
(13 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 19, 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 ME |
2026-Jun-13 |
9.7 LD |
12.6 |
25 |
| 2026 LS1 |
2026-Jun-13 |
0.5 LD |
8.3 |
19 |
| 2026 LF1 |
2026-Jun-13 |
5.1 LD |
10.3 |
26 |
| 2026 LH1 |
2026-Jun-14 |
6.9 LD |
20.6 |
36 |
| 2026 MG |
2026-Jun-14 |
5.4 LD |
13.4 |
20 |
| 2026 LZ1 |
2026-Jun-15 |
19.7 LD |
10.8 |
37 |
| 2026 LW2 |
2026-Jun-15 |
3.8 LD |
9.6 |
13 |
| 2026 LN3 |
2026-Jun-15 |
2.4 LD |
6.1 |
9 |
| 2026 LV |
2026-Jun-16 |
3.1 LD |
5.6 |
16 |
| 2026 LO1 |
2026-Jun-17 |
14.1 LD |
7.5 |
40 |
| 2026 LD2 |
2026-Jun-18 |
8.7 LD |
8 |
19 |
| 2026 MA |
2026-Jun-18 |
5.2 LD |
8.8 |
15 |
| 2003 LN6 |
2026-Jun-18 |
3.7 LD |
3.9 |
40 |
| 2026 MK |
2026-Jun-19 |
5 LD |
9.2 |
16 |
| 2026 LQ1 |
2026-Jun-20 |
18.6 LD |
2.8 |
21 |
| 2025 WC4 |
2026-Jun-21 |
10.2 LD |
19.2 |
305 |
| 2026 MH |
2026-Jun-21 |
0.5 LD |
4.4 |
6 |
| 2026 LJ3 |
2026-Jun-25 |
14.5 LD |
14.2 |
29 |
| 2026 LC2 |
2026-Jun-27 |
8.9 LD |
5.2 |
38 |
| 152637 |
2026-Jun-27 |
6.7 LD |
8.9 |
947 |
| 2026 MD |
2026-Jun-30 |
7.8 LD |
10.9 |
41 |
| 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 |
| 173561 |
2026-Aug-09 |
13.1 LD |
16.2 |
756 |
| 2019 NY2 |
2026-Aug-10 |
6.6 LD |
9.6 |
195 |
| 2016 BV14 |
2026-Aug-10 |
19.1 LD |
21.1 |
162 |
| 2013 QC11 |
2026-Aug-13 |
14.5 LD |
19 |
172 |
| 2025 AL2 |
2026-Aug-16 |
2.8 LD |
12.5 |
100 |
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. |
| |
from the NOAA Space Environment Center |
| |
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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