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SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts |
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Updated at: 2025 Nov 20 2200 UTC
FLARE |
0-24
hr |
24-48
hr |
CLASS M |
15
% |
15
% |
CLASS X |
01
% |
01
% |
Geomagnetic Storms:
Probabilities for significant
disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor
storm, severe
storm
Updated at: 2025 Nov 20 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
|
0-24
hr |
24-48
hr |
ACTIVE |
35
% |
20
% |
MINOR |
15
% |
05
% |
SEVERE |
01
% |
01
% |
High latitudes
|
0-24
hr |
24-48
hr |
ACTIVE |
10
% |
15
% |
MINOR |
25
% |
25
% |
SEVERE |
50
% |
25
% |
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|
|
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|
|
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This is an AI Free Zone: Text created by Large Language Models is spreading across the Internet. It's well-written, but frequently inaccurate. If you find a mistake on Spaceweather.com, rest assured it was made by a real human being.
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THE FARSIDE OF THE SUN IS ACTIVE: Multiple solar radio bursts and CMEs have emanated from the farside of the sun this week. Helioseismic maps of the sun show the reason why. There are three significant sunspot groups transiting the farside. One of them is an old friend: Sunspot 4274, which caused the Veteran's Day aurora and radiation storm. It'll be back after Thanksgiving. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
INTERSTELLAR COMET 3I/ATLAS IN COLOR: Who needs satellites and space agencies? Using a backyard telescope on Earth, amateur astronomers Michael Jäger and Gerald Rhemann have just captured the best-yet color image of interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS. It is unmistakably a comet.
"We used a 12-inch telescope with a QHY600 cooled astronomy camera and color filters," says Jäger.
With one exception (discussed below), the photo is "classic comet." The comet's long tail streams straight away from the sun, sculpted by solar wind. Its blue color comes from carbon monoxide ions, CO+, a compound found in almost all Solar System comets. The comet's head is green because of another common molecule, diatomic carbon (C2), which is released from icy comet cores when they get close to the sun.
Now for the exception: There is a jet poking out of 3I/ATLAS's head toward the sun. It stands out in this black-and-white image taken by Michael Jäger and Gerald Rhemann on Nov. 20th:
This is unusual. Solar System comets rarely have such "anti-tails." This has prompted some (actually just one) astronomer to suggest that 3I/ATLAS might have an artificial thruster.
There is, however, a completely natural explanation. 3I/ATLAS spent a very long time in interstellar space. Billions of years of cosmic ray bombardment may have altered its surface--knocking hydrogen atoms out while heavier molecules remained behind. Now that 3I/ATLAS is in our solar system, sunlight is warming that crust and causing it to shed relatively large, heavy grains of dust. These grains are too massive to be quickly pushed around by radiation pressure or the solar wind. Instead they linger, creating a sunward-pointing jet that does not bend backward like a normal tail.
The backyard conclusion: 3I/ATLAS is a comet, and a wonderful one.
Realtime Comet Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
THE HYDROGEN-ALPHA RING FOR MEN: The Earth to Sky Store sells a lot of gifts for women. This one is for men. It's the Hydrogen Alpha Ring, returning from a trip to the stratosphere on Nov. 16th.
You can have it for $126.95. The Hydrogen-Alpha Ring is the same color that hydrogen atoms emit in the sun's hot atmosphere: Red at a wavelength of 656 nanometers. Space-black edges of beveled tungsten carbide frame the deep-red band.
Multiple sizes were flown. If you're not sure, select size "11" during the checkout process; that fits most fingers. Your purchase comes with a greeting card showing the ring in flight, and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com 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 Nov 21, 2025, the network reported 10 fireballs.
(4 sporadics, 3 Leonids, 3 Northern Taurids)
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 November 21, 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 VN1 |
2025-Nov-16 |
4.6 LD |
10.7 |
20 |
| 2025 WK |
2025-Nov-16 |
11.1 LD |
4.9 |
14 |
| 2025 VW3 |
2025-Nov-16 |
1.5 LD |
14 |
10 |
| 2022 FG4 |
2025-Nov-16 |
14.1 LD |
21.4 |
105 |
| 2025 WC |
2025-Nov-17 |
0.3 LD |
10.2 |
5 |
| 2025 VG5 |
2025-Nov-17 |
15.5 LD |
4.7 |
16 |
| 2025 VC4 |
2025-Nov-18 |
5.2 LD |
10 |
13 |
| 2025 VP1 |
2025-Nov-18 |
1.5 LD |
8.2 |
12 |
| 2025 WN |
2025-Nov-18 |
9.3 LD |
9 |
15 |
| 3361 |
2025-Nov-19 |
14.8 LD |
9.1 |
439 |
| 2025 VO2 |
2025-Nov-19 |
14.7 LD |
5.7 |
22 |
| 2025 VK2 |
2025-Nov-19 |
8.1 LD |
15.1 |
22 |
| 2025 VZ6 |
2025-Nov-19 |
2.2 LD |
8.7 |
7 |
| 2013 NJ4 |
2025-Nov-20 |
12.6 LD |
6.4 |
12 |
| 2025 VN9 |
2025-Nov-20 |
18.5 LD |
4.1 |
13 |
| 2025 VO5 |
2025-Nov-20 |
12.2 LD |
13.8 |
24 |
| 2025 VW4 |
2025-Nov-21 |
8.6 LD |
4.7 |
20 |
| 2025 VE2 |
2025-Nov-21 |
13.8 LD |
1.7 |
14 |
| 2025 VO1 |
2025-Nov-21 |
2.6 LD |
9.3 |
17 |
| 2025 WA |
2025-Nov-21 |
7.8 LD |
7.9 |
36 |
| 2025 VM5 |
2025-Nov-22 |
2.8 LD |
4.5 |
14 |
| 2025 VB6 |
2025-Nov-22 |
16.3 LD |
14.6 |
31 |
| 2025 VF5 |
2025-Nov-23 |
3.1 LD |
7.8 |
15 |
| 2025 VA7 |
2025-Nov-23 |
5.1 LD |
11.7 |
10 |
| 2025 VL6 |
2025-Nov-24 |
2.5 LD |
14.5 |
12 |
| 516155 |
2025-Nov-24 |
12.5 LD |
16.7 |
338 |
| 2025 VY4 |
2025-Nov-24 |
12.6 LD |
7.7 |
42 |
| 2020 WM |
2025-Nov-24 |
17.4 LD |
11.8 |
36 |
| 2025 VP2 |
2025-Nov-25 |
6.6 LD |
8.5 |
49 |
| 2019 UT6 |
2025-Nov-25 |
6.2 LD |
12.6 |
146 |
| 2021 WR |
2025-Nov-26 |
12 LD |
9.4 |
31 |
| 2018 WG2 |
2025-Nov-27 |
13.5 LD |
7.5 |
3 |
| 2007 VM184 |
2025-Dec-01 |
13.1 LD |
20 |
219 |
| 2025 WG |
2025-Dec-02 |
5.1 LD |
7.2 |
18 |
| 2018 WC2 |
2025-Dec-03 |
9.8 LD |
8.9 |
36 |
| 2025 UF10 |
2025-Dec-04 |
14.5 LD |
13.1 |
133 |
| 2025 VE6 |
2025-Dec-04 |
6.3 LD |
5.2 |
24 |
| 2021 JE1 |
2025-Dec-08 |
13.5 LD |
7.1 |
16 |
| 2019 XN3 |
2025-Dec-10 |
5.7 LD |
3.6 |
15 |
| 1999 SF10 |
2025-Dec-10 |
8.2 LD |
4.4 |
46 |
| 2016 YH |
2025-Dec-13 |
6.8 LD |
8.9 |
28 |
| 2025 TZ |
2025-Dec-15 |
17.8 LD |
6.2 |
53 |
| 2015 XX168 |
2025-Dec-18 |
4.7 LD |
11.6 |
27 |
| 2010 WR7 |
2025-Dec-20 |
19.4 LD |
8.3 |
71 |
| 2021 AB1 |
2025-Dec-28 |
10.2 LD |
12.3 |
16 |
| 2019 AU |
2025-Dec-30 |
19.3 LD |
2.8 |
16 |
| 2024 AV2 |
2025-Dec-30 |
17.9 LD |
7 |
17 |
| 2014 AF16 |
2026-Jan-04 |
9 LD |
9.6 |
34 |
| 2023 XM15 |
2026-Jan-07 |
15.2 LD |
6.9 |
51 |
| 2022 GR3 |
2026-Jan-12 |
14.5 LD |
12.9 |
9 |
| 2022 OB5 |
2026-Jan-14 |
1.7 LD |
2.2 |
6 |
| 2025 BL |
2026-Jan-17 |
4.7 LD |
6.9 |
28 |
| 2004 MO3 |
2026-Jan-17 |
17 LD |
10.2 |
129 |
| 2011 AM37 |
2026-Jan-17 |
19.8 LD |
5.1 |
4 |
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 |
| |
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. |
| |
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 |
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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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