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SO FAR THE CMEs ARE MISSING EARTH: A fusillade of strong explosions from sunspot 4087 hurled multiple CMEs into space today. So far none of the CMEs appears to be heading for Earth. We are just outside the sunspot's strike zone. This could change in the days ahead as the active region turns to face our planet. CME impact alerts: SMS Text
STRONG SOLAR ACTIVITY: After weeks of calm, solar activity is suddenly high again. The action started late yesterday with a surprising X1.2-class solar flare from the sun's western limb, followed today by an even stronger X2.7-flare from new sunspot 4087. Earth-orbiting satellites have detected four significant explosions so far:
Radiation from the flares has caused a series of shortwave radio blackouts around the world--first over the Americas, followed by southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Ham radio operators may have noticed unusual propagation effects from stations in all directions since May 13th.
Most of this activity has come from new sunspot 4087, which emerged over the sun's northeastern limb 2 days ago. It is not yet facing Earth. If the explosions continue for a few more days, however, Earth will find itself squarely in the strike zone with geoeffective CMEs heading our way. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
more images: from David Wilson of Inverness, Scotland; from Francois Rouviere of Cannes, France; from Harald Paleske of Sachsen Anhalt, Germany; from Pepe Manteca of Begues, Catalonia, Spain
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LASER-ETCHED FULL MOON CRYSTAL MONOLITH: This crystal monolith comes from the edge of space bearing a message: "I Love You to the Moon and Back." On April 23, 2025, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a giant helium balloon:
You can have it for $135.99. Made of high-quality K9 crystal, the rectanglar mini-monolith contains a 3D laser-etched full Moon floating above the text "I Love You to the Moon and Back." It also comes with an LED base, which allows the crystal to be used as a red, green or blue night light.
The students are selling space crystals to pay the helium bill for their high altitude ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
LUNAR POLLEN CORONA: It's that time of year. Pollen is floating through the air and making springtime "pollen coronas." Heiko Ulbricht of Freital, Germany, saw this one surrounding the waxing full Moon on May 11th:
"It was extraordinarily intense," says Ulbricht. "The magnificent colored rings and typical bulges suggest it was caused by pine pollen."
Coronas are rings of light that surround the sun or Moon when their light is scattered from small particles. Tiny droplets of water in clouds can make coronas, but pollen grains do even better. They make intensely colored rings.
Pollen coronas tend to be elliptical and lumpy because the underlying grains are, too. This photo of pine pollen seen through a microscope shows what's going on:
They look like Mickey Mouse hats--a result of air sacs that help carry them in the wind. These align the grains so that the unruly swarm can scatter light coherently, encoding their individual structures into the shape of the overall corona.
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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 May 14, 2025, the network reported 4 fireballs.
(4 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 May 14, 2025 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
| 612356 | 2025-May-09 | 11 LD | 5.1 | 305 |
| 2025 JB2 | 2025-May-09 | 13.4 LD | 9.6 | 19 |
| 2021 KH | 2025-May-10 | 18.3 LD | 7.2 | 19 |
| 2025 JK1 | 2025-May-10 | 3.2 LD | 8 | 18 |
| 2025 JO | 2025-May-10 | 3.7 LD | 15.6 | 14 |
| 2025 JW1 | 2025-May-10 | 3 LD | 12.3 | 23 |
| 2025 JX1 | 2025-May-10 | 2.2 LD | 6.8 | 30 |
| 2025 JH2 | 2025-May-10 | 9.9 LD | 5.5 | 14 |
| 2025 JA1 | 2025-May-12 | 4 LD | 12.6 | 29 |
| 2011 HJ7 | 2025-May-12 | 6.6 LD | 15.8 | 118 |
| 2011 YU74 | 2025-May-13 | 11.4 LD | 5 | 90 |
| 2025 DT50 | 2025-May-14 | 16 LD | 6.4 | 105 |
| 2025 HD19 | 2025-May-17 | 7.4 LD | 9 | 28 |
| 2008 ST | 2025-May-20 | 13.5 LD | 2.5 | 14 |
| 2025 JE1 | 2025-May-20 | 11.4 LD | 1.4 | 22 |
| 387746 | 2025-May-24 | 17.4 LD | 8.3 | 339 |
| 2014 KF22 | 2025-May-25 | 9.1 LD | 11.5 | 19 |
| 390725 | 2025-May-25 | 18.4 LD | 13.5 | 410 |
| 2025 JP | 2025-May-27 | 13.4 LD | 7 | 24 |
| 2025 JR | 2025-May-28 | 12.1 LD | 11.4 | 76 |
| 2025 FU5 | 2025-May-28 | 13.4 LD | 7.3 | 92 |
| 2022 KP3 | 2025-May-30 | 10.2 LD | 7.7 | 7 |
| 424482 | 2025-Jun-05 | 9.1 LD | 6.2 | 421 |
| 2020 LQ | 2025-Jun-06 | 17.3 LD | 11.8 | 34 |
| 2018 LE4 | 2025-Jun-07 | 12.2 LD | 13.3 | 62 |
| 2014 LL26 | 2025-Jun-08 | 8 LD | 5.2 | 31 |
| 2022 KQ5 | 2025-Jun-12 | 13.6 LD | 5.1 | 5 |
| 2023 XO15 | 2025-Jun-15 | 17.8 LD | 3.4 | 24 |
| 2025 HN6 | 2025-Jun-16 | 6.4 LD | 2.3 | 23 |
| 2000 LF3 | 2025-Jun-17 | 18.9 LD | 14.5 | 169 |
| 2023 XU2 | 2025-Jun-18 | 11.1 LD | 15.6 | 32 |
| 2003 AY2 | 2025-Jun-22 | 14.2 LD | 15.9 | 386 |
| 2014 DH | 2025-Jun-28 | 17.1 LD | 12.1 | 17 |
| 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 |
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.
| | 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 |
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