This is an AI Free Zone! Text created by Large Language Models is spreading rapidly across the Internet. It's well-written, artificial, frequently inaccurate. If you find a mistake on Spaceweather.com, rest assured it was made by a real human being. | | |
INEFFECTIVE CME IMPACT: Arriving 6 hours earlier than expected, a halo CME hit Earth's magnetic field on July 23rd (2010 UT). Normally, an early CME would strike harder than forecast due to its higher-than-expected speed. In this case, however, the impact was not effective. Magnetic fields within the CME did not connect to Earth's magnetosphere and, thus, no geomagnetic storm occured. CME impact alerts: SMS Text
THE VENUS CLOUD DISCONTINUITY: A towering wall of acid clouds is racing through the atmosphere of Venus. Luigi Morrone photographed it from Agerola, Italy, on July 17th:

"It's called the Venus Cloud Discontinuity," says Morrone, who is part of an international network of amateur astronomers who have been tracking the massive structure. "This is the first time I've seen it since 2022."
The Venus Cloud Discontinuity is a relatively new discovery, photographed by Japan's Venus orbiter Akatsuki in 2016 and first spotted by JAXA scientist Javier Peralta. The massive structure cuts vertically across Venus's equator, stretching almost 5000 miles from end to end, and circles the planet faster than 200 mph, making one lap every ~5 Earth days.
"This atmospheric disruption is a new meteorological phenomenon, unseen on other planets," says Peralta. "We're still not certain what it is." Numerical simulations suggest that it might be some kind of exotic nonlinear Kelvin wave; the jury's still out.
Whatever it is, the structure might help solve a longstanding mystery: Why does Venus's atmosphere rotate so much faster than the planet itself? The hot, deadly air on Venus spins nearly 60 times faster than its surface, an effect known as "super-rotation." Venus's Cloud Discontinuity could be assisting the spin-up by transporting angular momentum from the deep atmosphere to the cloudtops.

Above: Undulations behind the Cloud Discontinuity on April 15, 2016. Credits: Javier Peralta/JAXA-Akatsuki team. More images.
Amateur observations of the Cloud Discontinuity are crucial. "Unfortunately, we recently lost contact with Akatsuki so images from amateur astronomers are our only source of information," says Peralta. "Because the discontinuity may propagate faster than the superrotating winds of Venus, it is critical that observers from different geographical regions provide images to accurately track its motion and confirm its wave nature."
Observing Venus right now is not easy. The planet is emerging from months in the glare of the sun, and it is still near the twilight horizon at sunset. Nevertheless, it is possible, especially if you use an infrared filter (which is best for seeing the hot Cloud Discontinuity anyway). "I use a Baader SLOAN 820-920nm near-infrared filter on my 14-inch Celestron telescope," notes Morrone.
Would you like to help? Peralta has issued a call for images to contribute to his research.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
REAL MONEY FROM SPACE: On July 16, 1969, the world watched as a Saturn V rocket launched Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the Moon. Exactly 55 years later, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched the US Mint's limited edition Saturn V dollar coin to the stratosphere:

You can have a single coin for $49.95 or an entire unbroken roll for $249.95. No longer available from the US Mint, these rare coins flew 121,665 feet above the Sierra Nevada on July 16, 2024. One side shows the mighty Saturn V rocket blasting off from Cape Canaveral; the other side features the Statue of Liberty in profile.
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
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
Realtime Comet Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
Realtime Noctilucent Cloud 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 Jul 23, 2024, the network reported 21 fireballs.
(20 sporadics, 1 alpha Capricornid)
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 July 24, 2024 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
2024 MG1 | 2024-Jul-21 | 11.1 LD | 9.3 | 57 |
2024 NH | 2024-Jul-23 | 13.1 LD | 5.5 | 29 |
2024 LY2 | 2024-Jul-23 | 12 LD | 7.8 | 93 |
2011 MW1 | 2024-Jul-25 | 10.1 LD | 8 | 120 |
2024 NV1 | 2024-Jul-25 | 14.1 LD | 10.2 | 33 |
2024 MH1 | 2024-Jul-26 | 4.7 LD | 5.8 | 29 |
2011 AM24 | 2024-Jul-26 | 16.8 LD | 6.2 | 281 |
2024 NZ1 | 2024-Jul-28 | 19.5 LD | 12.8 | 56 |
523664 | 2024-Jul-28 | 14.9 LD | 23.7 | 680 |
2024 NS1 | 2024-Aug-02 | 5.3 LD | 7.6 | 51 |
2020 PN1 | 2024-Aug-02 | 18 LD | 5.5 | 29 |
2023 HB7 | 2024-Aug-05 | 14.7 LD | 6.1 | 32 |
2017 TU1 | 2024-Aug-05 | 10.1 LD | 10.1 | 22 |
2024 KH3 | 2024-Aug-10 | 14.6 LD | 11.4 | 193 |
2021 GY1 | 2024-Aug-16 | 17.7 LD | 6.3 | 59 |
2024 JV33 | 2024-Aug-19 | 12 LD | 11.1 | 206 |
2022 BF2 | 2024-Aug-19 | 19.7 LD | 16.4 | 91 |
2020 RL | 2024-Aug-27 | 12.2 LD | 8.2 | 34 |
2021 RA10 | 2024-Aug-28 | 6.8 LD | 4.9 | 29 |
2012 SX49 | 2024-Aug-29 | 11.2 LD | 4.3 | 20 |
2016 RJ20 | 2024-Aug-30 | 18.3 LD | 14.8 | 68 |
2021 JT | 2024-Sep-01 | 16.4 LD | 8.2 | 12 |
2021 RB16 | 2024-Sep-02 | 12.3 LD | 8.4 | 15 |
2007 RX8 | 2024-Sep-02 | 18.5 LD | 7 | 44 |
2022 SR | 2024-Sep-07 | 9.1 LD | 6.3 | 42 |
2023 SP2 | 2024-Sep-09 | 15.3 LD | 4.2 | 8 |
2016 TU19 | 2024-Sep-11 | 13.2 LD | 10.1 | 47 |
2019 DJ1 | 2024-Sep-15 | 10.4 LD | 4.9 | 15 |
2013 FW13 | 2024-Sep-18 | 8.5 LD | 15.6 | 162 |
2022 SW3 | 2024-Sep-19 | 6.8 LD | 9.2 | 37 |
2015 SH | 2024-Sep-19 | 11.6 LD | 5.9 | 9 |
2023 RX1 | 2024-Sep-20 | 10.1 LD | 1.1 | 3 |
2018 VG | 2024-Sep-20 | 13.4 LD | 7.3 | 12 |
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 7 years, resulting in a unique dataset of in situ atmospheric measurements.
Latest results (July 2022): Atmospheric radiation is decreasing in 2022. Our latest measurements in July 2022 registered a 6-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 |
| the underlying science of space weather |
 | 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. |
 | Marketing yourself on YouTube is hard without real organic views on your videos. You can buy organic YouTube views from and enjoy social boosting that is actually real. Highly recommended! |
 | BestCSGOGambling is the best site for everything related to CSGO gambling on the web |
| These links help Spaceweather.com stay online. Thank you to our supporters! |
| | | | | |