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"NAKED EYE" SUNSPOTS: We hope you didn't throw away your eclipse glasses. Put them on and look at the sun. You'll see two very large sunspot groups. Because they are visible without magnification, astronomers call them "naked eye" sunspots. Just don't forget your eye protection! Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
MYSTERIOUS BLUE AVALANCHE LIGHTS IN CHINA: This might be something new. On the night of Oct. 27th, Chinese astrophotographer Shengyu Li set up his camera to record star trails over Mount Xiannairi in Sichuan, China. The long exposure had just begun when an icy serac broke free from a hanging glacier. Note the blue flashes within the ensuing avalanche:
"We have not found any previously documented cases of such an event, making this discovery both thrilling and intriguing for us," says Li. "Our initial hypothesis is that the luminescence may result from friction-induced lighting during the fragmentation of ice."
The phenomenon is called "triboluminescence." Legendary physicist Richard Feynman explains it best: "When you take a lump of sugar and crush it with a pair of pliers in the dark, you can see a bluish flash. Some other crystals do that too. Nobody knows why." You can create triboluminescent flashes yourself by smashing Lifesavers.
The avalanche Li witnessed was rich in ice. "It started with a blocky serac, which randomly calved from a glacier near the mountain's peak," says Carson Reid, a mountaineer who analyzed Li's movie. "The serac would have fragmented as it tumbled down and smashed into natural obstacles." The most significant "smash points" seem to have produced the most blue light.
Li shared his movie with other astrophographers in China. One of them found a similar blue flash in footage of a completely different mountain in Xinjiang, China three weeks earlier:
"This is a timelapse video taken by Ms. Lu Miao on Oct. 3rd," says Li. "It also shows a blue flash during an avalanche." The mountain is Muztagh Ata, which means "Iceberg Father" in English.
"None of us photographers noticed the blue light with our naked eyes—it was only discovered later when reviewing the photos," says Li. "However, I asked some friends who frequently photograph snow-capped mountains, and one of them mentioned having seen blue light with the naked eye during an avalanche, though they didn’t capture it on camera."
Readers, are you aware of this phenomenon? We would welcome references to earlier sightings and/or documented research. Let us know!
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BLACK FRIDAY AT THE EDGE OF SPACE: Christmas is coming. Are you looking for a far-out gift? Check out the Earth to Sky Store. It's filled with unique items that have flown to the edge of space onboard cosmic ray research balloons.
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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 Nov 22, 2024, the network reported 16 fireballs.
(13 sporadics, 2 Leonids, 1 November omega Orionid)
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 25, 2024 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
| 2024 WC3 | 2024-Nov-20 | 16.9 LD | 9.2 | 45 |
| 2012 KO11 | 2024-Nov-20 | 6.1 LD | 9.4 | 43 |
| 2024 WS1 | 2024-Nov-20 | 2.2 LD | 39.9 | 21 |
| 2024 UW9 | 2024-Nov-20 | 13.5 LD | 14.8 | 46 |
| 2024 WT2 | 2024-Nov-20 | 1.4 LD | 13.3 | 21 |
| 2024 WO | 2024-Nov-20 | 0.2 LD | 13.1 | 11 |
| 2020 VX4 | 2024-Nov-20 | 10.5 LD | 10.5 | 11 |
| 2010 WC | 2024-Nov-21 | 1.9 LD | 9.1 | 31 |
| 2024 WP2 | 2024-Nov-21 | 14.9 LD | 8.4 | 15 |
| 2024 WQ | 2024-Nov-21 | 11.1 LD | 2.4 | 9 |
| 2024 WM | 2024-Nov-21 | 9 LD | 6.3 | 15 |
| 2024 WF | 2024-Nov-21 | 4.4 LD | 8.5 | 9 |
| 2024 WV | 2024-Nov-22 | 7.7 LD | 6.1 | 18 |
| 2024 WY | 2024-Nov-23 | 14.6 LD | 9.4 | 33 |
| 2024 WE | 2024-Nov-23 | 2.7 LD | 2.7 | 9 |
| 2024 VY2 | 2024-Nov-24 | 16.3 LD | 13.2 | 53 |
| 2024 WM3 | 2024-Nov-24 | 1.8 LD | 8.9 | 16 |
| 2024 WP1 | 2024-Nov-24 | 0.3 LD | 16 | 9 |
| 2024 WU | 2024-Nov-24 | 7.9 LD | 8.2 | 20 |
| 2024 WW2 | 2024-Nov-24 | 0.9 LD | 9.8 | 7 |
| 2024 WK | 2024-Nov-24 | 4.6 LD | 11 | 20 |
| 2024 WV1 | 2024-Nov-24 | 0.5 LD | 9.6 | 5 |
| 2009 WB105 | 2024-Nov-25 | 15.1 LD | 18.9 | 71 |
| 2024 WF2 | 2024-Nov-25 | 7.5 LD | 6.6 | 10 |
| 2024 WJ3 | 2024-Nov-25 | 11.7 LD | 5.3 | 9 |
| 2006 WB | 2024-Nov-26 | 2.3 LD | 4.2 | 98 |
| 2024 WD3 | 2024-Nov-27 | 4.5 LD | 5.4 | 8 |
| 2024 WQ2 | 2024-Nov-27 | 5.4 LD | 17.3 | 43 |
| 2024 WF3 | 2024-Nov-28 | 10.9 LD | 6.9 | 12 |
| 2024 WT | 2024-Nov-28 | 2.3 LD | 3.8 | 14 |
| 2018 DC4 | 2024-Nov-29 | 18.8 LD | 4.5 | 12 |
| 2024 WZ | 2024-Nov-29 | 3.8 LD | 9.9 | 15 |
| 2019 JN2 | 2024-Nov-30 | 9.4 LD | 7.7 | 25 |
| 2024 WS | 2024-Nov-30 | 6.1 LD | 10.5 | 18 |
| 2021 XZ | 2024-Dec-02 | 13.2 LD | 7.4 | 8 |
| 447755 | 2024-Dec-03 | 14.4 LD | 12.2 | 402 |
| 2020 XR | 2024-Dec-04 | 5.8 LD | 12.3 | 388 |
| 2024 WO1 | 2024-Dec-04 | 11.7 LD | 4.3 | 14 |
| 2021 WA5 | 2024-Dec-05 | 9.8 LD | 5.9 | 12 |
| 2024 WB1 | 2024-Dec-05 | 19.1 LD | 5.8 | 26 |
| 2024 WG3 | 2024-Dec-07 | 18.4 LD | 6.5 | 40 |
| 2024 UU3 | 2024-Dec-08 | 16.9 LD | 4.8 | 38 |
| 2018 XU3 | 2024-Dec-11 | 16.8 LD | 10.8 | 28 |
| 2007 XB23 | 2024-Dec-11 | 1.2 LD | 4.8 | 14 |
| 2024 VE7 | 2024-Dec-17 | 7.3 LD | 8 | 49 |
| 2022 YO1 | 2024-Dec-17 | 2 LD | 14.3 | 4 |
| 2020 XY4 | 2024-Dec-19 | 12.8 LD | 8.8 | 14 |
| 2017 YD2 | 2024-Dec-27 | 18 LD | 9.9 | 6 |
| 2024 AV2 | 2024-Dec-31 | 6.7 LD | 7.8 | 17 |
| 2021 AO4 | 2025-Jan-04 | 6.9 LD | 15.1 | 11 |
| 2020 BC6 | 2025-Jan-05 | 9.6 LD | 22.2 | 248 |
| 2024 BM1 | 2025-Jan-08 | 11.5 LD | 9.1 | 22 |
| 2024 PT5 | 2025-Jan-09 | 4.7 LD | 1 | 12 |
| 2023 OS3 | 2025-Jan-09 | 19.9 LD | 3.1 | 10 |
| 2012 UK171 | 2025-Jan-11 | 10.7 LD | 6.4 | 46 |
| 2023 OS | 2025-Jan-15 | 16.6 LD | 10.9 | 48 |
| 2022 CE2 | 2025-Jan-16 | 11.1 LD | 13.3 | 120 |
| 2022 OB5 | 2025-Jan-18 | 8.9 LD | 1.4 | 6 |
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 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. |
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| | 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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