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QUIRKY SUNSPOT NAMING TRADITIONS: The most famous sunspot in decades just had its name changed. AR3664, which caused the great May 10th superstorm, has been re-numbered AR3697 following a 2-week trip around the farside of the sun. This is an old tradition in solar physics that started long ago when astronomers had no way to track the continuity of farside sunspots. We will continue to use the old name for clarity. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
ANOTHER X-FLARE: Old sunspot AR3664 (now AR3697) isn't as big as it used to be, but it is still very active. Today at 1437 UT, it produced an X1.4-class solar flare:
Note: The jiggling of the sun in this movie is not caused by the X-flare. Calibration offsets were underway during the flare. Credit: NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory.
A lengthy pulse of extreme ultraviolet radiation produced a deep shortwave radio blackout over the Americas. Ham radio operators may have noticed loss of signal at all frequencies below 30 MHz for 60 to 90 minutes following the onset of the flare.
This explosion was remarkable for its duration. The X-class phase alone lasted more than an hour--plenty of time to lift a CME out of the sun's atmosphere. Indeed, SOHO coronagraphs have detected a bright CME emerging from the blast site: movie. We will find out in the hours ahead whether or not the storm cloud has an Earth-directed component. Stay tuned! Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
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THE GREEN GLOW OF SOLAR MAXIMUM: Spoiler alert: These are *not* auroras. On May 28th, a band of green light crossed the Milky Way over rural Colorado. "I photographed the display just before moonrise," reports Aaron Watson of Paonia, CO:
"It was an outburst of bright airglow," says Watson. "The banding was strong and visible to the unaided eye."
Airglow appears on dark nights when oxygen atoms (O) and oxygen molecules (O2) bump together in Earth's upper atmosphere. Collisions between the two species create green photons. This happens every night, but usually the glow is too dim to see with the naked eye.
Solar activity boosts airglow by heating the upper atmosphere. Warmer air causes more collisions and, thus, more green light to emerge. Studies (e.g., 2011, 2015 and 2022) show that airglow is up to 40% brighter when the sun is most active.
May 2024 has been the most active month on the sun in decades. This means *now* is the time to look for airglow. Get away from city lights, wait for the Moon to set, and point your camera at the midnight sky. It might not be as dark as you think.
more images: from Dan Bush of Albany, Missouri
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18K GOLD TOTAL ECLIPSE PENDANT: This pendant has touched the shadow of the Moon. On April 8, 2024, during a total eclipse of the sun in Texas, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon. Floating more than 118,110 feet high, the locket spent 3 minutes and 45 seconds wrapped in lunar shadow:
You can have it for $199.95. The 18K gold-plated locket is inscribed with the words "I love you to the Moon and back," and opens to hold a personal photo or other small item. It comes with a greeting card showing the locket in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space during the total eclipse.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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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 28, 2024, the network reported 7 fireballs.
(7 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 29, 2024 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
|
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
2024 HP2 | 2024-May-25 | 5.8 LD | 2.3 | 19 |
2024 JY1 | 2024-May-26 | 17.5 LD | 10.3 | 52 |
2024 JO16 | 2024-May-27 | 8 LD | 8.8 | 20 |
2008 LD | 2024-May-28 | 7.7 LD | 4.5 | 6 |
2024 JV17 | 2024-May-28 | 17.3 LD | 8.4 | 43 |
2021 LV | 2024-May-29 | 12 LD | 15.5 | 9 |
2024 JG | 2024-May-29 | 8.7 LD | 7.4 | 30 |
2024 KR | 2024-May-29 | 16.2 LD | 17.1 | 164 |
2024 KP | 2024-May-29 | 2.1 LD | 12.2 | 24 |
2024 KQ | 2024-May-29 | 9.8 LD | 8.3 | 24 |
2024 KU | 2024-May-29 | 1.6 LD | 9.4 | 8 |
2024 JA3 | 2024-May-30 | 6.2 LD | 8.5 | 36 |
2024 KX | 2024-May-31 | 0.8 LD | 8.3 | 11 |
2008 XH | 2024-May-31 | 13.8 LD | 14.7 | 102 |
2024 JP1 | 2024-Jun-01 | 18.5 LD | 4.7 | 25 |
2024 JC1 | 2024-Jun-01 | 15.1 LD | 4.8 | 34 |
1998 KY26 | 2024-Jun-01 | 12 LD | 5.3 | 25 |
2016 JC6 | 2024-Jun-01 | 19.9 LD | 7.1 | 188 |
2024 JR17 | 2024-Jun-05 | 19.3 LD | 14.5 | 86 |
2008 YN2 | 2024-Jun-05 | 10.5 LD | 7.7 | 20 |
2021 LW3 | 2024-Jun-06 | 9.7 LD | 9.8 | 86 |
2024 CR9 | 2024-Jun-11 | 19.2 LD | 7.4 | 447 |
2022 XC1 | 2024-Jun-12 | 16.5 LD | 6.5 | 21 |
2022 WW11 | 2024-Jun-17 | 19.7 LD | 14.4 | 15 |
2024 KJ | 2024-Jun-25 | 13.7 LD | 4.5 | 25 |
2019 NJ | 2024-Jun-27 | 17.2 LD | 10.1 | 66 |
415029 | 2024-Jun-27 | 17.3 LD | 25.9 | 2304 |
2022 MM1 | 2024-Jun-28 | 7.8 LD | 10.9 | 39 |
2010 XN | 2024-Jun-28 | 14.1 LD | 11.3 | 52 |
2022 HD1 | 2024-Jun-29 | 17.3 LD | 7.2 | 63 |
2017 MB3 | 2024-Jun-30 | 5 LD | 6.5 | 30 |
2022 BY39 | 2024-Jul-02 | 13.2 LD | 3 | 4 |
2022 YS5 | 2024-Jul-11 | 11 LD | 5.8 | 38 |
2024 BY15 | 2024-Jul-16 | 16.2 LD | 0.7 | 16 |
2011 MW1 | 2024-Jul-25 | 10.1 LD | 8 | 120 |
2011 AM24 | 2024-Jul-26 | 16.8 LD | 6.2 | 281 |
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 |
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