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SUPERMOON WILL WORSEN IDALIA'S STORM SURGE: This week’s supermoon is making matters worse for Florida's Gulf Coast by enhancing tides, which is expected to worsen Hurricane Idalia's storm surge. "Surge and tide work together to produce the ultimate flooding that might occur in a hurricane," Jamie Rhome of the National Hurricane Center told CNN. The effect, called a "perigean spring tide," will be near its maximum for all of 2023 just as the hurricane makes landfall.
THE SUPER BLUE MOON: This week, a quirky mixture of science, hyperbole and folklore will cause millions of people to go outside and stare at the sky. We're talking about the Super Blue Moon. This is what it will look like:
Above: The supermoon of July 14, 2022, photographed by Oliver Schwenn of Aarhus, Denmark [full story]
No, it won't be blue. The supermoon on Wednesday evening, Aug. 30th, will look a lot like any ordinary full Moon. However, there are three things that make it special.
First, the science: This week's full Moon is the biggest and brightest of 2023. Astronomers call it a "perigee moon." The Moon's orbit is an ellipse with one side ("perigee") about 50,000 km closer than the other ("apogee"). Full Moons that occur on the perigee side of the Moon's orbit are extra big and bright. This week's Moon will become full within 9 hours of perigee, making it the closest full Moon of the year (357,181 km away).
Next, the hyperbole: About 10 years ago, many science journalists and even some astronomers started calling perigee Moons "supermoons." A supermoon is 8% bigger and 15% brighter than an average full Moon. Would you call Clark Kent "super" if he were only 8% faster and 15% stronger than an average human? No, but let's roll with it! People love super things.
Finally, the folklore: You've probably heard the expression "Once in a blue Moon." It means "rare." Modern folklore provides a more precise definition. When there are two full Moons in a calendar month, the second one is "blue." Such blue moons come along every 2 to 3 years. August already had one full Moon on Aug. 2nd; now it is about to have another (blue) one on Aug. 30th.
Don't take "blue" too literally. Most blue Moons are pale gray when they are high in the sky, or orange when they are rising and setting. However, if the Moon *does* turn blue, it could mean that a volcano is erupting or a wildfire is nearby. Run!
In summary, this week's Super Blue Moon will be about 15% bigger than an average moon and, in the eye of the beholder, immeasurably prettier. Go out after sunset on Aug. 30th, look east, and watch it rise into the darkening summer sky. If you take a picture, submit it here.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
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PILEUS CLOUDS OVER PANAMA: Earlier this week in Panama, Tino Wiedemann looked up into the afternoon sky and saw what appeared to be a rainbow-colored flying saucer landing on top of a storm cloud. "I had never seen anything like it!" says Wiedemann. "My friends and I photographed it from three different locations in Panama."
This is a great example of a "pileus cloud." On hot sunny afternoons in humid places like Panama, cumulus clouds boil toward the sky, pushing layers of moist air above them. Within these layers, water cools and condenses to form droplet-rich cloud caps. "Pileus" means cap in Latin.
Sometimes, on very stormy afternoons, cumulus clouds rush upward at high speed, forming the pileus very quickly. Water droplets within the cap tend to be all the same size. When sunlight hits such a perfect cloud, it shines with iridescent colors like a giant rainbow-colored flying saucer.
LASER-ETCHED SUPERMOON: On Aug. 22nd, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a cosmic ray balloon to the stratosphere. This laser-etched Moon cube went along for the ride, ascending to an altitude of 101,140 feet:
You can have it for $119.95. The students are selling these cubes as a fund-raiser for their cosmic ray ballooning program. It's an authentic representation of the Moon, with all of the craters, mountains and lava plains accurately portrayed.
The Moon-cube comes with a unique gift card showing the item floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere. The interior of the card tells the story of the flight and confirms that this gift has been to the edge of space and back again.
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 Aug 29, 2023, the network reported 20 fireballs.
(19 sporadics, 1 Southern Delta Aquariid)
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 August 29, 2023 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
| 2023 QN2 | 2023-Aug-24 | 19.1 LD | 15.4 | 42 |
| 2023 QK2 | 2023-Aug-24 | 7.7 LD | 4.9 | 16 |
| 2023 QN7 | 2023-Aug-24 | 4.2 LD | 24.2 | 68 |
| 2023 QG4 | 2023-Aug-25 | 6.6 LD | 24 | 105 |
| 2023 QC2 | 2023-Aug-25 | 9.2 LD | 10.2 | 21 |
| 2023 QT1 | 2023-Aug-26 | 11.5 LD | 10.6 | 33 |
| 2007 RR17 | 2023-Aug-26 | 8.3 LD | 7.1 | 63 |
| 2023 QR1 | 2023-Aug-27 | 4.3 LD | 5 | 13 |
| 2023 QQ | 2023-Aug-27 | 10.7 LD | 10.1 | 25 |
| 2023 QJ5 | 2023-Aug-27 | 4.6 LD | 12.2 | 14 |
| 2023 QZ6 | 2023-Aug-27 | 9.1 LD | 17.7 | 38 |
| 2023 QK5 | 2023-Aug-29 | 3.9 LD | 6.8 | 11 |
| 2023 QD2 | 2023-Aug-29 | 3.3 LD | 7.8 | 15 |
| 2012 PZ17 | 2023-Aug-30 | 16.8 LD | 3.6 | 16 |
| 2023 QH | 2023-Aug-31 | 12 LD | 15.9 | 64 |
| 2023 QB2 | 2023-Sep-01 | 8.1 LD | 7.2 | 19 |
| 2023 QZ1 | 2023-Sep-01 | 18.2 LD | 18.6 | 51 |
| 2023 QU | 2023-Sep-02 | 13.6 LD | 9.8 | 34 |
| 2017 BY32 | 2023-Sep-02 | 16.4 LD | 3.5 | 19 |
| 2023 QG | 2023-Sep-03 | 11.6 LD | 13.7 | 75 |
| 2023 QH1 | 2023-Sep-03 | 13.1 LD | 6.4 | 23 |
| 2021 JA5 | 2023-Sep-06 | 13.3 LD | 10.9 | 19 |
| 2023 QC5 | 2023-Sep-08 | 10.6 LD | 7.6 | 27 |
| 2020 GE | 2023-Sep-08 | 14.9 LD | 1.4 | 8 |
| 2023 QF6 | 2023-Sep-10 | 7 LD | 10.5 | 22 |
| 2020 RT2 | 2023-Sep-12 | 11 LD | 10 | 8 |
| 2016 LY48 | 2023-Sep-16 | 5 LD | 10.8 | 99 |
| 2010 TE | 2023-Sep-16 | 6.8 LD | 6 | 22 |
| 523598 | 2023-Sep-20 | 19.8 LD | 25 | 239 |
| 2019 SF6 | 2023-Sep-26 | 16.7 LD | 8.6 | 20 |
| 2013 TG6 | 2023-Sep-28 | 3.6 LD | 4.1 | 17 |
| 2009 UG | 2023-Sep-30 | 6.1 LD | 9 | 78 |
| 349507 | 2023-Oct-03 | 16.5 LD | 21 | 696 |
| 2022 FX1 | 2023-Oct-04 | 20 LD | 9.9 | 25 |
| 2022 TD | 2023-Oct-07 | 8.9 LD | 9.4 | 10 |
| 2018 ER1 | 2023-Oct-08 | 12.5 LD | 5.3 | 27 |
| 2022 UX1 | 2023-Oct-11 | 3.1 LD | 8.6 | 9 |
| 2015 KW120 | 2023-Oct-12 | 18.2 LD | 13 | 22 |
| 2021 NT14 | 2023-Oct-13 | 18.6 LD | 8.6 | 254 |
| 2011 GA | 2023-Oct-15 | 6.8 LD | 16.6 | 230 |
| 2007 SQ6 | 2023-Oct-15 | 19.4 LD | 6.5 | 130 |
| 2019 UZ3 | 2023-Oct-16 | 9.6 LD | 8.3 | 14 |
| 1998 HH49 | 2023-Oct-17 | 3.1 LD | 14.8 | 193 |
| 2022 UO10 | 2023-Oct-19 | 7.8 LD | 9.8 | 16 |
| 2020 UR | 2023-Oct-20 | 5.8 LD | 12.9 | 9 |
| 2020 FM6 | 2023-Oct-23 | 15.5 LD | 15.9 | 149 |
| 2019 HH4 | 2023-Oct-24 | 13.3 LD | 20 | 365 |
| 2021 SZ4 | 2023-Oct-26 | 14 LD | 30 | 287 |
| 302169 | 2023-Oct-26 | 12.7 LD | 25.7 | 374 |
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 |
| | 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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