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SUNGRAZING COMET UPDATE: Comet ATLAS (C/2024 G3) is still alive and brightening as it falls toward the sun for a close encounter on Monday, Jan. 13th. Unlike yesterday, however, astronomers are having trouble seeing it.
"The dawn is too bright!" explains Petr Horálek, who tried to photograph the comet this morning from Gemer, Slovakia. "I pointed my camera where the comet was supposed to be. What a surprise: When I processed the data on the computer, the comet was actually there in the shining sky."
This situation calls for an eclipse! The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) can provide one. SOHO has an occulting disk that blocks the sun, allowing it to monitor developments. Current coronagraph images show a healthy comet, flamboyantly brightening as it plunges toward the sun.
Hours after Horálek photographed the comet at dawn, Italian photographer Alessandro Carrozzi managed the same trick in broad dayight:
"The photograph, made possible thanks to a clear day and excellent atmospheric transparency, is the result of a complex daytime imaging technique," says Carrozzi. "I carefully obscured the sun behind a building, and took 165 frames of 1/1000 second each. The comet was not visible to the naked eye nor in individual frames. It was revealed through extreme processing of the stacked images."
"This type of capture is dangerous and should only be attempted by experienced observers," warns Carrozzi. "It is essential to protect both the camera sensor and the observer's eyesight with appropriate solar filters during the set up phase."
After Comet ATLAS passes the sun on Monday, it could become a nice, potentially naked-eye object in the evening sky next week. Southern hemisphere observers are favored, but many northerners will be able to see it, too. Read "Prospects for C/2024 G3 (ATLAS)" by Nick James for observing tips.
more images: from Scott Tucker of Tucson, Arizona; from Paul Robinson of Longmont, CO USA; from Paolo Bardelli of Sumirago (Varese), Italy; from Gorazd Bizjan of Medvode, Slovenia; from Chris Schur of Payson, Arizona; from Lionel Majzik of Tápióbicske, Pest, Hungary;
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"ALWAYS AND FOREVER" RUBY HEART PENDANT: Are you looking for a far out Valentine's Day gift? Consider the Always and Forever Space Pendent. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $219.95. Engraved with the words "I love you always and forever", this sterling silver pendant has a heart-shaped ruby crystal in the middle surrouunded by a ring of glittering 5A cubic zirconia nuggets. It is a visually striking necklace perfect for Valentine's Day, anniversaries, or romantic birthdays.
The students are selling space pendants to pay the helium bill for their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its trip to the stratosphere 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 Jan 12, 2025, 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 January 12, 2025 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
| 2024 YZ9 | 2025-Jan-07 | 9.5 LD | 8.5 | 34 |
| 2024 YA10 | 2025-Jan-08 | 8.9 LD | 12 | 21 |
| 2024 BM1 | 2025-Jan-08 | 11.5 LD | 9.1 | 22 |
| 2024 PT5 | 2025-Jan-09 | 4.7 LD | 1 | 12 |
| 2024 YD13 | 2025-Jan-09 | 14.6 LD | 7.3 | 24 |
| 2025 AU3 | 2025-Jan-09 | 8.3 LD | 19.5 | 30 |
| 2023 OS3 | 2025-Jan-09 | 19.9 LD | 3.1 | 10 |
| 2024 YW9 | 2025-Jan-09 | 2.7 LD | 7.8 | 20 |
| 2008 AU28 | 2025-Jan-09 | 12.6 LD | 10.8 | 39 |
| 2024 YD5 | 2025-Jan-10 | 15.1 LD | 7.2 | 20 |
| 2012 UK171 | 2025-Jan-11 | 10.7 LD | 6.4 | 46 |
| 2025 AV2 | 2025-Jan-11 | 7.8 LD | 16.9 | 21 |
| 2025 AF1 | 2025-Jan-11 | 4.7 LD | 4.9 | 10 |
| 2024 YZ12 | 2025-Jan-12 | 3.2 LD | 8.5 | 17 |
| 2025 AK3 | 2025-Jan-12 | 13.4 LD | 7.5 | 21 |
| 2022 EE6 | 2025-Jan-13 | 15.5 LD | 8.7 | 45 |
| 2025 AX2 | 2025-Jan-13 | 8.2 LD | 10.4 | 15 |
| 2005 YU128 | 2025-Jan-14 | 19.1 LD | 7 | 31 |
| 2025 AS | 2025-Jan-14 | 16.1 LD | 9.2 | 46 |
| 2024 YX5 | 2025-Jan-14 | 11.7 LD | 10.6 | 25 |
| 2023 OS | 2025-Jan-15 | 16.5 LD | 10.9 | 48 |
| 2022 CE2 | 2025-Jan-16 | 11.1 LD | 13.3 | 120 |
| 2024 YF2 | 2025-Jan-17 | 4.4 LD | 4.4 | 17 |
| 2025 AO2 | 2025-Jan-17 | 2 LD | 10.3 | 19 |
| 2025 AF | 2025-Jan-17 | 19.8 LD | 8.8 | 35 |
| 2022 OB5 | 2025-Jan-18 | 8.9 LD | 1.4 | 6 |
| 2024 YB10 | 2025-Jan-18 | 15.1 LD | 2.5 | 16 |
| 2024 WY70 | 2025-Jan-18 | 16.5 LD | 10.2 | 261 |
| 2024 YQ5 | 2025-Jan-19 | 17.6 LD | 5 | 29 |
| 2025 AY2 | 2025-Jan-20 | 17.7 LD | 23.3 | 71 |
| 2024 YY5 | 2025-Jan-26 | 12.5 LD | 2.4 | 14 |
| 2022 BX6 | 2025-Jan-28 | 19.7 LD | 14.3 | 24 |
| 2015 DJ155 | 2025-Jan-31 | 18.6 LD | 9.2 | 56 |
| 2018 RE3 | 2025-Feb-03 | 15.5 LD | 11.1 | 12 |
| 2022 AV4 | 2025-Feb-03 | 16.9 LD | 3.4 | 25 |
| 2002 CC14 | 2025-Feb-04 | 8.4 LD | 12.7 | 39 |
| 2016 CO248 | 2025-Feb-07 | 13.5 LD | 5.9 | 11 |
| 2020 GZ2 | 2025-Feb-07 | 17.7 LD | 8.9 | 9 |
| 2022 PK1 | 2025-Feb-07 | 15 LD | 11 | 33 |
| 2012 PB20 | 2025-Feb-09 | 3.5 LD | 4.3 | 37 |
| 2004 XG | 2025-Feb-16 | 15.6 LD | 9.1 | 54 |
| 2024 UD26 | 2025-Feb-16 | 16.8 LD | 9.3 | 250 |
| 2014 CE13 | 2025-Feb-18 | 15.2 LD | 18.4 | 55 |
| 2022 DG2 | 2025-Feb-19 | 11.5 LD | 10.4 | 7 |
| 2016 AX165 | 2025-Feb-20 | 14.9 LD | 9.2 | 89 |
| 2015 BK509 | 2025-Feb-25 | 9.4 LD | 14.6 | 119 |
| 2023 RW3 | 2025-Feb-25 | 7.4 LD | 5.1 | 18 |
| 535844 | 2025-Mar-05 | 9.6 LD | 7.9 | 149 |
| 2021 EU3 | 2025-Mar-10 | 10.7 LD | 4.4 | 13 |
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.
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