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GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH (UPDATED): NASA's Artemis I moon rocket could blast off during a minor G1-class geomagnetic storm on Monday morning, Aug. 29th, if a CME grazes Earth's magnetic field as expected. This is the same type of storm that brought down dozens of Starlink satellites in Feb. 2022. There's nothing to worry about this time. NASA's massive Space Launch System (SLS) should roar through the minor storm with no probem. Aurora alerts: SMS Text
ANOTHER STRONG SOLAR FLARE: Departing sunspot AR3088 just unleashed another strong solar flare, an M6.7-class explosion shown here in an extreme ultraviolet image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:
Radiation from the flare caused a shortwave radio blackout over the Americas: map. Ham radio operators may have noticed unusual propagation effects at frequencies below 20 MHz for as much as an hour after 1619 UT.
The explosion also produced a magnificent CME. Stay tuned for the movie.
ARTEMIS IS 'GO' FOR LAUNCH: We're about to find out if NASA still has the right stuff. On Monday morning, Aug. 29th at 8:33 am EDT, the most powerful rocket ever built will blast off from Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39B. Destination: the Moon. This is the beginning of NASA's Artemis program, named after the twin sister of Apollo.
Artemis I will not carry any astronauts. It's a test flight. In fact, it's the only test flight, a controversial decision that worries some experts. Astronauts will ride the next rocket, Artemis II, in 2024. NASA will have two years to fix any problems uncovered by Artemis I.
Propelled by a 32-story tall rocket with 8.8 million pounds of thrust, Artemis I will exit Earth's atmosphere in only 2 minutes. Less than 2 hours after that, the unoccupied Orion crew capsule will be burning straight for the Moon.
Over the course of the 42 day mission, Orion will orbit the Moon for more than a week (approaching the lunar surface within 62 miles) and travel 40,000 miles beyond the far side of the Moon before turning back to Earth.
The capsule will stay in space longer than any human spacecraft has without docking to a space station and return home faster and hotter than ever before. Indeed, a key goal of the mission is to test Orion's heat shield when it slams into Earth's atmosphere at 25,000 mph and heats up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
If all goes well, future launches will carry crew. Astronauts will orbit the Moon in 2024 (Artemis II), then touch down near the Moon's south pole in 2025 (Artemis III). The moonwalkers will include the first woman to step onto the lunar surface.
NASA, we are rooting for you!
Live coverage of the launch begins on Monday, Aug. 29th, at 6:30 am EDT.
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THE VERNAL EQUINOX PEARL: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider the Vernal Equinox Pearl, launched to the edge of space onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray balloon. Here it is, floating 111,202 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California:
You can have it for $179.95. The 10mm cultured white pearl, surrounded by a crystalline splash of spring-green cubic zirconia, spent more than 2 hours in the stratosphere as sensors in the payload measured cosmic rays.
Each purchase comes with a greeting card showing the pearl in flight and telling the story of its journey 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 Aug 27, 2022, the network reported 17 fireballs.
(16 sporadics, 1 northern 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 28, 2022 there were 2288 potentially hazardous asteroids.
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Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
2022 QX | 2022-Aug-23 | 7.3 LD | 12.7 | 19 |
2022 QO5 | 2022-Aug-24 | 9.5 LD | 11.4 | 30 |
2022 QR | 2022-Aug-24 | 3.6 LD | 8.6 | 14 |
2022 QP4 | 2022-Aug-26 | 3.7 LD | 7.7 | 13 |
2022 QP6 | 2022-Aug-27 | 2 LD | 13.6 | 13 |
2022 QQ4 | 2022-Aug-27 | 15.5 LD | 7.2 | 33 |
2022 QP3 | 2022-Aug-28 | 14.4 LD | 7.9 | 33 |
2022 QX4 | 2022-Aug-29 | 4.8 LD | 8.8 | 44 |
2017 BU | 2022-Aug-29 | 15.8 LD | 7 | 32 |
2022 QX1 | 2022-Aug-31 | 5.4 LD | 21.1 | 44 |
2021 CQ5 | 2022-Sep-01 | 8.7 LD | 13.5 | 7 |
2022 QB2 | 2022-Sep-01 | 10.3 LD | 15.9 | 32 |
2022 QN5 | 2022-Sep-02 | 2.4 LD | 13.6 | 21 |
2022 QU5 | 2022-Sep-05 | 19.2 LD | 7.1 | 31 |
2022 QF2 | 2022-Sep-11 | 19.1 LD | 8.4 | 44 |
2008 RW | 2022-Sep-12 | 17.5 LD | 10.2 | 98 |
2020 PT4 | 2022-Sep-15 | 19.7 LD | 10.8 | 39 |
2022 QD1 | 2022-Sep-16 | 19.5 LD | 9.5 | 72 |
2016 HF2 | 2022-Sep-29 | 19.2 LD | 5.6 | 21 |
2018 ER1 | 2022-Oct-02 | 14.7 LD | 4 | 27 |
2018 VG | 2022-Oct-05 | 18.5 LD | 6.7 | 12 |
2021 TJ10 | 2022-Oct-06 | 19.6 LD | 8.1 | 6 |
2006 SG7 | 2022-Oct-07 | 16.7 LD | 18.4 | 93 |
2013 TJ6 | 2022-Oct-07 | 11.7 LD | 14.4 | 32 |
2013 SL20 | 2022-Oct-14 | 6.2 LD | 12.1 | 45 |
2020 TO2 | 2022-Oct-15 | 1.4 LD | 12.6 | 18 |
2020 BD | 2022-Oct-16 | 12.1 LD | 11.4 | 20 |
2022 QM6 | 2022-Oct-17 | 19.8 LD | 4.2 | 69 |
2016 TH94 | 2022-Oct-25 | 19.1 LD | 13.5 | 43 |
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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