This is an AI Free Zone: Text created by Large Language Models is engulfing the Internet. It's slick, prolific, and some readers say it makes them feel seasick. For better or worse, all of the text on Spaceweather.com was written by a real human being.
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CO-ROTATING INTERACTION REGION: NOAA forecasters say that G2-class geomagnetic storms are possible later today, March 25th, when a co-rotating interaction region (CIR) is expected to hit Earth. CIRs are transition zones between fast- and slow-moving streams of solar wind. They contain shock waves akin to CMEs. Today's CIR is powered by a giant hole in the sun's atmosphere. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
A SPYSAT SPACEX SPIRAL: Yesterday, SpaceX launched a spy satellite for the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Two hours after the Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, a magnificent blue spiral pinwheeled across western Europe. "I was watching the night sky when I noticed a strange bright star with a weird halo moving towards me," says Joe Hyde of Preston, England. "As it grew larger, I photographed it using my iPhone16."
"At first I had no idea what it was," he says, "but some Googling revealed it was probably a fuel dump from a SpaceX rocket."
Correct! The rocket's second stage was spinning when it executed a deorbit burn and fuel dump, naturally shaping the exhaust into a spiral. Spirals are an increasingly routine by-product of SpaceX operations. In recent years, similar blue swirls have been seen over the Barents Sea, New Zealand, east Africa, Hawaii (twice!), and Alaska.
Why was the rocket spinning? It may mean there was more than one satellite on board. Spinning the rocket body gives satellites a bit of separation when they pop out one after another. Indeed, there is speculation that this payload was actually a pair of surveillance satellites akin to the US Navy's Naval Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS), which has conducted signals intelligence from space since the 1970s.
more images: from Alessandro Gambaro of Castano Primo (MI) - Italy; from Anton Spenko of Kamnik, Slovenija; from Henk Troostheide of Lindås, Kalmar Lan, Sweden; from Andrew Greenwood of Lincolnshire, UK; from Anders of Stockholm, Sweden; from Tony Blackman of Rayleigh, Essex, England; from Helen Dillon of Rothley, Leicestershire, UK;
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
TWO INFERIOR CONUNCTIONS OF VENUS: It took Philip Smith almost two years to create this animation. "I imaged two inferior conjunctions from my Manorville, New York, observatory--the first on 08-13-23 and the second on 03-23-25," he explains. "Then I combined the two crescents into a single ring."
"In 2023 and 2025, Venus passed on opposite sides of the sun," Smith continues. "Opposite sides of Venus were therefore illuminated. Combining them reveals the planet's outer diameter. I punctuated the animation with a radar image of Venus from NASA."
Why is Venus a crescent? This diagram explains it all. During the days around inferior conjunction, Venus's night side faces Earth with only a thin sliver of sunlight filtering through the planet's acid cloudtops. Many photos were taken of the exquisite arc during this year's conjunction. Browse the gallery for more:
Realtime Venus Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
ROSE QUARTZ TREE OF LIFE PENDANT: You cannot buy this on Amazon. Only the Earth to Sky Store has the Rose Quartz Tree of Life Space Pendant. This one flew to the stratosphere March 4th onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $129.95. The pendant's rose quartz gemstone is surrounded by a hand-wrapped stainless steel tree of life. During its 3-hour flight, it experienced temperatures as low as -63 C and air pressures less than 0.3% of sea level--truly, an out-of-this world gift!
The students are selling space jewelry to pay the helium bill for their high altitude ballooning program. Each pendant comes with a greeting card showing the item 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
Realtime Venus Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
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 Mar 24, 2025, the network reported 5 fireballs.
(5 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 March 25, 2025 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
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Recent
& Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT) |
Miss Distance |
Velocity (km/s) |
Diameter (m) |
| 2025 FF |
2025-Mar-20 |
10.3 LD |
6.3 |
17 |
| 2025 FL |
2025-Mar-20 |
1.2 LD |
9 |
19 |
| 2025 FS2 |
2025-Mar-20 |
1.1 LD |
13.1 |
9 |
| 2025 FG |
2025-Mar-20 |
7.3 LD |
5.5 |
12 |
| 2025 FE |
2025-Mar-21 |
7.9 LD |
15 |
41 |
| 2025 FJ |
2025-Mar-21 |
2.4 LD |
11 |
9 |
| 2025 FA2 |
2025-Mar-21 |
5.6 LD |
9.8 |
14 |
| 2021 FH1 |
2025-Mar-21 |
3.9 LD |
13.8 |
31 |
| 2025 FK |
2025-Mar-21 |
19.8 LD |
12 |
35 |
| 2025 FB2 |
2025-Mar-22 |
8.1 LD |
13.2 |
17 |
| 2025 FX6 |
2025-Mar-22 |
0.4 LD |
20.8 |
5 |
| 2025 FZ |
2025-Mar-22 |
3.3 LD |
7.2 |
11 |
| 2025 DA15 |
2025-Mar-23 |
16.9 LD |
7.8 |
36 |
| 2025 FY6 |
2025-Mar-23 |
0.1 LD |
23.4 |
2 |
| 2025 FY1 |
2025-Mar-23 |
1.8 LD |
14.3 |
15 |
| 2025 FC2 |
2025-Mar-23 |
0.7 LD |
13.4 |
7 |
| 2025 FK3 |
2025-Mar-24 |
0.3 LD |
20.5 |
5 |
| 2025 FQ2 |
2025-Mar-24 |
7.1 LD |
6.9 |
10 |
| 2025 FS |
2025-Mar-24 |
3.1 LD |
13.7 |
22 |
| 2025 FZ6 |
2025-Mar-24 |
0.9 LD |
21.2 |
8 |
| 2025 FX2 |
2025-Mar-24 |
0.7 LD |
25.1 |
11 |
| 2025 FN2 |
2025-Mar-25 |
9.6 LD |
11.8 |
25 |
| 2025 FT |
2025-Mar-25 |
5.1 LD |
9 |
13 |
| 2025 FK2 |
2025-Mar-25 |
11.8 LD |
3.5 |
14 |
| 2025 FR2 |
2025-Mar-26 |
7.1 LD |
10.5 |
16 |
| 2014 TN17 |
2025-Mar-26 |
13.3 LD |
21.5 |
174 |
| 2025 FD2 |
2025-Mar-26 |
5.5 LD |
8.9 |
11 |
| 2025 FS5 |
2025-Mar-26 |
19.3 LD |
21.1 |
52 |
| 2025 DW5 |
2025-Mar-26 |
16.5 LD |
5.6 |
41 |
| 2007 EJ88 |
2025-Mar-27 |
19 LD |
25.9 |
74 |
| 2025 FC4 |
2025-Mar-27 |
11.2 LD |
11.4 |
25 |
| 2025 DV22 |
2025-Mar-27 |
16.5 LD |
12.2 |
57 |
| 2025 FO6 |
2025-Mar-27 |
2.1 LD |
12.5 |
11 |
| 2025 FA7 |
2025-Mar-27 |
5.1 LD |
20 |
19 |
| 2025 FG6 |
2025-Mar-28 |
3 LD |
6 |
7 |
| 2025 FM6 |
2025-Mar-28 |
16.6 LD |
13.8 |
46 |
| 2025 FZ1 |
2025-Mar-29 |
6.4 LD |
9.4 |
15 |
| 2020 VA4 |
2025-Mar-30 |
11.6 LD |
5.6 |
12 |
| 2025 FZ3 |
2025-Mar-31 |
8.4 LD |
7.1 |
19 |
| 2025 FC6 |
2025-Apr-01 |
11.8 LD |
11.4 |
21 |
| 2022 FR3 |
2025-Apr-01 |
6.6 LD |
7.4 |
105 |
| 2025 FP6 |
2025-Apr-02 |
19.3 LD |
10.1 |
24 |
| 2025 FW5 |
2025-Apr-04 |
13.3 LD |
20.3 |
59 |
| 2020 XT2 |
2025-Apr-04 |
13.6 LD |
6.2 |
41 |
| 2023 GC2 |
2025-Apr-04 |
17.3 LD |
6.3 |
12 |
| 2020 FH4 |
2025-Apr-04 |
12.8 LD |
3 |
7 |
| 2025 BC10 |
2025-Apr-05 |
9.7 LD |
22.9 |
479 |
| 2007 SQ6 |
2025-Apr-05 |
10.9 LD |
6.6 |
129 |
| 2025 DV40 |
2025-Apr-06 |
16.8 LD |
13.1 |
107 |
| 2003 GQ22 |
2025-Apr-07 |
19.6 LD |
8.9 |
180 |
| 2025 DL28 |
2025-Apr-08 |
16.2 LD |
5.6 |
38 |
| 2023 HG |
2025-Apr-11 |
3.7 LD |
8.6 |
14 |
| 2023 KU |
2025-Apr-11 |
2.8 LD |
18 |
119 |
| 2023 RX1 |
2025-Apr-13 |
18.1 LD |
1.4 |
3 |
| 2023 UH |
2025-Apr-15 |
8.8 LD |
11 |
21 |
| 2022 UO |
2025-Apr-15 |
19.8 LD |
16.2 |
18 |
| 2025 DC36 |
2025-Apr-15 |
14.2 LD |
4.9 |
58 |
| 2017 RN16 |
2025-Apr-17 |
10.9 LD |
8.7 |
6 |
| 2014 HS124 |
2025-Apr-22 |
10.9 LD |
8.9 |
93 |
| 2019 FY2 |
2025-Apr-24 |
12.8 LD |
5.3 |
12 |
| 462959 |
2025-Apr-25 |
12.9 LD |
9.5 |
213 |
| 2024 BF |
2025-May-01 |
9.5 LD |
4.6 |
47 |
| 2024 JM2 |
2025-May-03 |
7.2 LD |
11.3 |
62 |
| 2021 JN1 |
2025-May-06 |
18.3 LD |
16.3 |
39 |
| 2021 HZ |
2025-May-08 |
20 LD |
10.2 |
30 |
| 612356 |
2025-May-09 |
11 LD |
5.1 |
305 |
| 2021 KH |
2025-May-10 |
18.3 LD |
7.2 |
19 |
| 2011 HJ7 |
2025-May-12 |
6.6 LD |
15.8 |
118 |
| 2011 YU74 |
2025-May-13 |
11.4 LD |
5 |
90 |
| 2025 DT50 |
2025-May-14 |
16 LD |
6.4 |
99 |
| 2008 ST |
2025-May-20 |
13.5 LD |
2.5 |
14 |
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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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 |
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current counts of failed and deployed Starlink satellites from Jonathan's Space Page. See also, all satellite statistics. |
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Authoritative predictions of space junk and satellite re-entries |
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from
the NOAA Space Environment Center |
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fun to read, but should be taken with a grain of salt! Forecasts looking ahead more than a few days are often wrong. |
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from the NOAA Space Environment Center |
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the
underlying science of space weather |
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Got a chipped or cracked windshield that prevents you from seeing space weather events while driving? Get windshield replacement from SR Windows & Glass with free mobile auto glass service anywhere in the Phoenix area. |
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