BE ALERT FOR TAURID FIREBALLS: The annual Northern Taurid meteor shower peaks tonight, Wednesday, Nov. 11th. This shower is famous for producing slow and exceptionally bright fireballs with peak rates as high as 5 per hour. Midnight is the best time to watch, but any time after 9 p.m.could yield a sighting: sky map.

VETERAN'S DAY STORM EVEN STRONGER THAN WE THOUGHT:One year ago, the biggest solar radiation storm in 20 years hit Earth. Literally hit. Particles from an X5-class solar flare on Nov. 11, 2025, penetrated the atmosphere and struck the ground.

An extreme UV image of the Nov. 11, 2025, X5-class solar flare. Credit: NASA/SDO

A new paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Space Weather reveals a surprise. "The storm was even stronger than we thought," says co-author Clive Dyer of the University of Surrey.

Luckily, the Surrey team was in a meeting with the UK Met Office when the storm began. Within an hour, a weather balloon carrying a radiation detector lifted off from Lerwick in the Shetland Islands. More balloons followed from Cornwall and the Netherlands, and detectors rode aboard two transatlantic airliners.

Over Shetland, the balloons measured startling dose rates where planes fly. At 48,000 ft (business jets), radiation doubled--enough to cross the International Civil Aviation Organization's "moderate" threshold. At 60,000 ft (supersonic jets), it was nearly 5 times normal and twice the "severe" threshold. Higher up, it kept climbing.

"[We measured] 300 µSv/hr--which may be the most intense natural atmospheric radiation field observed," the authors wrote. That's about 40 times the dose rate airline passengers normally receive.

Yet no aviation radiation warnings were issued. Forecasters rely on computer models, and the only model with published results said "moderate" levels were exceeded for no more than 10 minutes--a clear failure.

Colloquially, this has been called "the Veterans Day storm," but it has a technical name: GLE 77--the 77th ground level enhancement (GLE) since counting began in 1942. GLE 78 (whenever it happens) could be just as big. The authors call for a global network of rapid-response balloons to monitor future storms for air travelers.

You can read the original research here.

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NAUGHTY EINSTEIN CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT: Have you been naughty ... or nice? Don't worry, the Great Physicist says "it's all relative." On Nov. 3, 2026, we flew the Naughty Einstein Christmas Ornament to the stratosphere on board a cosmic ray research balloon:

You can have it for for $98.95. The ceramic ornament makes a great gift for any science nerd--or a funny addition to your own Christmas tree. It comes with a full-color Christmas card showing the ornament in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere.

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THE SOLAR WIND CONTINUES TO BLOW: For the second day in a row, a stream of solar wind is buffeting Earth's magnetic field. Pressure from the onrushing (700 km/s) plasma is causing polar regions to glow with non-stop auroras. The lights could spill south if a gust sparks a geomagnetic storm. Aurora alerts: SMS Text

JUPITER'S MOONS ARE ECLIPSING ONE ANOTHER: What would Galileo think? When the great astronomer discovered Jupiter's moons 400 years ago, they were no more than pinpricks of light in his primitive telescope. Fast-forward to 2026, and they are fully-resolved spherical worlds:

"In the early morning hours of Nov. 7th, Jupiter's moon Europa passed in front of Ganymede. This occultation was not easy to observe," says amateur astronomer Günther Strauch, who recorded the event from Borken, Germany, using a 16-inch Meade telescope.

This kind of eclipse is visible only when Jupiter is "edge-on" to Earth. In other words, when we are in the planet's equatorial plane. This happens around Jupiter’s equinox, which, this year, is on Dec. 16th.

Jupiter's eclipse season is fun because you can see the events through backyard telescopes. Subscribers to our Backyard Astronomy Alert Service will receive text messages on nights when Jupiter is high in the sky and eclipses and occultations are visible. The IMCCE lists more than 80 worldwide events between now and February 2027. A subscriber at any one location can typically see 5 to 10.

Observers who try to record these events typically see no more than unresolved points of light, which brighten and dim as the eclipse unfolds. Strauch actually resolved both disks: Ganymede at 1.34" and Europa at 0.80". A 16-inch telescope's theoretical resolution limit (the Dawes limit) is only 0.29", so he was able to see their shapes despite atmospheric turbulence.

What would Galileo think? "I think I'd like a Meade."

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THE SHOOTING STARFISH PENDANT: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider the Shooting Starfish Pendant. It flew to the stratosphere (104,418 ft high) on June 3, 2026, onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:

You can have it for for $153.95. Made of opal with a sterling silver exoskeleton, the pendant is 0.9-inches wide and comes with a matching 18-inch sterling silver chain.

The students of Earth to Sky Calculus 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.

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