DECLINING CHANCE OF FLARES: Big sunspot AR2665 has decayed both in area and magnetic complexity. It no longer poses a significant threat for strong explosions. NOAA forecasters say there is a declining 15% chance of M-class solar flares on July 13th. Free: Solar Flare Alerts
INCREDIBLE IMAGES OF THE GREAT RED SPOT: On July 10th, NASA's Juno spacecraft swooped over the Great Red Spot of Jupiter, only 9000 km above its swirling cloudtops. First-look images have just been released. Behold, the biggest storm in the Solar System photographed from point blank range:
Image credit : NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt / Seán Doran © public domain
NASA is doing something new with its data from Juno. Instead of reserving images for selected researchers alone, the agency is posting raw images as soon as they reach Earth. Members of the public are invited to examine and process them. Keep an eye on the Juno Image Processing Gallery for the latest submissions.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
A GIGANTIC JET OVER CHINA: Think of them as sprites on steroids: Gigantic Jets are lightning-like discharges that spring from the tops of thunderstorms, reaching all the way to the ionosphere some 80 km overhead. They're enormous and powerful. On July 4th, an all-sky camera in the Guangdong Meteor Observation Network detected this specimen over southern China:
"We have detected sprites before, but never a Gigantic Jet. It was fantastic," says Lyrics Shum, an astronomer who works with the Network. "According to our calculations, it stretched from an altitude of 15 km at the bottom to more than 87 km on top, and it lasted 0.32 seconds." The instigating storm was located offshore over the South China Sea.
"Gigantic Jets are much more rare than sprites," says Oscar van der Velde, a member of the Lightning Research Group at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. "While sprites were discovered in 1989 and have since been photographed by the thousands, it was not until 2001-2002 that Gigantic Jets were first recorded from Puerto Rico and Taiwan." Only a few dozen Gigantic Jets have ever been seen, mostly over open ocean.
Amateur astronomers, you can contribute to Gigantic Jet research. Check your local weather radar map for storms just over the horizon, point your meteor cameras in that direction, and click. Gigantic Jets might not be as rare as we think.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
SOLAR ECLIPSE SPACE PENDANTS: Would you like to support our Solar Eclipse Balloon Network? Here's one way: Buy a space pendant. This solar eclipse-themed necklace flew to the stratosphere on July 2, 2017, attached to the payload of an Earth to Sky Calculus space weather balloon:
The payload contained more just like it. If you buy one now for $79.95, we will fly it back to the stratosphere during the Great American Solar Eclipse on August 21, 2017, where it will be enveloped by the Moon's cool shadow above our launch site in Oregon. No additional charge! Just make a note in the COMMENTS BOX of the shopping cart: "Please fly my pendant into the eclipse!" Each pendant comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again.
More items from the edge of space may be found in the Earth to Sky Store. All proceeds support atmospheric radiation monitoring and hands-on STEM education.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery