A SUMMER WITHOUT SUNSPOTS: Since northern summer began on June 21st, the sun has been blank--that is, without sunspots--88% of the time. The only interruptions have been a handful of tiny quiet sunspots that sometimes disintegrated within hours of forming. The remainder of summer appears set to continue in the same way. Welcome to Solar Minimum!
GEOMAGNETIC STORM FORECAST: Earth is about to be hit by a double-stream of solar wind. The two streams are flowing from holes in the sun's atmosphere, shown here in an extreme ultraviolet image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:
These are "coronal holes," places where the sun's magnetic field opens up and allows solar wind to escape. Solar wind flowing from the right coronal hole is expected to arrive on Aug. 27-28. A more potent stream of solar wind flowing from the left coronal hole should reach us on Sept. 1-2.
G1-class geomagnetic storms are possible on both dates, although Sept. 1-2 is more likely to experience storm conditions. Why? Because the coronal hole on the left is spewing a faster stream of gas than the one on the right: ~650 km/s vs. ~500 km/s respectively. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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ISS = INTERNATIONAL SUN SPOT? The sun has been blank and featureless for 18 straight days. That is, except for a split second on Aug. 23rd when Maximilian Teodorescu of Magurele, Romania, saw a spaceship-shaped sunspot race across the solar disk at 17,000 mph:
"The International Space Station (ISS) transited the sun today...and I was there to see it," says Teodorescu. "Note the inset showing a better view of the station, which is a stack of multiple frames from my video camera."
Teodorescu knew when to point his solar-filtered telescope at the sun thanks to a prediction from Calsky.com. Such predictions are useful at the moment because Solar Minimum is underway, and the only sunspots on the blank solar disk are of the international variety. Get your own predictions here.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
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YES, THAT'S A REAL PEARL: It's the first pearl in the stratosphere. On Aug. 19, 2019, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a cosmic ray balloon to the edge of space, 104,002 ft high. This sterling silver pearl necklace went along for the ride:
You can have it for $169.95. The students are selling these pearls to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each cultured "space pearl" comes with greeting card showing the necklace in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space and back again. These make great birthday and Christmas gifts.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education