LYRID METEOR SHOWER--TONIGHT: The Lyrid meteor shower peaks tonight when Earth passes through a stream of debris from Comet Thatcher (C/1861 G1). Northern sky watchers could see as many as 15 meteors per hour during the dark hours before sunrise on Wednesday, April 22nd: sky map.
SURPRISE GEOMAGNETIC STORM: The first geomagnetic storm of 2020 (category G1) took forecasters by surprise on April 20th when a CME hit Earth's magnetic field, sparking bright auroras over Canada and some northern-tier US states. "Northern lights danced across the entire northwestern Montana sky early this morning," reports Philip Granrud. "I photographed them with a wide angle lens on top of my car several miles outside of Kalispell."
"It was such a nice break from everything that's been going on in the world lately," he says.
The cause of the storm appears to be a faint slow-moving CME (coronal mass ejection) that left the sun on April 15th, shown here in an animation from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):
This CME was not squarely Earth-directed, and forecasters did not think it was likely to hit our planet. Nevertheless, it apparently did. Solar wind data suggest that the CME sideswiped Earth with a snowplow-like buildup of plasma shortly after 0130 UT on April 20th.
Did you miss the storm? Subscribers to our Space Weather Alert Service received real-time text messages alerting them to this event. Pro Plan subscribers were forewarned when cracks began to appear in Earth's magnetic field immediately following the CME impact. Basic Plan subscribers received text messages as soon as the G1-storm erupted. Sign up now and never miss another geomagnetic storm.
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
STERLING SILVER SPACE PENDANT: Mother's Day is only weeks away. Are you looking for a far-out gift? This 925 sterling silver pendant has been to the edge of space, and you can have it for $139.95.
The students of Earth to Sky Calculus are selling Mother's Day pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. This one traveled 108,596 ft above the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains of central California on April 3, 2020. Each pendant comes with a greeting card showing the necklace in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter