SpaceWeather.com Archive — Thu, Jun 6, 2024

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THE HIGHEST SUNSPOT NUMBER IN 22 YEARS: The average sunspot number for May 2024 was 172, the highest value in 22 years. So far, June is even higher at 200. If this continues for the rest of the month, June could log the highest sunspot counts since Dec. 2001, rivaling the peak of potent Solar Cycle 23. Solar flare alerts: SMS Tex t

THE LASER-LIKE TAIL OF COMET 12P: Today, Earth is passing through the orbital plane of comet 12P/Pons-Brooks. "This is causing it to develop a laser-like anti-tail," reports astronomer Ian Griffin, who sends this photo from Otago, New Zealand:

"It was an amazing display," says Griffin.

In Griffin's photo, the anti-tail is the very sharp line pointing toward the upper right. It's "anti" because it points directly opposite the comet's regular gas tail (lower left).

What is this anti-tail? It's an optical illusion. Anti-tails appear when Earth passes through a comet's orbital plane. During the crossing, the sharp edge of the comet's fan-shaped dust tail narrows to a laser-like line and appears to point toward the sun.

This phenomenon will be visible for the next few days. Southern hemisphere astronomers can find the comet in the constellation Lepus ~20 degrees below the celestial equator. With a magnitude of +7, the comet is an easy target for amateur telescopes. Submit your photos here.

more images: from Michael Jaeger of Hakos, Namibia

Realtime Comet Photo Gallery
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STERLING SILVER GEOMAGNETIC CAT: On May 10, 2024, a CME slammed into Earth's magnetic field, sparking the biggest geomagnetic storm in 35 years. Moments later, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a cosmic ray balloon directly into the storm. The Geomagnetic Cat Pendant went along for the ride:

This sterling silver feline floated through the stratosphere for 3 hours during the storm, gathering radiation data for the students' monitoring program. Later, when the sun set and the sky grew dark, red and green auroras danced above the Sierra Nevada mountains of California where the balloon was launched.

You can have it for $219.95. The pendant comes with a greeting card showing the cat in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back. This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime gift.