SpaceWeather.com Archive — Sun, Jun 23, 2024

« backSun, Jun 23, 2024forward »

MARTIAN AURORA WARNING: A CME is heading for Mars. According to a NASA model, the storm cloud will strike the Red Planet on June 27th. The impact could spark global auroras and erode a small amount of the planet's atmosphere. Aurora alerts: SMS Tex t

SOMETHING FLARE-Y THIS WAY COMES: Old sunspot AR3664 might not be dead, after all. It's returning today for a rare third trip across the Earthside of the sun. Usually such a superannuated sunspot would be a decaying corpse. Instead, we're getting an explosive active region:

An M9.7-class solar flare on June 23, 2024, with the underlying sunspot inset.

Earlier today, the returning sunspot unleashed an M9.3-class solar flare, only percentage points away from category X. The sunspot itself is only a fraction of its former size, but something about its magnetic underpinnings continues to produce strong flares. Stay tuned for more. Solar flare alerts: SMS Tex t

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter

BUSY INTERSECTION: German astronomer Achim Schaller was watching the sun on June 18, 2024, when several things happened at once. His camera clicked, a plane flew overhead, smearing its contrail across the field of view, and the International Space Station (ISS) split the gap between two giant sunspots. It was one busy intersection:

"Traveling at 17,000 mph, the ISS took less than 2 seconds to cross the solar disk," says Schaller. "In that time I managed to take 17 pictures."

The ISS isn't the only spaceship transiting sunspots. On June 15th, Philip Smith watched an unidentified flying object cross AR3712 over Manorville, NY. "I am not saying this UFO was a flying saucer," says Smith. "It's probably just an Earth-orbiting satellite, but I don't know which one." (Neither do we, but it's a great movie.)

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter

COLLECTABLE STAR TREK ORNAMENT: No Trekkie Christmas tree is complete without The Arena Ornament. This rare Hallmark keepsake depicts the reptilian Gorn poised to deliver a death blow to Capt. James T. Kirk on the planet Cestus III. On June 14, 2024, it flew to the edge of space onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:

You can have it for $135.95. The ornament depicts a famous scene from The Original Series episode "Arena" first broadcast on January 19, 1967. Decades later, the Gorn have become main villians on the new Star Trek series Strange New Worlds, which we love!

The ornament comes with a Christmas card showing Kirk and the Gorn in flight, and certifying they have traveled to the edge of space and back again.