CME ARRIVES, BUT NO STRONG STORM: Arriving almost 24 hours late, a CME hit Earth's magnetic field on March 24th at 0038 UTC. The overdue impact did not cause a strong geomagnetic storm, as had been predicted. There is still a chance of minor G1-class storms today and tomorrow as Earth passes through the CME's magnetized wake. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
A HOLE IN THE SUN'S ATMOSPHERE: A large hole has opened in the sun's atmosphere and it is releasing a stream of solar wind directly toward Earth. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is tracking the structure, which spans much of the sun's southern hemisphere:
This is a "coronal hole"--a vast region in the sun's corona where the magnetic field has opened up, allowing solar wind to escape. It looks dark in SDO images because hot glowing gas normally contained there is missing. It's on its way to Earth.
NOAA forecasters say that a G2-class geomagnetic storm is possible when the leading edge of the solar stream reaches Earth, possibly as early as March 25th. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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TWO INFERIOR CONUNCTIONS OF VENUS: It took Philip Smith almost two years to create this animation. "I imaged two inferior conjunctions from my Manorville, New York, observatory--the first on 08-13-23 and the second on 03-23-25," he explains. "Then I combined the two crescents into a single ring."
"In 2023 and 2025, Venus passed on opposite sides of the sun," Smith continues. "Opposite sides of Venus were therefore illuminated. Combining them reveals the planet's outer diameter. I punctuated the animation with a radar image of Venus from NASA."
Why is Venus a crescent? This diagram explains it all. During the days around inferior conjunction, Venus's night side faces Earth with only a thin sliver of sunlight filtering through the planet's acid cloudtops. Many photos were taken of the exquisite arc during this year's conjunction. Browse the gallery for more:
Realtime Venus Photo Gallery
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ROSE QUARTZ TREE OF LIFE PENDANT: You cannot buy this on Amazon. Only the Earth to Sky Store has the Rose Quartz Tree of Life Space Pendant. This one flew to the stratosphere March 4th onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $129.95. The pendant's rose quartz gemstone is surrounded by a hand-wrapped stainless steel tree of life. During its 3-hour flight, it experienced temperatures as low as -63 C and air pressures less than 0.3% of sea level--truly, an out-of-this world gift!
The students are selling space jewelry to pay the helium bill for their high altitude ballooning program. Each pendant comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
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Realtime Venus Photo Gallery
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Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
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