IBERIAN POWER OUTAGE: The sun was not to blame. Officials are still scrambling to understand the cause of yesterday's mysterious power outage in Spain and Portugal. It is already clear that space weather didn't do it. There were no solar flares, no geomagnetic storms, and no suspicious fluctuations in the solar wind before or during the outage. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
RED SPHERES IN THE NIGHT SKY: This has happened twice in the past week. On April 27th, David Blanchard photographed a red sphere over the countryside near Flagstaff, Arizona:
He had seen an almost identical sphere three nights earlier on April 24th. "In each case, they faded after a minute or two," he says.
These spheres are caused by SpaceX. On both nights, SpaceX had launched batches of Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral (Group 6-74 and Group 12-23). After deploying the satellites, the second stage of each rocket executed a deorbit burn over the US west coast, creating the red glow.
Why red? Fire is not involved. During deorbit burns, Falcon 9 second stage engines release about 400lbs of water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2). A complicated series of charge exchange reactions between those molecules and oxygen ions (O+) in the upper atmosphere produce photons at a wavelength of 6300 Å–the same color as red auroras.
In an earlier report on this same phenomenon, Stephen Hummel of the McDonald Observatory in Texas said "we are seeing 2 to 5 of these each month." Thats a lot of red spheres. If you live in the western US you might be be able to see some, too. Observing tips: Check the SpaceX launch schedule for night launches from Cape Canaveral. Deorbit burns occur about 90 minutes after liftoff.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
"BEST WIFE EVER" TEA CUP: Tell your wife what you think of her with the "Best Wife Ever" Tea Cup from Space. On March 21, 2025, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $134.95. The crystal glass cup is decorated with 3D pink and purple daisies. There's also a matching teaspoon! This romantic birthday, anniversary or Mother's Day gift comes with a greeting card showing the cup in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere. See also: The High Tea Cup.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
Realtime Comet Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter