SO FAR THE CMEs ARE MISSING EARTH: A fusillade of strong explosions from sunspot 4087 hurled multiple CMEs into space today. So far none of the CMEs appears to be heading for Earth. We are just outside the sunspot's strike zone. This could change in the days ahead as the active region turns to face our planet. CME impact alerts: SMS Text
STRONG SOLAR ACTIVITY: After weeks of calm, solar activity is suddenly high again. The action started late yesterday with a surprising X1.2-class solar flare from the sun's western limb, followed today by an even stronger X2.7-flare from new sunspot 4087. Earth-orbiting satellites have detected four significant explosions so far:
Radiation from the flares has caused a series of shortwave radio blackouts around the world--first over the Americas, followed by southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Ham radio operators may have noticed unusual propagation effects from stations in all directions since May 13th.
Most of this activity has come from new sunspot 4087, which emerged over the sun's northeastern limb 2 days ago. It is not yet facing Earth. If the explosions continue for a few more days, however, Earth will find itself squarely in the strike zone with geoeffective CMEs heading our way. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
more images: from David Wilson of Inverness, Scotland; from Francois Rouviere of Cannes, France; from Harald Paleske of Sachsen Anhalt, Germany; from Pepe Manteca of Begues, Catalonia, Spain
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LASER-ETCHED FULL MOON CRYSTAL MONOLITH: This crystal monolith comes from the edge of space bearing a message: "I Love You to the Moon and Back." On April 23, 2025, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a giant helium balloon:
You can have it for $135.99. Made of high-quality K9 crystal, the rectanglar mini-monolith contains a 3D laser-etched full Moon floating above the text "I Love You to the Moon and Back." It also comes with an LED base, which allows the crystal to be used as a red, green or blue night light.
The students are selling space crystals to pay the helium bill for their high altitude ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again.
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LUNAR POLLEN CORONA: It's that time of year. Pollen is floating through the air and making springtime "pollen coronas." Heiko Ulbricht of Freital, Germany, saw this one surrounding the waxing full Moon on May 11th:
"It was extraordinarily intense," says Ulbricht. "The magnificent colored rings and typical bulges suggest it was caused by pine pollen."
Coronas are rings of light that surround the sun or Moon when their light is scattered from small particles. Tiny droplets of water in clouds can make coronas, but pollen grains do even better. They make intensely colored rings.
Pollen coronas tend to be elliptical and lumpy because the underlying grains are, too. This photo of pine pollen seen through a microscope shows what's going on:
They look like Mickey Mouse hats--a result of air sacs that help carry them in the wind. These align the grains so that the unruly swarm can scatter light coherently, encoding their individual structures into the shape of the overall corona.
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