SpaceWeather.com Archive — Sat, May 17, 2025

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SURPRISE GEOMAGNETIC STORM... This was not in the forecast. An unexpected G2-class geomagnetic storm occured during the early hours of May 17th, sparked by the glancing blow of a CME. Originally expected to miss Earth, the CME was launched on May 12th by an erupting magnetic filament in the sun's northern hemisphere. The ejecta was wider than models predicted, and some of the debris struck Earth after a 4-day tansit from the sun. CME impact alerts: SMS Text

...AND A CHINESE ROCKET PLUME: During the storm, auroras appeared over more than a dozen US states as far south as New Mexico. There was also something more. A white plume bisected the sky, puzzling observers who at first thought it might be a strange form of STEVE. Mike Lewinski photographed the display from Crestone, Colorado:

"The aurora was rippling low on the northern horizon when suddenly a bright streak of light, reminiscent of a rocket re-entry, appeared high in the sky and flowed down to the horizon," Lewinski says.

This plume was not an aurora, and it was not STEVE. We believe it is related to a rocket launch in China. About an hour before the plume appeared (5:39 UTC), Chinese launch startup Landspace launched the ZhuQue-2E rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (4:12 UTC). It carried 6 satellites to orbit including a synthetic aperture radar and multiple space science spacecraft. The white streak may have been a de-orbit burn, or perhaps a circularization burn for the deploying satellites.

ZhuQue-2E is a new type of rocket powered by liquid oxygen and liquid methane. This "methalox" technology was developed by Landspace, and their ZhuQue-2 series of methane rockets are the first to reach orbit ahead of other companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX. Methalox offers several advantages over traditional rocket fuels like kerosene and hydrogen. Methane is more easily stored, burns cleaner, and can be produced on Mars.

more images: from Amber Simons of Jackson, Idaho; from Dan Bush of Albany, Missouri; from Jay Shaffer of Taos county, New Mexico; from Troy Bryan of Scottsbluff, Nebraska; from Robert Atwood of Vernal, Utah; from Tyler Anderson of Spokane, WA

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LASER-ETCHED FULL MOON CRYSTAL NIGHT LIGHT: This crystal night light comes from the edge of space, and it is 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 rectangular 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.

Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education

FIZZY TRI-HYDROGEN AURORAS ON JUPITER: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered a new type of aurora "fizzing and popping" on Jupiter. Unlike auroras on Earth, which come from oxygen and nitrogen, Jupiter's arise from a completely different compound: Ionized trihydrogen (H₃⁺).

Trihydrogen is rare on Earth, but it is one of the most abundant ions in the universe, widespread in interstellar space and also in the cloudtops of gas giant planets like Jupiter. The atomic structure of H₃⁺ causes it to glow with infrared light when it is involved in aurora-producing space storms. That's why the infrared cameras of JWST can detect it.

Trihydrogen auroras have been seen before, especially on Neptune, but these auroras on Jupiter are different. They change faster than than theories predict.

"We expected Jupiter's auroras to fade in and out ponderously," says astronomer Jonathan Nichols (University of Leicester), who led the observing team. "Instead, we observed the whole auroral region fizzing and popping with light, sometimes varying by the second.”

Jupiter's auroras also feature "extinction events." Bright regions in the auroral zone can suddenly go dark in a matter of seconds. This graphic highlights one such event:

"The radiance at this location increased steadily for the several minutes [before it] dropped precipitously, reducing in brightness by around 40%," wrote Nichols and his team.

The auroras' variability may be linked to Jupiter's moon Io. On most worlds, auroras are ignited by the solar wind or a CME strike. On Jupiter, volcanic exhaust from Io can do the same job. Io is by far the most volcanically active body in the solar system with dozens of volcanoes erupting simultaneously. Energetic particles emerging from Io's vents create trihydrogen when they strike Jupiter's atmosphere, impressing upon the auroras any irregularities in the volcanic exhaust.