SpaceWeather.com Archive — Sat, Jul 26, 2025

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STARLINK LAUNCH ALERT: Residents of southern California should be alert for a rocket launch tonight. A batch of Starlink satellites is scheduled to take off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on July 26th at 8:55 pm PDT. Similar launches in the past have produced gaseous plumes visible from as far away as Arizona and Utah. Submit your photos here.

ASTEROID IMPACT COULD CAUSE A METEOR STORM: Mark your calendar. If asteroid 2024 YR4 hits the Moon on Dec. 22, 2032, Earth could experience a rare meteor shower made entirely of moondust.

Astronomers at the University of Western Ontario have analyzed what might happen if the 60-meter-wide space rock slams into the lunar surface. In a new paper, they report that the impact would release energy equivalent to 6.5 megatons of TNT, blasting out a kilometer-wide crater and ejecting up to 100 million kilograms of lunar debris.

Above: The current impact corridor for 2024 YR4 projected on a map of the Moon

"We found that up to 10% of the lunar ejecta could reach Earth within days," says planetary scientist Paul Wiegert, the leader of the study. "The resulting meteor shower could be eye-catching, with meteor rates orders of magnitude above usual background rates."

Earth's upper atmosphere would be peppered by lunar material arriving at relatively low speeds--about 2 to 3 km/s. That's much slower than the typical 20+ km/s of interplanetary meteoroids. As a result, these meteors would appear slower, dimmer, and longer-lasting than usual. Still, they could be visible to the naked eye and quite numerous.

And here's the kicker: Nearly every visible meteor in this shower would be a piece of the Moon.

The authors estimate a 4% chance of impact. That’s small, but significant. The odds will be updated in 2028, when asteroid 2024 YR4 emerges from the glare of the sun and becomes observable again. If it is on target, the asteroid could deliver the largest lunar impact in approximately 5000 years.

Stay tuned for a Moon-made meteor shower.

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CHRISTMAS IN JULY: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Check out the Earth to Sky Store. It's filled with unique items that have flown to the edge of space onboard cosmic ray research balloons.

Carried aloft by giant helium balloons, these unique gifts have flown above 99.7% of Earth's atmosphere, experiencing space-like blasts of cosmic rays, extreme cold, and a wild ride parachuting back to Earth after the balloon explodes. Even Amazon doesn't carry items this far out.