A POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS SUNSPOT: Big sunspot 4551 has developed a 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class solar flares. Any explosions today will be geoeffective because the sunspot is directly facing Earth. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
JELLYFISH WITH A TWIST: Sky watchers near Cape Canaveral are accustomed to "SpaceX Jellyfish" -- the glowing exhaust from Falcon 9 rockets. But Tuesday's jellyfish was a little different. Here's what Gregory Shanos saw from his driveway in Sarasota, Florida:
"This was an incredible event!" says Shanos. "Phenomenal to say the least."
What's different? Note the churning cloud embedded in the jellyfish. Many onlookers said they’d never seen that before.
The churning cloud is a "boostback burn." A boostback burn is when the rocket's first stage twists around and re-ignites its engines. Then it heads back to land at the launch site. Exhaust from the burn plows straight into the rocket’s own wake--hence the churn.
Most Florida jellyfish come from missions that land their boosters on drone ships far out in the Atlantic, with little or no boostback. That's why the cloud is rare.
This movie recorded by Howard Eskildsen of Ocala, Florida, captured the entire process. Play it with the sound on to hear his excellent commentary:
This rocket was a resupply mission to the ISS. The Dragon cargo carrier contains food, new solar arrays, equipment to manufacture artificial retinas in microgravity, and brain organoids for Alzheimer’s research--more than 6,300 pounds in all. The capsule is due to dock on Thursday, Oct. 15th.
Would you like to see a SpaceX jellyfish? Sign up for our new Backyard Astronomy Alert Service. Subscribers receive realtime text messages when SpaceX rockets launch and jellyfish appear. Launches from Florida, California and Texas are all included.
more images: from Ricky Johnson of Brunswick, Georgia; from Brent of Orlando, Florida; from Elena Ramos Severance on Nova Road (County Road 532) in central Florida; from Martin Zloty of Land O'Lakes, Florida; from Lisa Bowen of The Villages, Florida; from Rupert E. Lubkemeier of Boca Del Mar, Florida; from Suzan Kelly of Greenville, South Carolina
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THE EASTER ISLAND CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT: You can't buy this on Amazon. Only the Earth to Sky Store has the Easter Island Christmas Ornament from space. Here it is floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere on July 16, 2026:
You can have it for $98.95. Modeled after the iconic stone heads of Easter Island, known as Moai, this ornament adds an element of mystery to any Christmas Tree. For 3 hours, it floated through the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon, then parachuted back to Earth, landing near Telescope Peak in Death Valley National Park.
The ornament comes with a full-color gift card showing the Moai in flight. The interior of the card tells the story of its journey to the edge of space and back again.
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