This is an AI Free Zone: Text created by Large Language Models is spreading across the Internet. It's well-written, but frequently inaccurate. If you find a mistake on Spaceweather.com, rest assured it was made by a real human being.
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IBERIAN POWER OUTAGE: The sun was not to blame. Officials are still scrambling to understand the cause of this week'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
A "HIGH INTEREST" REENTRY: In 1972, the Soviet Union's Kosmos 482 spacecraft was supposed to land on Venus. More than 50 years later, it's returning to Earth instead. Touchdown is expected on May 10th, give or take a few days.
"This will not be your standard reentry," says satellite analyst Marco Langbroek, who has been tracking the object for years. "The Kosmos 482 Descent Craft was designed to survive the dense atmosphere of Venus. It will therefore likely survive reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere intact and make a crash landing. This will therefore be a high-interest reentry."
Above: A museum replica of Venera 8, a similar probe launched just days before Kosmos 482.
Kosmos 482 was part of the Soviet Union's successful Venera program to explore Venus. Between 1961 and 1984, thirteen Soviet probes successfully entered Venus's atmosphere, with ten landing on the planet's surface. Kosmos 482, however, never fully escaped Earth. After it was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on March 31, 1972, the upper stage of its Molniya rocket shut down prematurely, leaving it in a 206 x 9802 kilometer orbit that has been decaying ever since.
"With an orbital inclination of 52 degrees, the Kosmos 482 Descent Craft could come down anywhere between 52 degrees north and 52 degrees south latitude," says Langbroek. "This includes much of south and mid-latitude Europe and Asia, as well as the Americas, Africa and Australia." Statistically, an ocean landing is the most likely outcome.
Above: A picture of Venus from Kosmos 482's sister craft Venera 13 [more]
The probe was designed to parachute to the surface of Venus. However, it is very unlikely that the parachute system will work after more than 50 years in space, so this will be a crash landing. How bad will it be? Many details of the descent craft have been lost to history. Langbroek believes it is about 1 meter in diameter with a mass of ~495 kg. It won't do major damage, but you wouldn't want to be standing where it lands.
For updates and improved re-entry predictions, stay tuned to Langbroek's blog. And welcome home, Kosmos 482!
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"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
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.
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Every night, a network
of
NASA
all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United
States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software
maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office
calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth
in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics.
Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com.
On Apr 27, 2025, the network reported 4 fireballs.
(2 eta Aquarids, 2 sporadics)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue).
[Larger image] [movies]
Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (
PHAs)
are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that
can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the
known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet,
although astronomers are finding
new
ones all the time.
On April 30, 2025 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
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Recent
& Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT) |
Miss Distance |
Velocity (km/s) |
Diameter (m) |
| 2025 HT |
2025-Apr-25 |
3.3 LD |
6.8 |
18 |
| 2025 HR4 |
2025-Apr-25 |
2.7 LD |
6.5 |
11 |
| 462959 |
2025-Apr-25 |
12.9 LD |
9.5 |
217 |
| 2025 HU2 |
2025-Apr-25 |
1.1 LD |
7.1 |
6 |
| 2025 FK28 |
2025-Apr-25 |
16.6 LD |
11.9 |
63 |
| 2025 HB13 |
2025-Apr-26 |
11.3 LD |
9.7 |
19 |
| 2025 HP1 |
2025-Apr-26 |
9.2 LD |
8.5 |
15 |
| 2025 HV |
2025-Apr-27 |
14.6 LD |
16.5 |
48 |
| 2025 HO2 |
2025-Apr-27 |
7 LD |
7.9 |
48 |
| 2025 HS1 |
2025-Apr-27 |
14.5 LD |
11.3 |
30 |
| 2025 HY |
2025-Apr-27 |
10.7 LD |
10.7 |
18 |
| 2025 HB7 |
2025-Apr-27 |
12.8 LD |
12.9 |
26 |
| 2025 HP4 |
2025-Apr-28 |
0.9 LD |
10.1 |
11 |
| 2025 HL3 |
2025-Apr-28 |
14 LD |
7.6 |
43 |
| 2025 HQ4 |
2025-Apr-28 |
4.8 LD |
13.4 |
22 |
| 2025 HN4 |
2025-Apr-28 |
1.7 LD |
8 |
13 |
| 2025 HG2 |
2025-Apr-28 |
6.4 LD |
4.9 |
11 |
| 2025 HW1 |
2025-Apr-28 |
3.2 LD |
19.7 |
26 |
| 2025 HL5 |
2025-Apr-29 |
1.6 LD |
8.4 |
26 |
| 2025 HM6 |
2025-Apr-29 |
5.2 LD |
10.8 |
13 |
| 2025 HM4 |
2025-Apr-30 |
2 LD |
18.9 |
21 |
| 2025 GT1 |
2025-May-01 |
11.2 LD |
11.1 |
36 |
| 2024 BF |
2025-May-01 |
9.5 LD |
4.6 |
46 |
| 2025 HJ5 |
2025-May-02 |
10.9 LD |
7.8 |
15 |
| 2025 HR1 |
2025-May-02 |
12.6 LD |
6.3 |
13 |
| 2024 JM2 |
2025-May-03 |
7.2 LD |
11.3 |
62 |
| 2025 HN3 |
2025-May-04 |
7.9 LD |
14 |
29 |
| 2025 HF5 |
2025-May-06 |
3.5 LD |
4.3 |
25 |
| 2021 JN1 |
2025-May-06 |
18.3 LD |
16.3 |
39 |
| 2025 HY2 |
2025-May-07 |
17.8 LD |
13.6 |
38 |
| 2021 HZ |
2025-May-08 |
20 LD |
10.2 |
30 |
| 612356 |
2025-May-09 |
11 LD |
5.1 |
305 |
| 2021 KH |
2025-May-10 |
18.3 LD |
7.2 |
19 |
| 2011 HJ7 |
2025-May-12 |
6.6 LD |
15.8 |
118 |
| 2011 YU74 |
2025-May-13 |
11.4 LD |
5 |
90 |
| 2025 DT50 |
2025-May-14 |
16 LD |
6.4 |
105 |
| 2008 ST |
2025-May-20 |
13.5 LD |
2.5 |
14 |
| 387746 |
2025-May-24 |
17.4 LD |
8.3 |
339 |
| 2014 KF22 |
2025-May-25 |
9.1 LD |
11.5 |
19 |
| 390725 |
2025-May-25 |
18.4 LD |
13.5 |
410 |
| 2025 FU5 |
2025-May-28 |
13.4 LD |
7.3 |
92 |
| 2022 KP3 |
2025-May-30 |
10.2 LD |
7.7 |
7 |
| 424482 |
2025-Jun-05 |
9.1 LD |
6.2 |
421 |
| 2020 LQ |
2025-Jun-06 |
17.3 LD |
11.8 |
34 |
| 2018 LE4 |
2025-Jun-07 |
12.2 LD |
13.3 |
62 |
| 2014 LL26 |
2025-Jun-08 |
8 LD |
5.2 |
31 |
| 2022 KQ5 |
2025-Jun-12 |
13.6 LD |
5.1 |
5 |
| 2023 XO15 |
2025-Jun-15 |
17.8 LD |
3.4 |
24 |
| 2025 HN6 |
2025-Jun-16 |
6.4 LD |
2.3 |
24 |
| 2000 LF3 |
2025-Jun-17 |
18.9 LD |
14.5 |
169 |
| 2023 XU2 |
2025-Jun-18 |
11.1 LD |
15.6 |
32 |
| 2003 AY2 |
2025-Jun-22 |
14.2 LD |
15.9 |
386 |
| 2014 DH |
2025-Jun-28 |
17.1 LD |
12.1 |
17 |
Notes: LD means
"Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance
between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256
AU.
| |
Cosmic Rays in the Atmosphere |
SPACE WEATHER BALLOON DATA: Almost once a week, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus fly space weather balloons to the stratosphere over California. These balloons are equipped with sensors that detect secondary cosmic rays, a form of radiation from space that can penetrate all the way down to Earth's surface. Our monitoring program has been underway without interruption for 10 years, resulting in a unique dataset of in situ atmospheric measurements.
Latest results (Nov. 2024): Atmospheric radiation is decreasing in 2024. Our latest measurements in November registered a 10-year low:
What's going on? Ironically, the radiation drop is caused by increasing solar activity. Solar Cycle 25 has roared to life faster than forecasters expected. The sun's strengthening and increasingly tangled magnetic field repels cosmic rays from deep space. In addition, solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) sweep aside cosmic rays, causing sharp reductions called "Forbush Decreases." The two effects blend together to bring daily radiation levels down.
.Who cares? Cosmic rays are a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. They can alter the chemistry of the atmosphere, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. According to a study from the Harvard T.H. Chan school of public health, crews of aircraft have higher rates of cancer than the general population. The researchers listed cosmic rays, irregular sleep habits, and chemical contaminants as leading risk factors. A number of controversial studies (#1, #2, #3, #4) go even further, linking cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death.
Technical notes: The radiation sensors onboard our helium balloons detect X-rays and gamma-rays in the energy range 10 keV to 20 MeV. These energies span the range of medical X-ray machines and airport security scanners.
Data points in the graph labeled "Stratospheric Radiation" correspond to the peak of the Regener-Pfotzer maximum, which lies about 67,000 feet above central California. When cosmic rays crash into Earth's atmosphere, they produce a spray of secondary particles that is most intense at the entrance to the stratosphere. Physicists Eric Regener and Georg Pfotzer discovered the maximum using balloons in the 1930s and it is what we are measuring today.
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The
official U.S. government space weather bureau |
| |
The
first place to look for information about sundogs,
pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. |
| |
Researchers
call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO
is the most advanced solar observatory ever. |
| |
3D
views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial
Relations Observatory |
| |
Realtime
and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. |
| |
information about sunspots based on the latest NOAA/USAF Active Region Summary |
| |
current counts of failed and deployed Starlink satellites from Jonathan's Space Page. See also, all satellite statistics. |
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Authoritative predictions of space junk and satellite re-entries |
| |
from
the NOAA Space Environment Center |
| |
fun to read, but should be taken with a grain of salt! Forecasts looking ahead more than a few days are often wrong. |
| |
from the NOAA Space Environment Center |
| |
the
underlying science of space weather |
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Got a chipped or cracked windshield that prevents you from seeing space weather events while driving? Get windshield replacement from SR Windows & Glass with free mobile auto glass service anywhere in the Phoenix area. |
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