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CHINA'S SPACE STATION IS FLYING OVER THE USA: This is a great week to see China's Tiangong space station. It is making a series of bright nighttime flybys over the USA--easy to see even from urban areas. All you need to know is when to look. Sign up for our new Backyard Astronomy Alert Service to receive realtime Tiangong flyby alerts. The space station is inhabited by three taikonauts (Chinese astronauts) and sometimes glows with a red hue akin to Mars. Tonight there will be a very good flyby directly over Manhattan, and other US cities will follow in the nights ahead: photo gallery.

A SPINNING SUNSPOT: Planets spin. Moons spin. Stars spin. Is it any surprise that sunspots also spin? Maximilian-Vlad Teodorico photographed the phenomenon last week (July 7-11) when sunspot AR4482 pinwheeled across the solar disk:

"Yes, sunspots rotate," says Teodorescu. "Note the different sections rotate differently. The upper part rotates anticlockwise quite fast, while the lower part has different motions inside it."

Astronomers have reported these motions since 1910. One large survey in 2008 identified 186 spinning sunspots. Most turned only a few degrees per hour. AR4482 appears to be a rapid rotator, with parts of the sunspot completing a full turn in only a few days.

Sunspot spin is a sign of tension beneath the surface of the sun. Imagine twisting a rubber band until it becomes very tight. Let go! The rubber band explosively unwinds, releasing its tension. Magnetic fields underneath AR4482 were twisting like that rubber band, storing potential energy for a strong solar flare.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
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STERLING SILVER RAINBOW DRAGONFLY: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider the Rainbow Dragonfly Space Pendant. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:

You can have it for $179.95. Made of stained glass with a sterling silver exoskeleton, the pendant has a wingspan of 1.1-inches and comes with a matching 18-inch sterling silver chain.

The students are selling space pendants to pay the helium bill for their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its trip to the stratosphere and back again.

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

Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
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On July 13, 2026, the network reported 8 fireballs.
(8 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]

Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid

Date(UT)

Miss Distance

Velocity (km/s)

Diameter (m)

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 sharply 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.

Essential web links

NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center

The official U.S. government space weather bureau

Atmospheric Optics

The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena.

Solar Dynamics Observatory

Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever.

STEREO

3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory

Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.

SolarMonitor.org

information about sunspots based on the latest NOAA/USAF Active Region Summary

Starlink Satellite Statistics

current counts of failed and deployed Starlink satellites from Jonathan's Space Page. See also, all satellite statistics.

The Aerospace Corporation

Authoritative predictions of space junk and satellite re-entries

Daily Sunspot Summaries

from the NOAA Space Environment Center

NOAA 27-Day Space Weather Forecasts

fun to read, but should be taken with a grain of salt! Forecasts looking ahead more than a few days are often wrong.

Aurora 30 min forecast

from the NOAA Space Environment Center

Live Aurora Webcam

from Lights over Lapland

Heliophysics

the underlying science of space weather

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