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MULTIPLE CMEs INCOMING: The sun has produced a number of minor CMEs this week. Emphasis on minor. Nevertheless, almost all of them have an Earth-directed component. A series of glancing blows on July 31st and Aug. 1st could produce a G1-class geomagnetic storm with high-latitude auroras. CME impact alerts: SMS Text.
METEOR ALERT--THREE STREAMS AT ONCE: Don't be surprised if you see a meteor tonight. Three streams of comet debris are intersecting Earth's orbit this week, with a peak in activity expected on July 30-31.
Stream #1 is the most interesting. It's the Alpha Capricornid stream. Parent comet: 169P/NEAT. Here is a typical "alpha Cap" observed by Brad Goldpaint in the Sierra backcountry near Independence, CA:
"The explosion was so bright it briefly illuminated the entire landscape," says Goldpaint. "You can see the persistent train in this time-lapse."
The Alpha Capricornids are famously rich in fireballs. But that's not why they're so interesting. This meteor shower is going to turn into a storm.
Researchers Peter Jenniskens (SETI Institute) and Jeremie Vaubaillon (Paris Observatory) have studied the alpha Cap debris stream. They believe it resulted from a major fragmentation event ~5000 years ago when as much as half of the original comet disintegrated. Since then, the debris has been drifting toward Earth. When it arrives in ~300 years, the Alpha Caps will transform from a 5-per-hour minor shower to a storm of thousands that return year after year.
Stream #2 is a mystery. No one knows where it comes from, although 96P/Machholz is a leading suspect. The Southern Delta Aquariids (SDAs) produce as many as 20 meteors per hour every July 30th. Most are faint and swift, radiating from the constellation Aquarius.
Stream #3 is the famous one--the Perseids. The best meteor shower of the year doesn't peak until August 12th, but we are entering the debris stream of parent comet Swift-Tuttle right now. Observers are already seeing a few every night.
The overlap of these three showers means any meteor you spot could belong to a different stream of cosmic debris. There's a ~98% illuminated moon that's up all night so fainter SDAs and Perseids will be washed out. This makes the fireball-rich alpha Caps the stars of this year's 3-stream display.
Observing tips: The hours just before sunrise are best. Find a dark location, let your eyes adapt for 20 minutes, and enjoy the show!
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Space Weather Newsletter
THE MILKY WAY IN A CRYSTAL BALL: Are you looking for a big gift? How about the entire Milky Way? The students of Earth to Sky Calculus have launched our own galaxy to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon. Here it is 113,517 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California:
You can have it for $119.95. The galaxy is laser etched inside a 60 mm crystal sphere. You can turn it in your hands, inspecting the spiral star system from any angle. The gift-boxed sphere comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
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 July 27, 2026, the network reported 4 fireballs.
(2 Southern delta Aquariids, 1 sporadic, 1 Perseid)
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 July 29, 2026 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) |
| 2026 KU3 |
2026-Jul-24 |
7.7 LD |
8.6 |
80 |
| 2026 OQ |
2026-Jul-25 |
11.4 LD |
5.7 |
15 |
| 2026 OC3 |
2026-Jul-25 |
2.9 LD |
14.7 |
14 |
| 2026 OD |
2026-Jul-25 |
4.6 LD |
9.5 |
75 |
| 2026 OD3 |
2026-Jul-25 |
0.6 LD |
13 |
10 |
| 2020 UR1 |
2026-Jul-25 |
18.8 LD |
7.6 |
28 |
| 2026 OB1 |
2026-Jul-25 |
2.3 LD |
22.4 |
22 |
| 2015 BF |
2026-Jul-26 |
17.3 LD |
12.5 |
17 |
| 2026 OA3 |
2026-Jul-27 |
4.9 LD |
5.2 |
23 |
| 2026 OL |
2026-Jul-27 |
15.9 LD |
15.9 |
87 |
| 2026 OX3 |
2026-Jul-27 |
0.7 LD |
9.5 |
14 |
| 2026 OR |
2026-Jul-28 |
10.4 LD |
10.4 |
16 |
| 2025 OW |
2026-Jul-30 |
16.1 LD |
20.1 |
70 |
| 2026 OS |
2026-Aug-01 |
3.1 LD |
5.8 |
9 |
| 2024 RM10 |
2026-Aug-05 |
13.6 LD |
7.5 |
24 |
| 2026 OE1 |
2026-Aug-07 |
7.6 LD |
10.2 |
51 |
| 173561 |
2026-Aug-09 |
13.1 LD |
16.2 |
756 |
| 2019 NY2 |
2026-Aug-10 |
6.6 LD |
9.6 |
195 |
| 2013 QC11 |
2026-Aug-13 |
14.5 LD |
19 |
172 |
| 2026 NY |
2026-Aug-13 |
12.3 LD |
8.2 |
103 |
| 2025 AL2 |
2026-Aug-16 |
2.2 LD |
12.4 |
100 |
| 2025 DU7 |
2026-Aug-19 |
8.7 LD |
2.9 |
5 |
| 2025 FY11 |
2026-Aug-20 |
19.2 LD |
3.5 |
6 |
| 2023 RL |
2026-Aug-25 |
12.9 LD |
4.8 |
7 |
| 523609 |
2026-Aug-27 |
18.5 LD |
22.7 |
441 |
| 2025 QM9 |
2026-Aug-28 |
15.2 LD |
11.1 |
20 |
| 221455 |
2026-Aug-28 |
9.4 LD |
19 |
443 |
| 2017 BP31 |
2026-Aug-28 |
11.2 LD |
20.5 |
382 |
| 2007 EK |
2026-Aug-30 |
10.9 LD |
9.1 |
5 |
| 2017 RH16 |
2026-Aug-31 |
8.7 LD |
12.1 |
21 |
| 2025 CL3 |
2026-Sep-01 |
9.6 LD |
13.5 |
30 |
| 2018 RD2 |
2026-Sep-01 |
19.5 LD |
9.6 |
14 |
| 2025 QV5 |
2026-Sep-02 |
14.2 LD |
7.3 |
12 |
| 2020 YA5 |
2026-Sep-06 |
19.5 LD |
10.4 |
47 |
| 2022 RK |
2026-Sep-06 |
13.7 LD |
8.6 |
24 |
| 2024 RV12 |
2026-Sep-09 |
5.6 LD |
12.1 |
22 |
| 2026 OH3 |
2026-Sep-11 |
12.4 LD |
20.2 |
198 |
| 2025 RQ2 |
2026-Sep-11 |
17.5 LD |
12.1 |
17 |
| 2010 FX9 |
2026-Sep-14 |
9.4 LD |
11.1 |
55 |
| 2025 SC |
2026-Sep-14 |
19.2 LD |
1.9 |
3 |
| 2024 RP12 |
2026-Sep-16 |
17.9 LD |
6.6 |
51 |
| 2026 NT2 |
2026-Sep-17 |
16.1 LD |
12.5 |
279 |
Notes: LD means
"Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance
between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256
AU.
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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.
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The
official U.S. government space weather bureau |
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The
first place to look for information about sundogs,
pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. |
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Researchers
call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO
is the most advanced solar observatory ever. |
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3D
views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial
Relations Observatory |
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Realtime
and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. |
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information about sunspots based on the latest NOAA/USAF Active Region Summary |
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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 |
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from
the NOAA Space Environment Center |
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fun to read, but should be taken with a grain of salt! Forecasts looking ahead more than a few days are often wrong. |
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from the NOAA Space Environment Center |
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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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