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AN OUTBURST OF NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS: Observers in Europe are reporting a huge display of noctilucent clouds on the morning of June 24th. Bright ripples of frosted meteor smoke were sighted as far south as Paris, with other notable sightings in the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland.
AURORAS AS TIME MACHINES: The fall of 1770 was not a good time for Capt. James Cook and the crew of the HMS Endeavour. One year earlier, they successfully observed the transit of Venus from Tahiti. Many aboard would rue leaving that paradise. After a violent stop in New Zealand, Endeavour struck Australia's Great Barrier Reef, tearing a massive hole in her hull and beaching the vessel for 7 weeks for repairs. By the time the ship was underway again, many of the crew were suffering from tropical diseases, malnutrition, and exhaustion.
That's when the geomagnetic storm struck.
Endeavour was sailing near Timor Island (latitude -9.9o) on Sept. 16, 1770, when red auroras appeared in the night sky. The expedition's naturalist Joseph A. Banks and his assistant Sydney Parkinson both noted the event in their logs, although they were unsure what they had seen. The idea that auroras could spread to within 10 degrees of the equator seemed outlandish.
Yet auroras they were. A 2017 study led by Hisashi Hayakawa established that Cook's auroras were part of an extreme 9-day display across China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. Some of the lights were "as bright as a full Moon."
Clearly, the "Cook Event" was a big deal. But how big? Researchers have long wondered. Magnetometers were only invented in the 19th century, so there are no scientific measurements of geomagnetic activity before then. Rating old storms has been a matter of guesswork.
Right: Joseph Banks' 1770 aurora log entry.
A study published in the April 2025 edition of Space Weather may have solved this problem by turning auroras into time machines.
In their paper, Jeffrey Love of the US Geological Survey and colleagues analyzed 54 geomagnetic storms from 1859 to 2005, using both magnetometer data and overhead aurora sightings. By correlating the two, they developed a statistical model that lets researchers estimate the strength of historical storms based on eyewitness accounts—no magnetometer required.
One of the key findings of their study is that Cook's storm was (within the margin of error) the same size as the famous Carrington Event of 1859. They also found a very big storm just a few days before the Carrington Event. On August 28, 1859, there were no magnetometer data available because it was Sunday, a day off for observatory staff. However, auroras were reported overhead in Havana, Cuba. Love's model pegged that storm at ~two-thirds of the Carrington Event, making it one of the biggest geomagnetic storms on record.
The good news for Cook and his crew: They weren't using modern technology like radio or GPS, which might have failed. Cook had no trouble navigating the magnetic storm. If it happened again today, we might not be so lucky.
Read the original research here.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
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SILVER SAPPHIRE SPACE PENDANT: It has just returned from the edge of space: The Silver Sapphire Space Pendant. Using a cosmic ray research balloon, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere on June 19, 2025:
You can have it for $219.95. Engraved with the words "I love you always and forever", this sterling silver pendant has a heart-shaped sapphire in the middle surrouunded by a ring of glittering 5A cubic zirconia nuggets. It is a visually striking necklace perfect for anniversaries and romantic birthdays.
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
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Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery
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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 Jun 23, 2025, the network reported 7 fireballs.
(7 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 June 24, 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) |
| 2023 XU2 |
2025-Jun-18 |
11.1 LD |
15.6 |
32 |
| 2025 MB |
2025-Jun-18 |
0.4 LD |
7.6 |
4 |
| 2025 MA |
2025-Jun-18 |
2.6 LD |
9.2 |
19 |
| 2025 KT6 |
2025-Jun-19 |
7 LD |
9.2 |
70 |
| 2025 MK |
2025-Jun-21 |
14.6 LD |
12.3 |
27 |
| 2025 MR |
2025-Jun-21 |
5 LD |
10.8 |
42 |
| 2025 LC1 |
2025-Jun-21 |
10.8 LD |
8 |
33 |
| 2025 MY1 |
2025-Jun-22 |
13.1 LD |
12.9 |
88 |
| 2025 MZ |
2025-Jun-22 |
2.2 LD |
14 |
25 |
| 2003 AY2 |
2025-Jun-22 |
14.2 LD |
15.9 |
386 |
| 2025 MX1 |
2025-Jun-22 |
1.5 LD |
6.6 |
6 |
| 2025 MP |
2025-Jun-23 |
8 LD |
14.6 |
37 |
| 2025 LT |
2025-Jun-23 |
3.4 LD |
14.5 |
44 |
| 2025 MQ1 |
2025-Jun-23 |
1.5 LD |
13.3 |
11 |
| 2025 ML2 |
2025-Jun-23 |
4.2 LD |
7.1 |
28 |
| 2025 MB1 |
2025-Jun-24 |
11.2 LD |
12 |
43 |
| 2025 MS1 |
2025-Jun-24 |
0.8 LD |
6.3 |
4 |
| 2025 MP1 |
2025-Jun-25 |
2.7 LD |
5.4 |
17 |
| 2025 MK2 |
2025-Jun-26 |
7.1 LD |
4.7 |
13 |
| 2025 MT1 |
2025-Jun-27 |
15.5 LD |
2.4 |
20 |
| 2014 DH |
2025-Jun-28 |
17.1 LD |
12.1 |
17 |
| 2025 MZ1 |
2025-Jun-28 |
3.4 LD |
4.6 |
15 |
| 2025 ML |
2025-Jun-28 |
6.7 LD |
11.7 |
26 |
| 2025 MM |
2025-Jul-01 |
5.4 LD |
10.7 |
39 |
| 2025 MO |
2025-Jul-07 |
6.7 LD |
4.6 |
9 |
| 2019 JM |
2025-Jul-09 |
16.6 LD |
6.9 |
14 |
| 2019 NW5 |
2025-Jul-09 |
15.2 LD |
16.5 |
65 |
| 2005 VO5 |
2025-Jul-11 |
15.9 LD |
14.4 |
382 |
| 2025 MD1 |
2025-Jul-11 |
18 LD |
8.9 |
46 |
| 2025 MG1 |
2025-Jul-12 |
13.2 LD |
7.2 |
43 |
| 2022 YS5 |
2025-Jul-17 |
17.4 LD |
6.1 |
38 |
| 2018 BY6 |
2025-Jul-19 |
13.7 LD |
7.4 |
69 |
| 2019 CO1 |
2025-Aug-08 |
17.8 LD |
10.5 |
65 |
| 2022 QB1 |
2025-Aug-10 |
8.9 LD |
3.9 |
6 |
| 2021 PJ1 |
2025-Aug-15 |
4.4 LD |
9.3 |
24 |
| 2025 CO3 |
2025-Aug-16 |
19.8 LD |
8.4 |
90 |
| 1997 QK1 |
2025-Aug-20 |
7.9 LD |
9.8 |
322 |
| 2022 QD3 |
2025-Aug-21 |
15 LD |
6.9 |
35 |
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.
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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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