This is an AI Free Zone: AI writing is everywhere -- except here. Spaceweather.com is written 100% by Dr. Tony Phillips, a carbon-based lifeform with 30 yrs of forecasting experience. If you find a mistake, rest assured it was made by a real human being.
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SEE THE BLUEBIRD SATELLITES: The world's largest commercial satellite antennas are about to fly over the USA. They're called "BlueBirds." AST SpaceMobile launched them to act as cell phone towers in space. This weekend, the satellites could be as bright as 1st magnitude stars. Sign up for our Backyard Astronomy Alert Service. Five minutes before the Bluebirds appear, your phone will buzz with a text message: "Go outside now and look up!"
COSMIC RAYS LINKED TO FLIGHT ATTENDANT CANCER: This summer, French courts decided an issue that scientists have struggled with for years: Aviation radiation is real, and it increases the risk of cancer in flight crews.
Sophie Lainault, 59, flew for Air France for 30 years, logging more than 12,600 hours in the air. In July, judges in Bayonne recognized her cancer as an occupational disease. A new Harvard study agrees, concluding that flight crews die of radiation-related cancers even more often than nuclear workers.
Writing in the Aug. 17th issue of JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers led by Vishal Patel of Brigham and Women's Hospital examined nearly 13 million US death certificates from 2020 to 2024. Out of 503 professions, flight attendants ranked #1 for deaths from radiation-related cancers, while pilots ranked #2.
The reason is galactic cosmic rays. High-energy particles from supernova explosions and other violent events in the cosmos pepper Earth's atmosphere from all directions. This radiation percolates all the way down to aviation altitudes. Even a single cross-country flight can deliver as much radiation as five dental X-rays. International flights (especially over the poles) are worse.
Pilots and flight attendants accumulate 3 to 6 millisieverts per year, according to the CDC. This is the largest occupational dose of any workforce in the United States, and roughly ten times what a typical frequent flyer gets.
The study also looked at aircraft mechanics and assemblers--people who spend their careers around airplanes but rarely leave the ground. They were middle of the pack, with fewer radiation-related cancers than flight crews.
For years the link between aviation radiation and cancer was complicated by two other potential carcinogens: Working the graveyard shift and breathing secondhand smoke. Both were thought to cause cancer in flight crews. The new study shows that cosmic rays do play a role, and may be the biggest risk of all.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Space Weather Newsletter
COSMIC CAT WINE STOPPER: You can't buy this on Amazon. Only the Earth to Sky Store has the Cosmic Cat Wine Stopper. On Dec. 17, 2025, this far-out stopper flew to the stratosphere onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $99.95. The wooden cat is hand carved and painted, and it has an airtight rubber seal that securely plugs bottles of wine or any other beverage. With your stopper, you'll receive a gift card showing the cat in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere (and back again).
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 September 9, 2026, the network reported 15 fireballs.
(15 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 September 11, 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 RN1 |
2026-Sep-06 |
4.8 LD |
9.7 |
13 |
| 2026 RA1 |
2026-Sep-06 |
2.1 LD |
8.1 |
10 |
| 2022 RK |
2026-Sep-06 |
13.7 LD |
8.6 |
24 |
| 2026 RD |
2026-Sep-06 |
2.7 LD |
5.9 |
7 |
| 2026 RS2 |
2026-Sep-06 |
0.9 LD |
7.4 |
4 |
| 2026 RE1 |
2026-Sep-07 |
10.6 LD |
12.1 |
25 |
| 2026 RO1 |
2026-Sep-07 |
3.5 LD |
22.7 |
17 |
| 2026 RR1 |
2026-Sep-08 |
1.4 LD |
13.6 |
9 |
| 2026 RD4 |
2026-Sep-08 |
11.6 LD |
10.8 |
20 |
| 2024 RV12 |
2026-Sep-08 |
4 LD |
11.9 |
22 |
| 2026 RN2 |
2026-Sep-08 |
0.6 LD |
12.1 |
5 |
| 2026 RT1 |
2026-Sep-08 |
18.9 LD |
7.5 |
28 |
| 2026 RB4 |
2026-Sep-09 |
4.9 LD |
9.9 |
20 |
| 2026 RY1 |
2026-Sep-09 |
1.5 LD |
4.1 |
2 |
| 2026 RP2 |
2026-Sep-10 |
14 LD |
5.6 |
14 |
| 2026 RW3 |
2026-Sep-10 |
1.1 LD |
9.5 |
11 |
| 2009 SK |
2026-Sep-10 |
18.5 LD |
8.1 |
34 |
| 2026 RV1 |
2026-Sep-10 |
1.8 LD |
7.7 |
8 |
| 2026 OH3 |
2026-Sep-11 |
12.4 LD |
20.2 |
190 |
| 2026 RG4 |
2026-Sep-11 |
3.4 LD |
3 |
13 |
| 2026 RJ |
2026-Sep-11 |
4.4 LD |
6.9 |
22 |
| 2026 RD1 |
2026-Sep-11 |
5.5 LD |
6.9 |
17 |
| 2025 RQ2 |
2026-Sep-11 |
17.5 LD |
12.1 |
17 |
| 2026 RG2 |
2026-Sep-13 |
2.1 LD |
5.4 |
15 |
| 2026 RF2 |
2026-Sep-13 |
9.2 LD |
10.3 |
10 |
| 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-15 |
18.5 LD |
6.6 |
51 |
| 2026 RA4 |
2026-Sep-16 |
3.4 LD |
11.6 |
20 |
| 2026 NT2 |
2026-Sep-17 |
16.1 LD |
12.5 |
309 |
| 2026 RN4 |
2026-Sep-17 |
16.4 LD |
9.1 |
19 |
| 2026 RH3 |
2026-Sep-19 |
17.2 LD |
11.7 |
28 |
| 2026 RP1 |
2026-Sep-20 |
20.1 LD |
17.3 |
41 |
| 2026 RZ1 |
2026-Sep-22 |
10.4 LD |
9.1 |
37 |
| 2026 RS |
2026-Sep-30 |
11.2 LD |
6 |
24 |
| 2018 SP2 |
2026-Sep-30 |
5 LD |
14.3 |
39 |
| 2024 SH7 |
2026-Oct-04 |
10.5 LD |
10.8 |
12 |
| 2024 TD16 |
2026-Oct-07 |
14.2 LD |
11.8 |
17 |
| 2015 TS238 |
2026-Oct-08 |
4.7 LD |
15.8 |
30 |
| 2019 SD8 |
2026-Oct-10 |
18.7 LD |
9.5 |
12 |
| 2022 UP6 |
2026-Oct-15 |
2.6 LD |
9 |
8 |
| 2000 SZ162 |
2026-Oct-16 |
19.9 LD |
5.7 |
12 |
| 2020 FN3 |
2026-Oct-20 |
12.4 LD |
5.8 |
45 |
| 2017 UX7 |
2026-Oct-22 |
17 LD |
10.3 |
27 |
| 2018 GS1 |
2026-Oct-28 |
11.1 LD |
9.3 |
108 |
| 2022 UV21 |
2026-Oct-29 |
14.8 LD |
9.6 |
13 |
| 2025 UK9 |
2026-Oct-31 |
0.8 LD |
7.8 |
4 |
| 524522 |
2026-Nov-02 |
15.7 LD |
8.7 |
277 |
| 2021 VC4 |
2026-Nov-03 |
6 LD |
11.2 |
15 |
| 2017 WJ2 |
2026-Nov-05 |
15.6 LD |
11.8 |
118 |
| 2016 VZ1 |
2026-Nov-05 |
20 LD |
13.5 |
21 |
| 2001 KF54 |
2026-Nov-06 |
18.9 LD |
16.4 |
391 |
| 2025 UF5 |
2026-Nov-09 |
18.9 LD |
1.9 |
10 |
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 |
| |
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. |
| |
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 |
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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 |
| |
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. |
| |
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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