Never miss another geomagnetic storm. Sign up for Space Weather Alerts and you'll receive a text message when magnetic storms erupt. Aurora tour guides and professional astronomers use this service. You can, too! | | |
CHANCE OF FLARES TODAY: NOAA forecasters say there is a 30% chance of M-class solar flares today, April 9th. Almost certainly, the source would be sunspot AR3272, which has an unstable 'beta-gamma' magnetic field. Any explosions will be geoeffective as the sunspot is turning to face Earth. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
FARSIDE SUNSPOT: You might suppose that the farside of the sun is hidden from view. However, researchers using a technique called "helioseismology" can make crude maps of the sun's hidden hemisphere. Their latest map reveals a farside sunspot:
The black blob is a sunspot. It is the likely source of several jets and plumes of hot plasma flying over the sun's southeastern limb during the past 24 hours. The sunspot will turn to face Earth this week. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
JUPITER SPACECRAFT PHOTO-OP: The European Space Agency is about to launch a very important spacecraft: The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer--"Juice" for short. Its mission is to probe Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, moons with oceans larger than those of Earth and possible habitats for extraterrestrial life. Liftoff is scheduled for April 13th (12:15 UT) from French Guiana.
"It may be possible for experienced observers to photograph Juice as it recedes on the night after launch," says John H. Rogers, the Jupiter Section Director of the British Astronomical Association. "The solar panels should be deployed by 100 minutes after launch, with full deployment over the next 17 days. You can obtain an ephemeris from JPL-Horizons. Type 'Juice' in for the target body."
"The best views will be from the Far East and Australia, from about 14:00 UT onwards when solar panels are deployed," sys Rogers. "The brightness will then diminish as the distance from Earth increases; by the time it is visible from western Europe, approaching 150,000 km out, one experienced observer suggests that it might be around mag.13 or 14."
Juice will take 8 years to reach Jupiter. After a series of visits to Callisto and Europa, Juice will enter into a permanent orbit around Ganymede in 2034--the first time a spacecraft has ever held an orbit around a moon other than our own. Bigger than the planet Mercury, Ganymede is also the only moon in the solar system with its own magnetic field, providing a possible protective coccoon for life.
If you see Juice leaving Earth, please submit your photos here.
THE VERNAL EQUINOX PEARL: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider the Vernal Equinox Pearl, launched to the edge of space onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray balloon. Here it is, floating 111,202 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California:
You can have it for $179.95. The 10mm cultured white pearl, surrounded by a crystalline splash of spring-green cubic zirconia, spent more than 2 hours in the stratosphere as sensors in the payload measured cosmic rays.
Each purchase comes with a greeting card showing the pearl 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 Apr 09 2023, the network reported 2 fireballs.
(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 9, 2023 there were 2325 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
| 2023 FA7 | 2023-Apr-04 | 5.9 LD | 24 | 31 |
| 2023 GE | 2023-Apr-05 | 2.4 LD | 11 | 11 |
| 2023 FQ7 | 2023-Apr-05 | 15 LD | 8.4 | 20 |
| 2023 FZ3 | 2023-Apr-06 | 11 LD | 18.8 | 47 |
| 2018 FD | 2023-Apr-06 | 16.2 LD | 7.8 | 47 |
| 2023 FE4 | 2023-Apr-06 | 9.6 LD | 2.6 | 32 |
| 2023 FM | 2023-Apr-06 | 7.8 LD | 15.8 | 149 |
| 2020 FL4 | 2023-Apr-06 | 14.1 LD | 5 | 14 |
| 2023 GJ | 2023-Apr-07 | 1.8 LD | 12.1 | 16 |
| 2023 FX13 | 2023-Apr-09 | 8.2 LD | 13.3 | 27 |
| 2023 FY13 | 2023-Apr-09 | 18.5 LD | 11.9 | 55 |
| 2023 FP5 | 2023-Apr-09 | 10.7 LD | 14.1 | 40 |
| 2023 FC4 | 2023-Apr-09 | 19.6 LD | 10.1 | 57 |
| 2023 FG5 | 2023-Apr-10 | 9.5 LD | 9.4 | 25 |
| 2023 FT1 | 2023-Apr-10 | 19.5 LD | 6.6 | 34 |
| 2023 GG | 2023-Apr-11 | 4 LD | 10.6 | 79 |
| 2023 FE5 | 2023-Apr-11 | 11.6 LD | 5.8 | 28 |
| 2023 FS10 | 2023-Apr-12 | 3.2 LD | 7.6 | 21 |
| 2019 GK21 | 2023-Apr-13 | 15.2 LD | 8.1 | 27 |
| 2022 YK9 | 2023-Apr-13 | 19.9 LD | 9.9 | 175 |
| 436774 | 2023-Apr-13 | 12.5 LD | 17.6 | 719 |
| 2023 FN13 | 2023-Apr-15 | 2.6 LD | 4.5 | 12 |
| 2020 BV14 | 2023-Apr-16 | 17.8 LD | 8.2 | 81 |
| 2006 HV5 | 2023-Apr-26 | 6.3 LD | 17.4 | 400 |
| 2021 JF2 | 2023-Apr-28 | 16.6 LD | 8 | 19 |
| 2018 VS6 | 2023-May-01 | 5.2 LD | 11.6 | 14 |
| 2011 KY15 | 2023-May-18 | 19.9 LD | 14.3 | 54 |
| 2021 JK7 | 2023-May-22 | 16.7 LD | 22.9 | 48 |
| 2019 UJ3 | 2023-May-23 | 15.5 LD | 9.8 | 21 |
| 2023 CL3 | 2023-May-24 | 18.9 LD | 7.3 | 121 |
| 2021 KO2 | 2023-May-29 | 15.8 LD | 13.9 | 9 |
| 2012 KP24 | 2023-May-31 | 10.3 LD | 12.4 | 19 |
| 2018 KR | 2023-Jun-07 | 6.5 LD | 4.9 | 19 |
| 2017 UJ2 | 2023-Jun-07 | 5.3 LD | 5.6 | 2 |
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 7 years, resulting in a unique dataset of in situ atmospheric measurements.
Latest results (July 2022): Atmospheric radiation is decreasing in 2022. Our latest measurements in July 2022 registered a 6-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.
| | 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 |
| | 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 |
 | Getting YouTube comments is essential if you want to beat the algorithm! That’s why you need to buy YouTube comments from RealSocialz.com because they offer real USA comments you can customize. |
| BestCSGOGambling is the best site for everything related to CSGO gambling on the web |
| To find reviews of new online casino sites in the UK try The Casino DB where there are hundreds of online casino reviews complete with bonuses and ratings. Alternatively, Online-Casinos.xyz is another massive directory of online casinos listing sites for the UK and Worldwide. Casinos that offer Rupees for bonuses are very generous to Indian players. Find the best online casinos in India at AllCasinos.in Looking for a new online casino? Try Casimpo the new site dedicated to making online casino simple, or check out the new Avenger Slots Casino and Ace Online Casino with over 500 online slots and casino games. |
| When looking for casinos to play online when the weather is bad, you can try casino online trucchi for Italian games. If you are not from Finland you can try the Swedish page Svenska casino online to find suitable games, check out svenskacasinoonline.net. Always check your local laws before playing with real money. |
| Looking for sports betting companies not registered on GamStop? CasinoGap has presented a list of sites not on GamStop available for UK players. Check and bet online! Would you like to bet at sites not using GamStop? Look at a list of NonStopCasino sites for online betting that aren't on GamStop. Top-rated bookmakers ever! |
| | These links help Spaceweather.com stay online. Thank you to our supporters! |
| | | | | | |
