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A GLANCING-BLOW CME IS COMING: NOAA forecasters say that a CME might hit Earth's magnetic field on April 14th. The glancing blow could trigger a minor G1-class geomagnetic storm with photographic auroras at high latitudes. This CME was hurled into space by a beautiful eruption in the sun's northern hemisphere on April 11th. Aurora alerts: SMS Text
SOLAR ECLIPSE COMET IN HDR: A new picture of Monday's doomed eclipse comet has emerged. Petr Horálek took it from the path of totality in Durango, Mexico:
"I got lucky with this shot of comet SOHO-5008, which was discovered on April 8th just before the eclipse," says Horálek. "The image is the result of HDR shooting with exposures ranging from 1/4000s to 2s. During the truly windy 3 minutes and 25 seconds of totality I managed to capture a total of 83 usable images."
Well done, Petr! More amazing photos of totality may be found in our Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery. Take a look.
Realtime Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery
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VOLCANIC VORTEX RINGS: Mount Etna in Italy is doing domething rare and beautiful. "It is blowing smoke rings," reports Marcella Giulia Pace, who photographed the phenomenon on April 6th:
"A continuous jet of rings is dancing around the craters until they dissolve into the sky--a phenomenon of extreme rarity," she says.
Mount Etna has produced vortices before, but nothing like this. In April 2024 Etna "has broken all previous records," according to Boris Behncke of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology of Catania. Tourists are flocking to the mountain to witness the display.
The rapid-fire puffs are coming from a newly-opened vent, which is blowing rings of volcanic gas similar to how dolphins blow bubble rings in water.
Volcanic vortices and the crescent Moon over Mount Etna. Credit: Marcella Giulia Pace
The gas rings are composed of 80 percent water vapor, with the remaining 20 percent mostly made of sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. It is the water vapor that gives the rings their white hue, making them resemble Gandalf-like smoke rings.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
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AMBER DRAGONFLY SPACE PENDANT: This dragonfly has touched space. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon, 109,228 feet above California's Sierra Nevada:
You can have it for $179.95. Made of genuine Baltic Amber with a sterling silver exoskeleton, the pendant measures 1 1/4 inch and comes with a matching 18-inch sterling silver chain. The wings of the dragonfly include four pieces of natural amber colored Cognac, Olive Green and Honey Yellow.
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 Comet 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 Apr 12, 2024, the network reported 6 fireballs.
(6 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 12, 2024 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
| 2014 GF1 | 2024-Apr-07 | 20.1 LD | 7.8 | 22 |
| 2024 FG | 2024-Apr-07 | 12.4 LD | 9.8 | 55 |
| 2024 GJ1 | 2024-Apr-07 | 13.7 LD | 11.2 | 26 |
| 2024 GE2 | 2024-Apr-07 | 4.5 LD | 4.7 | 9 |
| 2024 FH2 | 2024-Apr-07 | 16 LD | 19.7 | 119 |
| 2024 GB | 2024-Apr-07 | 13.7 LD | 9 | 51 |
| 2024 GS3 | 2024-Apr-08 | 10.3 LD | 10.3 | 32 |
| 2024 ED6 | 2024-Apr-08 | 5.5 LD | 6.7 | 52 |
| 2024 GB4 | 2024-Apr-08 | 4.2 LD | 8.2 | 25 |
| 2024 GQ | 2024-Apr-08 | 5.6 LD | 9.9 | 13 |
| 2005 FG | 2024-Apr-08 | 18.4 LD | 5.5 | 57 |
| 2020 BP13 | 2024-Apr-09 | 15.2 LD | 6.8 | 209 |
| 2024 GV2 | 2024-Apr-09 | 0.3 LD | 4.7 | 5 |
| 2024 GQ1 | 2024-Apr-09 | 1.4 LD | 13.4 | 7 |
| 2024 GX3 | 2024-Apr-10 | 0.2 LD | 10.2 | 4 |
| 2024 FT2 | 2024-Apr-10 | 11.8 LD | 11.9 | 33 |
| 2024 GJ2 | 2024-Apr-11 | 0 LD | 14.4 | 3 |
| 2024 GU3 | 2024-Apr-11 | 9.6 LD | 7.7 | 26 |
| 2024 GA2 | 2024-Apr-12 | 14.4 LD | 13.9 | 31 |
| 2021 RJ19 | 2024-Apr-12 | 19.6 LD | 11.4 | 25 |
| 2024 FX3 | 2024-Apr-12 | 9.5 LD | 11.7 | 28 |
| 2021 GQ5 | 2024-Apr-13 | 8.8 LD | 7.5 | 7 |
| 2024 GT2 | 2024-Apr-13 | 2.3 LD | 6.8 | 12 |
| 2024 GV3 | 2024-Apr-13 | 1.3 LD | 10.9 | 7 |
| 2024 FP3 | 2024-Apr-13 | 2.7 LD | 6.3 | 22 |
| 2024 GE3 | 2024-Apr-13 | 10 LD | 7.4 | 22 |
| 2024 GA1 | 2024-Apr-14 | 9.5 LD | 18.1 | 53 |
| 2024 GB3 | 2024-Apr-14 | 19.6 LD | 17.1 | 46 |
| 2023 FN13 | 2024-Apr-14 | 3.3 LD | 4.9 | 13 |
| 2022 UO1 | 2024-Apr-14 | 16.7 LD | 14 | 33 |
| 2024 GW | 2024-Apr-15 | 11.2 LD | 8.7 | 26 |
| 2024 GL2 | 2024-Apr-15 | 10.9 LD | 8.6 | 13 |
| 2024 GO1 | 2024-Apr-15 | 8.5 LD | 9.1 | 12 |
| 517681 | 2024-Apr-15 | 18.4 LD | 14.2 | 589 |
| 439437 | 2024-Apr-15 | 8.5 LD | 16.5 | 609 |
| 2024 FJ4 | 2024-Apr-15 | 14.3 LD | 9.5 | 32 |
| 2024 GN2 | 2024-Apr-16 | 1.2 LD | 18.5 | 18 |
| 2024 GF3 | 2024-Apr-16 | 13.9 LD | 12.9 | 27 |
| 2024 GM1 | 2024-Apr-17 | 3.5 LD | 10.4 | 27 |
| 2024 FF4 | 2024-Apr-18 | 16.1 LD | 13 | 49 |
| 2023 HU3 | 2024-Apr-18 | 15.9 LD | 19.1 | 35 |
| 2024 FU4 | 2024-Apr-19 | 19.2 LD | 7.5 | 30 |
| 2021 JW2 | 2024-Apr-19 | 1.6 LD | 5.1 | 11 |
| 2017 SA20 | 2024-Apr-19 | 3.8 LD | 6.2 | 8 |
| 2024 FT4 | 2024-Apr-19 | 19.3 LD | 5.2 | 21 |
| 2024 GM | 2024-Apr-21 | 18.7 LD | 10.8 | 86 |
| 2024 GW3 | 2024-Apr-21 | 19.5 LD | 13.3 | 39 |
| 2021 VH2 | 2024-Apr-25 | 9.3 LD | 2.7 | 6 |
| 2024 FG5 | 2024-Apr-26 | 12.5 LD | 9.1 | 37 |
| 2024 GR1 | 2024-Apr-27 | 19.7 LD | 7.2 | 53 |
| 2021 GD3 | 2024-Apr-30 | 11.4 LD | 3.5 | 14 |
| 2022 TN1 | 2024-Apr-30 | 18.6 LD | 17.7 | 295 |
| 2022 AA5 | 2024-May-02 | 12 LD | 8.9 | 67 |
| 2024 FR5 | 2024-May-05 | 4.9 LD | 5.2 | 51 |
| 2021 JG9 | 2024-May-10 | 16.9 LD | 16.1 | 32 |
| 2016 FT14 | 2024-May-10 | 19.9 LD | 5.9 | 39 |
| 2015 KJ19 | 2024-May-14 | 15.8 LD | 23.1 | 112 |
| 2014 WF6 | 2024-May-14 | 7.2 LD | 18.9 | 47 |
| 2021 JN10 | 2024-May-14 | 17.5 LD | 13.2 | 33 |
| 2021 JJ | 2024-May-15 | 17.2 LD | 5.8 | 28 |
| 2022 WN2 | 2024-May-17 | 13.7 LD | 5.5 | 6 |
| 2019 VB5 | 2024-May-21 | 7.8 LD | 6.3 | 2 |
| 2008 LD | 2024-May-28 | 7.7 LD | 4.5 | 6 |
| 2021 LV | 2024-May-29 | 12 LD | 15.5 | 9 |
| 1998 KY26 | 2024-Jun-01 | 12 LD | 5.3 | 27 |
| 2016 JC6 | 2024-Jun-01 | 19.9 LD | 7.1 | 188 |
| 2008 YN2 | 2024-Jun-05 | 10.5 LD | 7.7 | 20 |
| 2021 LW3 | 2024-Jun-06 | 9.7 LD | 9.8 | 86 |
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. See also, all satellite statistics. |
| | 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 |
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