Text created by ChatGPT and other Large Language Models is spreading rapidly across the Internet. It's well-written, artificial, frequently inaccurate. If you find a mistake on Spaceweather.com, rest assured it was made by a real human being. This is an AI Free Zone! | | |
GEOMAGNETIC STORM UNDERWAY: A minor G1-class geomagnetic storm is underway on May 21st as Earth feels the effect of another probable near-miss CME. South-pointing magnetic fields in the CME's wake are opening a crack in Earth's magnetosphere, allowing solar wind to enter. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
SUPERNOVA IN THE PINWHEEL GALAXY: Astronomers are scrambling to photograph a new supernova in the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101). "This is best supernova in a decade," says Eliot Herman of Tucson, Arizona. "I am pleased I caught it on the rise less than a day after its discovery." The red arrow marks the brightening explosion:

This is a Type II supernova, caused by the core collapse of a massive star. Amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki discovered it on May 19th.
"While we be sure, the best estimate is it'll peak around magnitude +10 in the next two days or so," says Yvette Cendes, an astronomer at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics. If so, it would rival or outshine the galaxy's core.
The supernova's rapid brightening means that a shock wave has broken out of the dying star. How much "stuff" it hits will determine the supernova's light curve. At the moment, astronomers do not know much about the star's environment, so anything is possible.
Located in the constellation Ursa Major (finder chart), the Pinwheel Galaxy is an popular target for amateur astronomers. Many readers know how it looks and will immediately notice the "extra star" in one of its spiral arms.
"If amateurs have any data from the last few days, particularly right before discovery, it might actually prove useful for science and end up in some scientific papers!" says Cendes. "Adding the data to the AAVSO is probably the best way to do this."
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
SURPRISE GEOMAGNETIC STORM: Surprising forecasters, a crack opened in Earth's magnetic field on May 19th. Solar wind poured through the gap, sparking a G2-class geomagnetic storm. Naked-eye auroras were visible across many northern-tier US states while photographic auroras descended as far south as Missouri (latitude +40.2N):

"The night started off with a surprise passage of Starlink satellites whose 21 or so members flared to incredibly bright for a few seconds," says photographer Dan Bush of Albany, Missouri. "Then the red auroras came and were visible to my camera for about an hour or so."
This event was probably caused by a near-miss CME--one of many that left the sun last week on trajectories slightly off the sun-Earth line. South-pointing magnetic fields in the CME's wake washed over Earth. Those south-pointing fields partially cancelled Earth's north-pointing magnetic field, lowering our defenses against the solar wind.
Did you miss the storm? Subscribers to our Space Weather Alert Service received instant text messages when the storm began, giving them time to dash out and catch the auroras. PRO subscribers also received early-warning "BsubZ alerts," which told them that a crack was opening in Earth's magnetic field.
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
"ALWAYS AND FOREVER" SPACE PENDANT: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider the Always and Forever Space Pendent. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:

You can have it for $199.95. Engraved with the words "I love you always and forever", this 18K gold-plated pendant has a heart-shaped citrine crystal in the middle surrounded by a ring of glittering cubic zirconia nuggets.
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 Space Weather 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 May 19, 2023, the network reported 10 fireballs.
(10 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 May 21, 2023 there were 2335 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
2023 JO1 | 2023-May-16 | 7.8 LD | 8.3 | 15 |
2023 JD2 | 2023-May-16 | 14.7 LD | 13 | 64 |
2023 JS1 | 2023-May-17 | 5.7 LD | 8 | 12 |
2023 JC3 | 2023-May-17 | 12.8 LD | 13.4 | 20 |
2023 JT2 | 2023-May-17 | 6.9 LD | 4.5 | 10 |
2023 KO | 2023-May-17 | 5.4 LD | 9.8 | 14 |
2023 KT | 2023-May-17 | 0.4 LD | 8.8 | 8 |
2023 JT4 | 2023-May-18 | 5.1 LD | 3.2 | 7 |
2023 JW3 | 2023-May-18 | 8.4 LD | 8.1 | 27 |
2011 KY15 | 2023-May-18 | 19.9 LD | 14.3 | 54 |
2023 JS4 | 2023-May-18 | 16.2 LD | 13.8 | 38 |
2023 KV | 2023-May-19 | 6.7 LD | 13.3 | 22 |
2023 JL2 | 2023-May-20 | 15.6 LD | 9.4 | 42 |
2023 HG11 | 2023-May-20 | 11.8 LD | 0.4 | 7 |
2023 JK | 2023-May-21 | 4.3 LD | 9.3 | 38 |
2023 JD4 | 2023-May-21 | 8.1 LD | 10.3 | 37 |
2021 JK7 | 2023-May-22 | 16.7 LD | 22.9 | 48 |
2023 KQ | 2023-May-22 | 13.5 LD | 6.4 | 37 |
2023 JK3 | 2023-May-22 | 1.6 LD | 4.9 | 30 |
2023 KS | 2023-May-22 | 0.6 LD | 18.2 | 11 |
2023 GY2 | 2023-May-22 | 18.1 LD | 11.3 | 96 |
2023 KN | 2023-May-22 | 2.4 LD | 22.1 | 14 |
2023 JZ1 | 2023-May-22 | 10.7 LD | 13 | 38 |
2019 UJ3 | 2023-May-23 | 15.5 LD | 9.8 | 21 |
2023 JK1 | 2023-May-23 | 17.1 LD | 8.7 | 37 |
2023 JC4 | 2023-May-24 | 17.7 LD | 4.2 | 30 |
2023 CL3 | 2023-May-24 | 18.9 LD | 7.3 | 117 |
2023 JP2 | 2023-May-25 | 11.5 LD | 20.5 | 88 |
2023 JR4 | 2023-May-25 | 4.1 LD | 9.4 | 15 |
2023 KF | 2023-May-26 | 17.9 LD | 8 | 45 |
2023 JE2 | 2023-May-27 | 19.7 LD | 11.4 | 35 |
2023 JZ3 | 2023-May-28 | 14.2 LD | 4.1 | 25 |
2021 KO2 | 2023-May-29 | 15.8 LD | 13.9 | 9 |
2023 JZ4 | 2023-May-29 | 6 LD | 16.1 | 31 |
2012 KP24 | 2023-May-31 | 10.3 LD | 12.4 | 19 |
2023 JM1 | 2023-Jun-01 | 10.1 LD | 5.2 | 21 |
2023 JE5 | 2023-Jun-04 | 17.6 LD | 8 | 37 |
2023 JR2 | 2023-Jun-04 | 17 LD | 7.6 | 44 |
2018 KR | 2023-Jun-07 | 6.5 LD | 4.9 | 19 |
2017 UJ2 | 2023-Jun-07 | 5.3 LD | 5.6 | 2 |
2023 JB3 | 2023-Jun-09 | 14.2 LD | 7 | 47 |
488453 | 2023-Jun-12 | 8.3 LD | 21.5 | 495 |
2022 WN4 | 2023-Jun-13 | 10.8 LD | 15.1 | 158 |
2020 DB5 | 2023-Jun-15 | 11.3 LD | 9.5 | 506 |
2023 HL | 2023-Jun-17 | 13.5 LD | 1 | 15 |
2016 LK49 | 2023-Jun-19 | 17.4 LD | 19.4 | 22 |
2018 LN2 | 2023-Jun-20 | 19 LD | 9.9 | 84 |
2023 HF1 | 2023-Jun-21 | 12.5 LD | 4.4 | 59 |
467336 | 2023-Jun-24 | 17.4 LD | 7.1 | 269 |
2008 LG2 | 2023-Jun-24 | 10.5 LD | 5.6 | 32 |
2022 MM1 | 2023-Jun-29 | 9.5 LD | 9.8 | 41 |
2020 NC | 2023-Jul-02 | 13.9 LD | 7.7 | 123 |
2023 HO6 | 2023-Jul-05 | 5.3 LD | 7.8 | 238 |
2019 LH5 | 2023-Jul-07 | 14.9 LD | 21.6 | 281 |
2018 NW | 2023-Jul-10 | 18 LD | 21.8 | 10 |
2018 UY | 2023-Jul-12 | 7.4 LD | 16.4 | 243 |
2020 UQ3 | 2023-Jul-18 | 3.1 LD | 9.3 | 59 |
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 |
 | 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! |
| | | | | |