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A CME JUST HIT EARTH, WEAKLY: A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field on May 7th at 1544 UT. The weak impact did not cause a geomagnetic storm. This might not be the CME we've been waiting for. Its arrival was early and its impact weaker than expected. Stay tuned for a possible second CME later today or even on May 8th. CME alerts: SMS Text.
M-CLASS SOLAR FLARE AND RADIO BLACKOUT: Reversed-polarity sunspot AR3296 just did it again. The backwards active region exploded on May 7th (2234 UT), producing a long-lasting M1.5-class solar flare. The blast was squarely Earth-directed:
Extreme ultraviolet radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere, producing a minor shortwave radio blackout over the western USA and the Pacific Ocean: map. Mariners and ham radio operators may have noticed loss of signal at frequencies below 20 MHz for as much as an hour.
This explosion almost certainly hurled a CME toward Earth. Confirmation awaits fresh coronagraph images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
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NASA'S SUPERBIT BALLOON: Could the Hubble Space Telescope be replaced by a balloon? NASA is testing a new kind of telescope that floats through the stratosphere--the Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT)--and it is taking Hubble-quality images. Yesterday, Erwin Enrique Sandoval watched the giant orb float over Coyhaique in southern Chile:
"We could see it high in the afternoon sky," says Sandoval. "It was very large."
Indeed, the helium-filled balloon is wider than a football field. Floating 107,000 feet high above 99.2% of Earth's atmosphere, it has a clear view of the cosmos with jet-black skies even when it is daylight on the ground below. SuperBIT's primary science goal is to look for signs of dark matter in galaxy clusters. Researchers say the quality of its data is similar to that of Hubble itself.
SuperBIT was launched from from Wānaka, New Zealand, on April 16, 2023. Since then it has been slowly circling the far-southern hemisphere taking amazing pictures. Anyone can track the position of the balloon here. Let us know if you see it!
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STERLING SILVER SIERRA MOONRISE PENDANT: Are you looking for a far-out Mother's Day gift? Consider the Sierra Moonrise Pendant. It flew to the edge of space on April 15, 2023, floating on a cosmic ray balloon 117,400 feet above the historically-snowy Sierra Nevada mountains of California:
You can have it for $142.95. The sterling silver pendant shows the craggy Sierra range with a full Moonstone rising overhead. It makes a great birthday, anniversary or Mother's Day gift.
The students of Earth to Sky Calculus are selling space pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the pendant 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
SURPRISE GEOMAGNETIC STORM: This was not in the forecast. A CME hit Earth's magnetic field on May 6th at around 01:00 UT.
The unexpected impact sparked a
G2-class geomagnetic storm with auroras visible in Canada and at least four northern-tier US states. Harlan Thomas witnessed the display over Gayford Pond northeast of Calgary, Alberta:
"A auroral corona of this magnitude is very rare for our latitude," says Thomas. "It extended from the eastern to western horizon, and I was in complete awe!"
NOAA analysts believe the CME may have come from a previously disregarded solar explosion on May 2nd. Although its arrival was a surprise, subscribers to our Space Weather Alert Service still received a text alert within minutes of impact. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
more images: from Thomas Bensenhaver of Walpole, New Hampshire; from Sam C. of Ogdensburg, New York; from Jason G. of Caledon East, Ontario Canada
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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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 May 07, 2023, the network reported 2 fireballs.
(1 sporadic, 1 eta Aquariid)
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 7, 2023 there were 2316 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
| 2023 HV5 | 2023-May-03 | 1.1 LD | 8.9 | 13 |
| 2023 HF7 | 2023-May-04 | 1.7 LD | 13.1 | 16 |
| 2023 HJ7 | 2023-May-04 | 20 LD | 37.3 | 90 |
| 2023 HH7 | 2023-May-04 | 2.2 LD | 24.6 | 28 |
| 2023 HZ4 | 2023-May-04 | 8 LD | 22.8 | 58 |
| 2006 HX57 | 2023-May-05 | 6.8 LD | 11 | 30 |
| 2015 VN66 | 2023-May-06 | 20.1 LD | 20 | 114 |
| 2023 HT6 | 2023-May-07 | 3.2 LD | 9.2 | 21 |
| 2023 HP1 | 2023-May-07 | 16 LD | 11.6 | 93 |
| 2023 HG1 | 2023-May-09 | 10.9 LD | 2.4 | 19 |
| 2023 HT4 | 2023-May-12 | 15.9 LD | 8.9 | 81 |
| 2011 KY15 | 2023-May-18 | 19.9 LD | 14.3 | 54 |
| 2021 JK7 | 2023-May-22 | 16.7 LD | 22.9 | 48 |
| 2023 GY2 | 2023-May-22 | 18.1 LD | 11.3 | 96 |
| 2019 UJ3 | 2023-May-23 | 15.5 LD | 9.8 | 21 |
| 2023 CL3 | 2023-May-24 | 18.9 LD | 7.3 | 117 |
| 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 |
| 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 | 232 |
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 |
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