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POSSIBLE EARTH-DIRECTED CME (UPDATED): Yesterday, April 15th around 10:30 UT, a magnetic filament on the sun exploded. The twisting blast hurled a CME into space which, at first, looked like it might be heading for Earth. However, NOAA analysts have determined that it will miss. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
A BLUE SPIRAL OVER ALASKA: Longtime aurora hunter Todd Salat is no stranger to fantastic displays in the night skies of Alaska. But even he was not prepared for what happened after local midnight on Saturday, April 15th.
"I was utterly surprised and mystified when I first spotted a distant bright light coming toward me from the northern horizon," says Salat. "At first I thought it was a jet airliner flying through some clouds. Then it took on the spiral shape and grew big fast!" This is what he saw:
"I was shooting frantically with two camera/tripod set-ups knowing that this was a unique event and within about seven minutes the 'apparition' swept by and disappeared. It was spellbinding! For the past two nights I had been photographing auroras over this dome (Donnelly Dome) and hoping to catch something special. I got my wish!"
Salat witnessed a "SpaceX spiral." Three hours earlier (Saturday, April 15th at 0648 UT), SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base. It carried 51 small satellites to Earth-orbit, a mission known as Transporter-7. When the rocket's discarded upper stage passed over Alaska, it vented its unused fuel. A bit of spin turned the harmless cloud into a spectacular spiral.
An all-sky camera at the University of Alaska's Poker Flat Research Range also recorded the phenomenon:
The spiral appears about halfway through the video at the 09:50 UT mark. Even though you know it's coming, it's still a shock when it zooms through the field of view.
As strange and rare as it appears, the spiral is a routine by-product of SpaceX operations. Similar blue swirls have been seen after many Falcon 9 launches including this one over New Zealand, another over east Africa, and two more above Hawaii. One could soon come to a sky near you.
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STORM TROOPER WHISKEY GLASS: If you like your drink cold--really cold--this glass is for you. It has flown to the stratosphere onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon. At the apex of the flight (117,109 ft), the temperature was a frosty -63C:
You can have it for $99.95. This double-walled whiskey glass is cast from one of the original molds for Storm Trooper helmets used in Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977. Made of high quality borosilicate, the glass is thin, hard and lead-free. It makes a great Christmas gift for Star Wars fans.
The glass comes with a greeting card showing the item 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
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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 16 2023, 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 April 16, 2023 there were 2327 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: | Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
| 2023 GG | 2023-Apr-11 | 4 LD | 10.6 | 74 |
| 2023 GE1 | 2023-Apr-11 | 4.6 LD | 14.1 | 29 |
| 2023 GQ | 2023-Apr-11 | 0.3 LD | 20.6 | 7 |
| 2023 GB1 | 2023-Apr-11 | 9.9 LD | 5.8 | 15 |
| 2023 FE5 | 2023-Apr-11 | 11.6 LD | 5.8 | 28 |
| 2023 GM2 | 2023-Apr-12 | 14.1 LD | 7.4 | 20 |
| 2023 GW | 2023-Apr-12 | 15.4 LD | 13 | 44 |
| 2023 FS10 | 2023-Apr-12 | 3.2 LD | 7.6 | 21 |
| 2019 GK21 | 2023-Apr-13 | 15.2 LD | 8.1 | 27 |
| 2023 GR1 | 2023-Apr-13 | 6.2 LD | 7.6 | 31 |
| 2022 YK9 | 2023-Apr-13 | 19.9 LD | 9.9 | 175 |
| 436774 | 2023-Apr-13 | 12.5 LD | 17.6 | 719 |
| 2023 GZ | 2023-Apr-15 | 2 LD | 8.6 | 11 |
| 2023 GT1 | 2023-Apr-15 | 2.4 LD | 2.7 | 8 |
| 2023 GC1 | 2023-Apr-15 | 15.4 LD | 6.6 | 16 |
| 2023 GD2 | 2023-Apr-15 | 8.8 LD | 6.1 | 11 |
| 2023 FN13 | 2023-Apr-15 | 2.6 LD | 4.5 | 13 |
| 2023 GA2 | 2023-Apr-16 | 12.7 LD | 18.8 | 84 |
| 2020 BV14 | 2023-Apr-16 | 17.8 LD | 8.2 | 81 |
| 2020 FQ6 | 2023-Apr-16 | 13.1 LD | 9.7 | 36 |
| 2023 GM1 | 2023-Apr-17 | 2.2 LD | 6.4 | 12 |
| 2023 GU | 2023-Apr-17 | 10.9 LD | 11.2 | 31 |
| 2023 GM | 2023-Apr-17 | 8.4 LD | 20.1 | 110 |
| 2023 GE2 | 2023-Apr-17 | 5.9 LD | 6 | 10 |
| 2023 GO | 2023-Apr-17 | 18.4 LD | 6.7 | 29 |
| 2023 GK2 | 2023-Apr-18 | 3.4 LD | 8.2 | 7 |
| 2023 GS | 2023-Apr-18 | 5.9 LD | 8.5 | 22 |
| 2023 GQ1 | 2023-Apr-18 | 1.1 LD | 2.6 | 3 |
| 2023 GR | 2023-Apr-18 | 18.7 LD | 9.1 | 62 |
| 2023 GV1 | 2023-Apr-19 | 17.6 LD | 3.6 | 23 |
| 2023 GO1 | 2023-Apr-25 | 10.9 LD | 11.9 | 20 |
| 2006 HV5 | 2023-Apr-26 | 6.3 LD | 17.4 | 400 |
| 2023 GG1 | 2023-Apr-26 | 12.6 LD | 10 | 40 |
| 2021 JF2 | 2023-Apr-28 | 16.6 LD | 8 | 19 |
| 2023 GF2 | 2023-Apr-30 | 11.5 LD | 4.8 | 29 |
| 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 |
| 488453 | 2023-Jun-12 | 8.3 LD | 21.5 | 493 |
| 2022 WN4 | 2023-Jun-13 | 10.8 LD | 15.1 | 158 |
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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