This is an AI Free Zone: Text created by Large Language Models is spreading across the Internet. It's well-written, but frequently inaccurate. If you find a mistake on Spaceweather.com, rest assured it was made by a real human being.
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GEOMAGNETIC STORMS THIS WEEKEND: Earth is inside a fast-moving stream of solar wind, which is causing minor (G1) to moderate (G2) geomagnetic storms on April 5th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras this weekend. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
A WORMHOLE OVER ALASKA: Spoiler alert: It was not a wormhole. Anyone who saw it, however, had to wonder, what was that luminous ring over central Alaska last Saturday?
Photo credit: Eric Marshall. University of Alaska (Fairbanks)
Answer: A science experiment. It was exhaust from a sounding rocket launched from the University of Alaska's Poker Flats Research Range.
Mark Conde, space physics professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, is responsible for the display. He's the principal investigator of "AWESOME" (Auroral Waves Excited by Substorm Onset Magnetic Events), a complicated mission in late March that sent three sounding rockets into the aurora borealis. The ring was created by the third rocket, launched March 29th at 1:33 am Alaska time.
"[It] was extremely bright and absolutely unmissable," says Conde, who estimates that the ring was 60 to 75 miles high with a diameter of 15 miles. "This very clean ring shape was easy to track. Looking at the way it distorted over time [gives us] a detailed view of local-scale motions in the atmosphere."
AWESOME sounding rockets fly into auroras over Poker Flats on March 25, 2025
The goal of the AWESOME project is to understand how auroras make the atmosphere boil. Normally, convection doesn't happen in the uppermost layers of Earth's atmosphere. The thermosphere is hot on top and cooler down below--an upside-down temperature gradient that stops convection in its tracks.
Auroras, however, can "light a fire" underneath the thermosphere, causing it to roil like a pot of water on a hot stove. Vapors released by the AWESOME sounding rockets trace these motions, which have a big influence on satellite drag and navigation.
According to Conde, "the mission was a success. We should now have the data to address these questions." Stay tuned for results.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
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18K GOLD "ALWAYS AND FOREVER" PENDANT: Are you looking for an unforgettable gift? Consider the Always and Forever Space Pendent. On Aug. 29, 2023, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $229.95. Engraved with the words "I love you always and forever", this 18K gold-plated sterling silver pendant has a heart-shaped ruby crystal in the middle surrounded by a ring of glittering 5A cubic zirconia nuggets. It is a visually striking premium pendant.
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 Venus Photo Gallery
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Realtime Aurora 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 04, 2025, the network reported 1 fireball.
(1 sporadic)
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 6, 2025 there were 2349 potentially hazardous asteroids.
 |
Recent
& Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT) |
Miss Distance |
Velocity (km/s) |
Diameter (m) |
| 2025 FQ7 |
2025-Mar-31 |
7.5 LD |
14.6 |
14 |
| 2025 FO20 |
2025-Mar-31 |
9.4 LD |
4.7 |
16 |
| 2005 SL |
2025-Mar-31 |
14.4 LD |
9.6 |
96 |
| 2025 FS11 |
2025-Mar-31 |
18.1 LD |
12.5 |
34 |
| 2025 FZ3 |
2025-Mar-31 |
8.4 LD |
7.1 |
18 |
| 2025 FH21 |
2025-Apr-01 |
3 LD |
10.6 |
12 |
| 2025 FC8 |
2025-Apr-01 |
19.9 LD |
7.6 |
16 |
| 2025 GO |
2025-Apr-01 |
10.5 LD |
8.3 |
24 |
| 2025 FC6 |
2025-Apr-01 |
11.8 LD |
11.4 |
21 |
| 2025 FL7 |
2025-Apr-01 |
12.7 LD |
8.7 |
20 |
| 2022 FR3 |
2025-Apr-01 |
6.6 LD |
7.4 |
105 |
| 2025 GA |
2025-Apr-02 |
0.2 LD |
10.7 |
6 |
| 2025 GL |
2025-Apr-02 |
1.1 LD |
5.8 |
5 |
| 2025 FN20 |
2025-Apr-02 |
16 LD |
19 |
45 |
| 2025 FM18 |
2025-Apr-02 |
0.7 LD |
12.8 |
5 |
| 2025 FP6 |
2025-Apr-02 |
19.3 LD |
10.1 |
25 |
| 2025 GN |
2025-Apr-03 |
7.3 LD |
10.5 |
32 |
| 2025 GB |
2025-Apr-03 |
1.9 LD |
8.4 |
39 |
| 2025 FA15 |
2025-Apr-03 |
5.4 LD |
21.9 |
27 |
| 2025 FY14 |
2025-Apr-03 |
1.4 LD |
6.5 |
12 |
| 2025 GJ |
2025-Apr-03 |
3.8 LD |
5.9 |
7 |
| 2025 FO16 |
2025-Apr-03 |
5.5 LD |
12.5 |
19 |
| 2004 FC18 |
2025-Apr-04 |
18.4 LD |
18.5 |
47 |
| 2025 FW5 |
2025-Apr-04 |
13.3 LD |
20.4 |
59 |
| 2020 XT2 |
2025-Apr-04 |
13.6 LD |
6.2 |
41 |
| 2023 GC2 |
2025-Apr-04 |
17.3 LD |
6.3 |
12 |
| 2025 GH |
2025-Apr-04 |
2.4 LD |
20.6 |
39 |
| 2017 FA102 |
2025-Apr-04 |
11.7 LD |
15.2 |
28 |
| 2020 FH4 |
2025-Apr-04 |
12.8 LD |
3 |
7 |
| 2025 FU7 |
2025-Apr-05 |
19.8 LD |
7.9 |
22 |
| 2025 BC10 |
2025-Apr-05 |
9.7 LD |
22.9 |
479 |
| 2007 SQ6 |
2025-Apr-05 |
10.9 LD |
6.6 |
129 |
| 2025 FM12 |
2025-Apr-05 |
11 LD |
7 |
15 |
| 2025 GD |
2025-Apr-05 |
2.5 LD |
11.7 |
40 |
| 2025 GS |
2025-Apr-05 |
0.4 LD |
9.9 |
8 |
| 2025 DV40 |
2025-Apr-06 |
16.8 LD |
13.1 |
98 |
| 2025 FO15 |
2025-Apr-06 |
11.3 LD |
14.2 |
20 |
| 2025 FX14 |
2025-Apr-06 |
13.2 LD |
14.9 |
32 |
| 2003 GQ22 |
2025-Apr-07 |
19.6 LD |
8.9 |
180 |
| 2025 FF18 |
2025-Apr-08 |
8.6 LD |
7.5 |
23 |
| 2025 DL28 |
2025-Apr-08 |
16.2 LD |
5.6 |
40 |
| 2025 FN14 |
2025-Apr-08 |
13.6 LD |
7.9 |
39 |
| 2025 FX22 |
2025-Apr-10 |
10.1 LD |
12.4 |
20 |
| 2023 HG |
2025-Apr-11 |
3.7 LD |
8.6 |
14 |
| 2023 KU |
2025-Apr-11 |
2.8 LD |
18 |
119 |
| 2015 FS33 |
2025-Apr-12 |
14.6 LD |
20.7 |
129 |
| 2025 FP10 |
2025-Apr-12 |
10.9 LD |
14.1 |
583 |
| 2025 GK |
2025-Apr-13 |
17.4 LD |
12 |
36 |
| 2025 FV13 |
2025-Apr-13 |
18.2 LD |
5 |
28 |
| 2023 RX1 |
2025-Apr-13 |
18.1 LD |
1.4 |
3 |
| 2023 UH |
2025-Apr-15 |
8.8 LD |
11 |
21 |
| 2022 UO |
2025-Apr-15 |
19.8 LD |
16.2 |
18 |
| 2025 DC36 |
2025-Apr-15 |
14.2 LD |
4.9 |
60 |
| 2011 VG9 |
2025-Apr-16 |
12.2 LD |
23.8 |
135 |
| 2017 RN16 |
2025-Apr-17 |
10.9 LD |
8.7 |
6 |
| 2025 FL20 |
2025-Apr-17 |
13.1 LD |
3.4 |
14 |
| 2025 FY22 |
2025-Apr-19 |
9.4 LD |
9.2 |
32 |
| 2025 FK12 |
2025-Apr-20 |
9.5 LD |
7.4 |
22 |
| 2014 HS124 |
2025-Apr-22 |
10.9 LD |
8.9 |
93 |
| 2019 FY2 |
2025-Apr-24 |
12.8 LD |
5.3 |
12 |
| 462959 |
2025-Apr-25 |
12.9 LD |
9.5 |
213 |
| 2024 BF |
2025-May-01 |
9.5 LD |
4.6 |
47 |
| 2024 JM2 |
2025-May-03 |
7.2 LD |
11.3 |
62 |
| 2021 JN1 |
2025-May-06 |
18.3 LD |
16.3 |
39 |
| 2021 HZ |
2025-May-08 |
20 LD |
10.2 |
30 |
| 612356 |
2025-May-09 |
11 LD |
5.1 |
305 |
| 2021 KH |
2025-May-10 |
18.3 LD |
7.2 |
19 |
| 2011 HJ7 |
2025-May-12 |
6.6 LD |
15.8 |
118 |
| 2011 YU74 |
2025-May-13 |
11.4 LD |
5 |
90 |
| 2025 DT50 |
2025-May-14 |
16 LD |
6.4 |
98 |
| 2008 ST |
2025-May-20 |
13.5 LD |
2.5 |
14 |
| 387746 |
2025-May-24 |
17.4 LD |
8.3 |
338 |
| 2014 KF22 |
2025-May-25 |
9.1 LD |
11.5 |
19 |
| 390725 |
2025-May-25 |
18.4 LD |
13.5 |
408 |
| 2025 FU5 |
2025-May-28 |
13.4 LD |
7.3 |
90 |
| 2022 KP3 |
2025-May-30 |
10.2 LD |
7.7 |
7 |
|
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 10 years, resulting in a unique dataset of in situ atmospheric measurements.
Latest results (Nov. 2024): Atmospheric radiation is decreasing in 2024. Our latest measurements in November registered a 10-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.
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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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Got a chipped or cracked windshield that prevents you from seeing space weather events while driving? Get windshield replacement from SR Windows & Glass with free mobile auto glass service anywhere in the Phoenix area. |
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