Category: - Ascension Now

All Sky Fireball Network

28/1/2026

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 Jan. 27 2026, 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]
https://spaceweather.com/

WHAT IS A 'KEOGRAM'?

15/11/2025

Answer: A way to display entire geomagnetic storms at a glance. It gets its name from the Inuit word for auroras -- Keoeeit. Daniel Bush of Albany, Missouri, created these keograms to compare the three great geomagnetic storms of Solar Cycle 25:

Researchers in the 1970s adopted the term keogram to honor the Arctic peoples who lived under the lights. It distills an entire night of auroral motion into a single strip of brightness. Watch this animation to see how a keogram is made.
"I was very fortunate weatherwise here in Missouri to be able to record the three strongest geomagnetic storms of Solar Cycle 25 ... so far," says Bush. "They were all great. But one can tell just by comparing these keograms that the May 2024 storm was in a league all of its own with bright energetic substorms and dusk to dawn intensity."
Solar Cycle 25 peaked in 2024, but it is far from finished. For the next few years it will slowly decline. That's important because, statistically speaking, the declining phases of solar cycles are when some of the strongest storms occur. The Halloween Storms of 2003 and the Veterans Day storm of 2025 are good examples. We predict that Bush's keogram will grow even longer in 2026. Stay tuned!
https://spaceweather.com/

IS 3I/ATLAS REALLY A COMET?

29/8/2025

The most intriguing mystery in astronomy today is the nature of interstellar object 3I/ATLAS. Most astronomers believe it is a comet. However, Avi Loeb of Harvard University famously makes the case that it might be something else--like alien tech.
Into this debate comes new data from the James Webb Space Telescope. A paper just submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters reports that 3I/ATLAS looks like a comet, albeit a strange one. Here are the images from JWST:

Above: These JWST images show the distribution of carbon dioxide (panel b), water (panel c) and carbon monoxide (panel d). Most of the light is coming from CO2.

The infrared space telescope found most of the ingredients we expect to find in comets. There's a fuzzy coma, volatile ices, and all the usual molecules: water (H20), carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO). If 3I/ATLAS is a spacecraft, it has an uncanny disguise.
However, there's also something strange. The ratios of the different molecules are quite unexpected and don't match what we see in Solar System comets. In particular, the CO2/H20 ratio of 8 ± 1 is extremely high. Only one other comet, C/2016 R2, is known to have similar chemistry, and astronomers have long considered it to be a "freak".

Above: Carbon dioxide-to-water ratios in known comets. 3I/ATLAS does not fit the trend.

Typical comets have a lot more water in their atmospheres, with H20 almost always outnumbering CO2. It could be that water production in 3I/ATLAS has not yet fully "turned on" because it is still too cold. If so, solar heating might restore ratios to normal. 3I/ATLAS will reach its closest point to the sun (1.36 AU) on Oct. 29, 2025, potentially bringing forth a geyser of water vapor to mix with the other gases.
Or, maybe, 3I/ATLAS is just strange--like it came from another star system. Stay tuned for updates.
https://spaceweather.com/

THE MILKY WAY FROM 35,000 FEET:

30/7/2025

Summer is prime time for Milky Way photography in the Northern Hemisphere, especially the bright galactic core. The usual advice? Get away from city lights. This week, pilot Matt Melnyk tried something different: He got above them.

"While flying the Dreamliner from Seoul Korea to Calgary Alberta, the sky was completely dark, and offered an amazing view of the Milky Way over Japan from 35,000 feet," says Melnyk, who photographed the galaxy from the cockpit.
The result is a breathtaking juxtaposition of Earth and sky. Below, the planet glows with the scattered lights of Japanese cities, their brightness softened by the aircraft window and high-altitude haze. Above, the stars blaze with unusual clarity, free from the light pollution and atmospheric turbulence that trouble ground-based observers. The dense star clouds and dust lanes of the Milky Way’s core are plainly visible.
Conclusion: 35,000 feet is a good place to see the Milky Way.
https://spaceweather.com/

"EXTREMELY RARE"--TWO NAKED-EYE NOVA:

30/6/2025

A person could go a lifetime without seeing a star explode with their own eyes. Right now, people in the southern hemisphere can see two stars exploding at the same time. The first (V462 Lupi) appeared on June 12th in the constellation Lupus, and the second (V572 Velorum) on June 25th in Vela. They're both brighter than 6th magnitude, the threshold for naked-eye visibility.

Eliot Herman photographed V572 Velorum on June 28th using a robotic telescope in Chile.

"This is without question an extremely rare event, if not an historical one," says astronomer Stephen O’Meara, who has been scouring historical records for the last time this happened. "I have yet to find an occurrence of two simultaneous nova appearing at the same time."
"I thought I had found a pair in 1936 (V630 Sgr and V368 Aql)," he says. "But I looked at their light curves, and it turns out they were not at maximum brightness at the same time."
These appear to be classical novas. First documented by Chinese astronomers some 2000 years ago, the explosions occur in binary star systems. White dwarf stars steal gas from a bloated partner until the stolen fuel ignites in a sudden thermonuclear blast. It's less dramatic than a supernova, but still an awesome blast.
Nova V462 Lupi is currently near magnitude +5.9, while V572 Velorum, fading from a peak near +4.8, is the brighter of the two. Southern astronomers, this may not happen again for a loooong time.
https://spaceweather.com/

EQUATORIAL PLASMA BUBBLES:

22/6/2025

Earth's ionosphere is a bit like Swiss cheese. It contains holes called "equatorial plasma bubbles" tens to hundreds of kilometers wide. They're invisible to the human eye. New research published in the journal Space Weather explains how machines can be trained to detect these bubbles in optical images of airglow. The technique could lead to space weather alerts for big or strangely-shaped bubbles, which can disrupt GPS navigation.
https://spaceweather.com/

SOLSTICE SOLAR FLARES:

22/6/2025

As the solstice sun hangs high in the skies of the northern hemisphere, our planet is getting hit by solar flares. In the past week there have been two X-class, one near-X, and dozens of lesser flares:

Each of the spikes in the graph above represents a pulse of X-radiation hitting Earth's upper atmosphere, ionizing the air at the edge of space. This has caused a rolling series of shortwave radio communication blackouts around our planet. The deepest blackouts occurred on June 15th (North America), June 17th (Hawaii) and June 19-20th (Hawaii). During those events, ham radio operators would have noticed loss of signal at frequencies below 25 MHz.
As northern summer begins, the flares are set to continue. Their source is unstable sunspot 4114, which will remain on the Earthside of the sun for a few more days before it disappears over the sun's western limb. Dates of special interest include June 23-24, when the sunspot will be magnetically connected to Earth via the Parker Spiral. Any flares around that time will accelerate energetic protons directly toward our planet and could spark a solar radiation storm.
https://spaceweather.com/

SEVERE GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH:

31/5/2025

A CME is heading straight for Earth--see below. NASA and NOAA models agree that it will strike Earth on June 1st. The impact could spark a severe (G4-class) geomagnetic storm with auroras visible across Europe and many US states. This won't be as big as the famous May 2024 storm, but it could be one of the bigger events of Solar Cycle 25 if a severe storm materializes.
https://spaceweather.com/

MAJOR SOLAR FLARE AND HALO CME:

31/5/2025

Big old sunspot 4100 finally exploded--and it was a doozy. On May 31st at 00:05 UTC, Earth-orbiting satellites detected an M8.2-class solar flare. The explosion lasted more than 3 hours:

A long-duration M8.2-class solar flare recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory

Although the flare was not technically X-class, it was close. Moreover, it was a slow explosion with lots of power "under the curve." The blast was able to lift a massive CME out of the sun's atmosphere.
Indeed, shortly after the flare, SOHO coronagraphs recorded a bright halo CME heading directly for our planet:

This is a very fast-moving CME. Type II radio emissions from shock waves within the cloud suggest it is traveling 1,938 km/s or 4.3 million mph. When it strikes Earth, the CME could spark severe geomagnetic storms with auroras at mid- to low latitudes. Stay tuned!
https://spaceweather.com/

PROTONS ARE RAINING DOWN ON EARTH: STRONG SOLAR ACTIVITY:

14/5/2025

PROTONS ARE RAINING DOWN ON EARTH:
Yesterday's X1.2-class solar flare accelerated a fusillade of energetic protons toward Earth, and they are now raining down on the upper atmosphere. For a while on May 13th, the downpour was intense enough to trigger an S1-class radiation storm warning, but today the proton rain is subsiding. Current radiation levels pose no threat to astronauts or air travelers. Radiation storm alerts: SMS Text

STRONG SOLAR ACTIVITY:
After weeks of calm, solar activity is suddenly high again, with two strong solar flares erupting from opposite sides of the sun:

The first of these flares (X1.2) caused a brief shortwave blackout over the Americas and hurled a CME into space. A NASA model shows the CME hitting Mercury, grazing Venus, and completely missing Earth later this week.
The second flare (M5.3) caused a longer shortwave radio blackout over southeast Asia and probably hurled a CME into space. If so, it could have an Earth-directed component. Confirmation awaits fresh data from SOHO coronagraphs. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
https://spaceweather.com/

THE STARLINK INCIDENT IS NOT WHAT WE THOUGHT:

25/4/2025

It never made sense. On Feb. 3rd, 2022, SpaceX launched a batch of 49 Starlinks to low-Earth orbit--something they had done many times before. This time was different, though. Almost immediately, dozens of the new satellites began to fall out of the sky.

Above: A Starlink satellite falls from the sky over Puerto Rico on Feb. 7, 2022. [video]

At the time, SpaceX offered this explanation: "Unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday (Feb. 3rd) were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday, (Feb. 4th)."

A more accurate statement might have read "...impacted by a very minor geomagnetic storm." The satellites flew into a storm that barely registered on NOAA scales: It was a G1, the weakest possible, unlikely to cause a mass decay of satellites. Something about "The Starlink Incident" was not adding up.

Space scientists Scott McIntosh and Robert Leamon of Lynker Space, Inc., have a new and different idea: "The Terminator did it," says McIntosh.

Not to be confused with the killer robot, McIntosh's Terminator is an event on the sun that helps explain the mysterious progression of solar cycles. Four centuries after Galileo discovered sunspots, researchers still cannot accurately predict the timing and strength of the sun's 11-year solar cycle. Even "11 years" isn't real; observed cycles vary from less than 9 years to more than 14 years long.

Above: Oppositely charged bands of magnetism march toward the sun's equator where they "terminate" one another, kickstarting the next solar cycle. [more]

McIntosh and Leamon realized that forecasters had been overlooking something. There is a moment that happens every 11 years or so when opposing magnetic fields from the sun's previous and upcoming solar cycles collide and cancel (see the animation, above). They called this moment, which signals the death of the old cycle, "The Termination Event."
After a Termination Event, the sun roars to life–"like a hot stove where someone suddenly turns the burner on," McIntosh likes to say. Solar ultraviolet radiation abruptly jumps to a higher level, heating the upper atmosphere and dramatically increasing aerodynamic drag on satellites.
This plot supports what McIntosh and Leamon are saying:

The histogram shows the number of objects falling out of Earth orbit each year since 1975. Vertical dashed lines mark Termination Events. There's an uptick in satellite decay around the time of every Terminator, none bigger than 2022.
As SpaceX was assembling the doomed Starlinks of Group 4-7 in early 2022, they had no idea that the Terminator Event had, in fact, just happened. Unwittingly, they launched the satellites into a radically altered near-space environment. "Some of our satellite partners said it was just pea soup up there," says Leamon.
SpaceX wasn't the only company hit hard. Capella Space also struggled in 2022 to keep its constellation of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites in orbit.
“The atmospheric density in low Earth orbit was 2 to 3 times more than expected,” wrote Capella Space's Scott Shambaugh in a paper entitled Doing Battle With the Sun. “This increase in drag threatened to prematurely de-orbit some of our spacecraft." Indeed, many did deorbit earlier than their 3-year design lifetimes.
The Terminator did it? It makes more sense than a minor storm.

https://spaceweather.com/

HUMANS TO ORBIT THE POLES:

31/3/2025

SpaceX is about to launch an historic mission. Later today, March 31st, four astronauts led by cryptocurrency billionaire Chun Wang will blast off from Cape Canaveral onboard a Falcon 9 rocket for the first-ever crewed spaceflight over the poles. During the 3-to-5 day mission, they will grow mushrooms in space, capture X-ray images of the human body in microgravity, and conduct 20 other science experiments. To watch the launch, tune into SpaceX's live stream starting at 8:46 p.m. Eastern Time.
https://spaceweather.com/

X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE:

29/3/2025

Yesterday, the sun surprised forecasters with a dramatic X1.1-class solar flare (March 28th @ 1520 UTC). The explosion caused a shortwave radio blackout over the Americas, and it hurled a massive CME into space. That CME will narrowly miss Earth. The sunspot that caused the flare (AR4046) is now turning toward Earth, so future explosions may be more effective.
https://spaceweather.com/

"HORNS OF FIRE" SOLAR ECLIPSE:

29/3/2025

When the sun rose over Maine this morning, something was missing--about 85% of the sun. A solar eclipse was underway. "We witnessed an amazing 'horns of fire' eclipse," reports Fabrizio Melandri, who sends this picture from Monticello:

I had to withstand an air temperature of -10°C (14°F), but it was worth it," says Melandri. "Although the sun was covered for 85%, the sunrise was dazzling. After a few minutes, it was necessary to use a solar filter to protect my eyes from the glare."
In New York, the eclipse was not as deep, but the sunrise was equally beautiful. Bob Kelly watched the show from Rye Beach, NY:

"The eclipsed sun beamed through some gaps in the cloud cover," says Kelly. "What a morning!"
We are receiving lots of photos from around the eclipse zone. Browse the gallery for the latest.
https://spaceweather.com/

X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE:

28/3/2025

Surprising forecasters, today the sun produced a dramatic X1.1-class solar flare (March 28th @ 1520 UTC) with a shortwave radio blackout over the Americas. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed massive plumes of plasma emerging from the blast site:

The source of the flare is a new sunspot emerging over the sun's eastern limb. This sunspot will turn toward Earth in the days ahead, putting our planet in the crosshairs of future eruptions. Stay tuned!
https://spaceweather.com/