Category: - Ascension Now

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/

"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/

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/

POLAR STRATOSPHERIC CLOUDS:

30/1/2025

Something interesting is happening in the polar stratosphere. A 40-year cold spell is underway, and the temperature continues to drop. We know its cold because the stratosphere is starting to fill with colorful clouds. They look like this:

These are Type II polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) photographed by Per Steinar Prøven of Brumunddal, Norway. "We have been seeing them day and night," he says.
Polar stratospheric clouds are rare. Normally, the stratosphere has no clouds at all. When the temperature drops to -85 C (188 K), however, water molecules can get together to form ice crystals even in the very dry stratosphere. High-altitude sunlight touching those crystals creates a blossom of pastel color.
According to NASA's MERRA2 climate model, temperatures in the polar stratosphere are about to drop to their lowest levels since before 1978. This could cause a major outbreak of polar stratospheric clouds, visible around the Arctic Circle and beyond.
https://spaceweather.com/

MYSTERIOUS BLUE AVALANCHE LIGHTS IN CHINA:

27/11/2024

BLUE AVALANCHE UPDATE: Readers have offered many thoughtful and erudite comments about the "blue avalanche" story. Thank you! Among many excellent comments, we would like to single out this one from George Kourounis, Explorer In Residence at the Royal Canadian Geographical Society: "I am familiar with the avalanche lights phenomenon. I first heard about it from polar guide Rustin Mesdag who saw it with the naked eye while camping in Antarctica. I document all kinds of natural phenomena, and this was news to me. He forwarded me a scientific paper on the effect." Note the section beginning on page 13, "Electromagnetic Phenomena in Ice Fracture." This may explain the Chinese images shown below.

BLUE AVALANCHE LIGHTS IN CHINA: This might be something new. On the night of Oct. 27th, Chinese astrophotographer Shengyu Li set up his camera to record star trails over Mount Xiannairi in Sichuan, China. The long exposure had just begun when an icy serac broke free from a hanging glacier. Note the blue flashes within the ensuing avalanche:

"We have not found any previously documented cases of such an event, making this discovery both thrilling and intriguing for us," says Li. "Our initial hypothesis is that the luminescence may result from friction-induced lighting during the fragmentation of ice."
The phenomenon is called "triboluminescence." Legendary physicist Richard Feynman explains it best: "When you take a lump of sugar and crush it with a pair of pliers in the dark, you can see a bluish flash. Some other crystals do that too. Nobody knows why." You can create triboluminescent flashes yourself by smashing Lifesavers.
The avalanche Li witnessed was rich in ice. "It started with a blocky serac, which randomly calved from a glacier near the mountain's peak," says Carson Reid, a mountaineer who analyzed Li's movie. "The serac would have fragmented as it tumbled down and smashed into natural obstacles." The most significant "smash points" seem to have produced the most blue light.
Li shared his movie with other astrophographers in China. One of them found a similar blue flash in footage of a completely different mountain in Xinjiang, China three weeks earlier:

"This is a timelapse video taken by Ms. Lu Miao on Oct. 3rd," says Li. "It also shows a blue flash during an avalanche." The mountain is Muztagh Ata, which means "Iceberg Father" in English.
"None of us photographers noticed the blue light with our naked eyes—it was only discovered later when reviewing the photos," says Li. "However, I asked some friends who frequently photograph snow-capped mountains, and one of them mentioned having seen blue light with the naked eye during an avalanche, though they didn’t capture it on camera."
https://spaceweather.com/

ASTRONAUTS WILL SPACEWALK WITHOUT AN AIRLOCK:

11/9/2024

SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission took flight Tuesday morning (Sept. 10th @ 5:23 a.m. EDT) when a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral. Conrad Pope watched the rocket roar into space from Wilmington, North Carolina:

"I wasn’t sure it was going to launch due to weather in Florida," says Pope. "But when it did, it was spectacular!"
Polaris Dawn is funded and led by billionaire Jared Isaacman, the founder of financial firm Shift4 Payments. SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis and retired US Air Force pilot Scott Poteet round out the crew of four.
A highlight of the mission will be their attempt to perform a spacewalk without an airlock. Opening the door of the Crew Dragon capsule will expose all four crew members to the vacuum of space. Only their spacesuits will keep them safe. Also, differences in pressure may make it difficult to relock the vehicle’s hatch. It's actually a daring maneuver, and we wish the crew good luck when they try it later this week.
https://spaceweather.com/

THAT NOVA YOU'VE HEARD ABOUT IS ABOUT TO EXPLODE:

26/6/2024

By the time you finish reading this story, there could be a new star in the night sky. Recurrent nova T CrB (pronounced "tee-core-bore") is poised on the knife edge of a once-in-a-lifetime explosion.

"Our best estimate for the time of eruption is close to now," says Brad Schaefer, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy at Louisiana State University.
Schaefer is a leading expert on T CrB. He's been studying the star since he was a teenager. "When I was 18 year old, I calculated when T CrB should erupt again. The answer was 'around 2026' -- and I've been waiting for this moment ever since," he says.

Above: A T CrB infographic created by South Korean astronomer Bum-Suk Yeom

T CrB is a "recurrent nova." That means it erupts not just once, but over and over again. Its explosion in 1866 was the first nova anyone had ever seen in detail. "No one knew what caused it," says Schaefer. Another blast in 1946 established its period (79 or 80 years) and led astronomers to the modern interpretation:
T CrB is a binary star system consisting of an ancient red giant circled by a hot white dwarf. Hydrogen from the red giant spills onto the surface of the white dwarf. It takes about 80 years to accumulate a critical mass, then--BOOM--a thermonuclear explosion occurs. "It's an H-bomb that blows up on an incredibly large scale," says Schaefer.
After an explosion, the process resets and repeats. Looking at old light curves, Schaefer realized that T CrB tells us when it's about to explode. Approximately 1.1 years before each blow-up, there's a "pre-eruption dip" in brightness. This dip foretells the next blast.

Above: The pre-eruption dip in March 2023

Start the clock! "T CrB started its pre-eruption dip in March 2023. If the star behaves in 2023-2024 as it did in 1945-1946, then the next eruption should take place in 2024.4+-0.3," says Schaefer. "That's May 2024 plus or minus a few months."
The explosion will be visible to the naked eye. Schaefer expects it to be about as bright as the North Star. When it blows, T CrB will burst forth as an extra jewel in the "Northern Crown" (the constellation Corona Borealis), easy to find high in the summer night sky between Hercules and Bootes.
"T CrB will be the brightest nova for generations," says Schaefer. "It's a chance for everyone in the world to step outside, look up, and see the hellfire."
Observing tips:
(1) Go out tonight to see what Corona Borealis normally looks like: sky map. Then, when the nova explodes, you'll be able to see the difference.
(2) Sign up for Space Weather Alerts. All subscribers (Basic and Pro) will receive an immediate text message when the nova explodes.
https://spaceweather.com/

Sun halos, arcs and upside-down rainbows seen across England

30/5/2023

BBC: Sat, 27 May 2023 14:01 UTC

A halo, with sun dogs and tangent arcs, was spotted over the Headland in Hartlepool
by Ash Foster

Much of northern England enjoyed a rare optical display on Sunday evening. Thin, high cloud gave a spectacular show of halos, arcs and upside-down rainbows across the North East and Cumbria, not often seen together in the UK. The phenomena are caused by sunlight reflecting and refracting through ice crystals high in the atmosphere.

BBC Look North weather presenter Jennifer Bartram said it was "very unusual". "The particular angle at which the sunlight hits these high-up ice crystals form these patterns," she said. "It's a real delight to see."

The rings around the Sun are known as halos and have a reddish tinge on the inner edge.

Halos gave the perfect frame around the Angel of the North, spotted by Andy Gowland

Though halos are not uncommon in the UK, the combination of other optical effects is more unusual.

© Daniel McTiernan
The unusual solar effects shone over Whitley Bay on Sunday.

One of the more unusual features spotted was an upside-down rainbow, known as a cirumzenithal arc. It is also known as a Bravais' arc, and is formed when sunlight enters horizontal ice crystals and refracts through a side prism face, which causes the upside-down effect.

A bright circumzenithal arc spotted in Stanwix, Cumbria, by Weather Watcher Ravi

Steven Lomas captured the stunning spectacle over Souter Point lighthouse

Also visible were a range of other effects, including parhelia - or sun dogs - which appear as bright patches either side of the sun.

A rare sighting of halos, arcs and sun dogs were spotted in Whale, just outside Penrith,
by Kim Skelton

https://www.sott.net/article/480773-Sun-halos-arcs-and-upside-down-rainbows-seen-across-England

RARE FULL PARHELIC CIRCLE:

30/5/2023

A parhelic circle is an unforgettable sight. Thin and pale, it circles the zenith in a majestic arc, always keeping the same distance above the horizon. Two days ago, R. J Cobain saw this one over Conlig, Northern Ireland:

"I was shaking as I took as many photos as I could," says Corbin. "By combining 11 photos I was able to capture the full circle."
This was part of a great display of ice halos widely seen and reported across Northern Ireland and Northern England on May 28th. A weather system blanketed the region with a rare mixture of gem-like ice crystals in wispy cirrus clouds. Sunlight shining through the crystals produced a stunning variety of forms.
A full parhelic circle is among the rarest of ice halos. It requires as many as five internal reflections from millions of individual ice crytals, all catching sunbeams simultaneously. "This was by far the best display of atmospheric optics I have ever seen," Corbin says.
more images: from Alan Fitzsimmons of Belfast, Northern Ireland; from Mike Devenport of Gateshead, UK; from Ian Lee of Carlisle, Cumbria, UK.
https://spaceweather.com/

SUPERNOVA IN THE PINWHEEL GALAXY: Plus Update 22 May 2023

20/5/2023

Astronomers are scrambling to photograph a new supernova in the Pinwheel Galaxy. "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. If it behaves like other supernovas of the same type, it should continue to brighten for a few days at least. "It is at magnitude +14.4 at the moment," says Herman. "I am betting it gets below +13, hoping for +12."
These numbers make it an easy target for backyard telescopes.

Discovered on May 19th by amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki, the supernova is located in the constellation Ursa Major, right here. Take a look!

Update 22 May 2023:
"This is best supernova in a decade," says Eliot Herman of Tucson, Arizona. "It has tripled in brightness in only 24 hours." At this rate, it will soon rival or outshine the spiral galaxy's core.

Astronomer Yvette Cendes of Harvard's Center for Astrophysics says the supernova should continue to brighten for another day or so. "We think it will peak around magnitude +10, although it is hard to be certain."

Image credit: Eliot Herman of Tucson, Arizona

https://spaceweather.com/

AURORAS--AND SOMETHING ELSE--OVER CHINA:

30/4/2023

Chinese astrophotographer Jeff Dai has long dreamed of seeing auroras over his home country. "On April 24th, my dream came true," he says. A severe geomagnetic storm was underway when he drive to the countryside outside Karamay, Xinjiang, China, and photographed a sky full of Northern Lights:

"I could see them with my naked eye," he says. "It was truly spectacular!"
But there's more to the story. Only a fraction of the lights he saw were actual auroras. Note the red arc at the top of his photo. That's something else--an "SAR."
SARs are red arcs of light that ripple across the sky during some geomagnetic storms. They were discovered in 1956 at the beginning of the Space Age. Researchers didn’t know what they were and unwittingly gave them a misleading name: "Stable Auroral Red arcs" or SARs.
In fact, SARs are neither stable nor auroras. Auroras appear when charged particles rain down from space, hitting the atmosphere and causing it to glow like the picture tube of an old color TV. SARs form differently. They are a sign of heat energy leaking into the upper atmosphere from Earth’s ring current system--a donut-shaped circuit of plasma carrying millions of amps around our planet.

Above: SARs photographed by the Dynamics Explorer-1 satellite in 1982. More

SARs are among the reddest things in the sky, with a monochromatic glow at 6300 Å that comes from atomic oxygen in the upper atmosphere. The human eye is relatively insensitive to light at this wavelength, but cameras record the color easily. Pro tip for photographers: Use a 6300 Å filter.
"Seeing auroras from China is very difficult," says Dai. "It happens maybe 1-2 times every 11 years." Seeing an SAR is even more rare. It was a dreamy night, indeed.
www.spaceweather.com

ONE DAY UNTIL THE SOLAR ECLIPSE:

19/4/2023

Tomorrow, April 20th, a rare hybrid solar eclipse will sweep across Australia and Indonesia. Eclipse chaser Mohamad Sol couldn't wait. One day early, he snapped this picture of the Moon from inside the path of totality:

"Just the day before the total solar eclipse, I observed this fabulous moonrise from Exmouth, Australia, where the eclipse will be total on April 20th," says Sol.
A hybrid eclipse is a mixture of two types: an annular eclipse and a total eclipse. The difference is the size of the Moon. During the annular phase, the Moon is slightly too small to cover the entire solar disk, resulting in a "ring of fire." During the total phase, the whole sun is covered, revealing the sun's ghostly corona.

Tomorrow's eclipse begins as an annular eclipse over the Indian Ocean, transitions into a total eclipse as it moves over western Australia, then becomes an annular eclipse again over the South Pacific. The last time such a hybrid eclipse occurred was Nov. 3, 2013.
Outside the narrow red path (shown above), the eclipse will be partial--neither annular nor total. The sun will still be very bright, but shaped like a crescent as the Moon takes a bite out of the solar disk. Observers in this broad region can look directly at the eclipsed sun using safe solar eclipse glasses.
www.spaceweather.com

JUPITER SPACECRAFT PHOTO-OP:

10/4/2023

The European Space Agency is about to launch a very important spacecraft: The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer - 'Juice' for short. Its mission is to probe Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, moons with oceans larger than those of Earth and possible habitats for extraterrestrial life. Liftoff is scheduled for April 13th (12:15 UT) from French Guiana. "It may be possible for experienced observers to photograph Juice as it recedes on the night after launch", says John H. Rogers, the Jupiter Section Director of the British Astronomical Association. "The solar panels should be deployed by 100 minutes after launch, with full deployment over the next 17 days. You can obtain an ephemeris from JPL-Horizons. Type 'Juice' in for the target body."

"The best views will be from the Far East and Australia, from about 14:00 UT onwards, when solar panels are deployed", says Rogers. "The brightness will then diminish as the distance from Earth increases; by the time it is visible from western Europe, approaching 150,000 km out, one experienced observer suggests that it might be around mag.13 or 14."
Juice will take 8 years to reach Jupiter. After a series of visits to Callisto and Europa, Juice will enter into a permanent orbit around Ganymede in 2034 - the first time a spacecraft has ever held an orbit around a moon other than our own. Bigger than the planet Mercury, Ganymede is also the only moon in the solar system with its own magnetic field, providing a possible protective cocoon for life.
www.spaceweather.com

AN ELVE OVER ITALY:

1/4/2023

For a few milliseconds last Monday night, March 27th, an enormous red ring of light appeared in the sky over central Italy. Valter Binotto photographed it from the small town of Possagno in the foothills of the Italian Alps:

This is an "ELVE"--short for Emissions of Light and Very Low Frequency Perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources. It's a rare species of sprite discovered in 1990 by cameras onboard the space shuttle. Binotto may have just taken the best ever picture of one from the ground.
"The ELVE was generated by intense lightning in a storm near Ancona about 285 km south of me," says Binotto. One bolt was so strong, it generated an intense electromagnetic pulse (EMP). The red ring marks the spot where the EMP hit Earth's ionosphere. Normal lightning bolts carry 10 to 30 kilo-ampères of current; this bolt was about 10 times stronger than normal.
Binotto created a graphic showing the scale of the ELVE:

"It was about 100 km high and nearly 360 km wide," says Binotto. "I have been photographing upper atmospheric lightning and transient luminous events (TLEs) since 2019, hundreds of them, and this is one of the biggest structures I have ever seen."
ELVE season is just getting started in Europe and North America, where spring and summer thunderstorms will multiply in the months ahead. Photographers should be alert for red rings and many other things above the cloudtops. Look here.
https://spaceweather.com/

A SOLAR RADIO BURST AT NIGHT:

22/3/2023

Something rare and strange happened last month. On Feb. 23rd, growing sunspot AR3234 produced an M-class solar flare. It was nearly midnight in Florida when the explosion occurred, so you'd expect no one there to notice. On the contrary, in the community of High Springs, FL, amateur radio astronomer Dave Typinski recorded a strong shortwave radio burst.
"You CAN see the sun at midnight in Florida... sometimes," says Typinski. This is what his instruments recorded while the flare was underway:

A double wave of static washed over Florida, filling the radio spectrum with noise at all frequencies below 25 MHz. "The Sun was 69° below the horizon when this happened," he marvels.
How is this possible? The entire body of our planet was blocking the event from Typinski's antenna. It's called "antipodal focusing". First postulated by Marconi more than 100 years ago, antipodal focusing is a mode of radio propagation in which a signal starts out on one side of the planet, gets trapped between Earth's surface and the ionosphere, and travels to the opposite hemisphere. Waves converging at the antipode can create a surprisingly strong signal.

"This is the second or maybe third midnight solar radio burst I've seen in ten years, but it's by far the strongest," says Typinski. "The previous events happened at the height of Solar Cycle 24. They're quite rare."

This diagram from a declassified US Gov.report shows the basic geometry of antipodal focusing.

Pause: Yes, solar flares can produce radio signals. Typinski's midnight burst was a "Type V", caused by streams of electrons shooting through the sun's atmosphere in the aftermath of the flare. Plasma waves rippling away from the streams emited intense bursts of natural radio static. The burst was first observed in broad daylight at the Learmonth Solar Observatory in Australia, then it curved around Earth to reach Typinski.

Above: An example of antipodal focusing of seismic waves caused by
the Chicxulub asteroid impact. The geometry is the same as for radio waves. [more].

"This propagation mode was used during the Cold War," notes Typinski. "The U.S. would park a SIGINT ship in the south Pacific to grab signals from the Eastern Bloc. The Soviets probably did the same thing, parking in the southern Indian ocean."
Turns out, this method of spying works for radio astronomers, too. Would you like to record an event like this? NASA's Radio JOVE program makes it easy. Off-the-shelf radio telescope kits allow even novices to monitor radio outbursts from the sun, which are becoming more frequent as Solar Cycle 25 intensifies.
www.spaceweather.com