• Double eruption on Sun

    On October 1st around 10:17 UT, widely-spaced sunspots 1302 and 1305 erupted in quick succession, revealing a long-distance entanglement which was not obvious before. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) recorded the movie of the double blast:Since it was

  • Sundiving comet

    A comet is diving into the sun today. Discovered on Sept. 29th by a group of four independent comet hunters (M. Kusiak, S. Liwo, B. Zhou and Z. Xu), the icy visitor from the outer solar system is evaporating furiously as it approaches the hot star. SOHO (the Solar and

  • Solar wind blasts Mercury

    At a NASA teleconference yesterday, researchers working with data from the Messenger spacecraft offered new evidence that gusts of solar wind are penetrating Mercury’s magnetic field and eroding material off the planet’s surface. The spacecraft has actually flown

  • Aurora reverberations

    A CME hit Earth’s magnetic field on Sept. 26th, sparking one of the strongest magnetic storms in years. At the peak of the Kp=8 disturbance, auroras were sighted around both poles and more than half a dozen US states. Magnetic reverberations continued for more than 48

  • Minor geomagnetic storm in progress

    A minor geomagnetic storm erupted earlier today, Sept. 28th, causing beautiful Wednesday-morning auroras in Canada and some northern-tier US states. These are, essentially, aftershocks of the severe storm on Sept. 26th. More reverberations are possible tonight.

  • CME impact sets amazing auroras

    A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth’s magnetic field around noon Universal Time on Sept. 26th. The impact set the stage for a night to remember. As soon as darkness fell over Scandinavia, auroras filled the sky with such intensity that they were visible through

  • Severe geomagnetic storm subsiding

    A severe geomagnetic storm (Kp=7 to 8) that began yesterday when a CME hit Earth's magnetic field is subsiding.At the peak of the disturbance, auroras were sighted around both poles and in more than six US states including Michigan, New York, South Dakota, Maine, Ma

  • Strong solar activity causing severe geomagnetic storm

    High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras. A strong (Kp=7) geomagnetic storm is in progress. Earth's magnetic field has been strongly disturbed since approximately 1300 UT on Sept. 26th when a CME hit our planet. The impact strongly compressed the…

  • Strong solar activity from Sunspot 1302

    A pair of closely-spaced CMEs propelled by explosions of sunspot AR1302 on Sept. 24th are heading not-quite directly toward Earth. A significant glancing blow to our planet’s magnetic field is possible on Sept. 26th around 14:00 UT (+/- 7 hours). NOAA forecasters