@NASA official notifications on cosmic activity in near-Earth space including solar events, asteroids, comets, and meteors.

Washington, D.C.
It’s #SunDay! Here’s your space weather report for the week of Sept. 11 - Sept. 17: • 0 M-class flares • 0 C-class flares (only counted if associated with coronal mass ejections) • 17 coronal mass ejections • 0 geomagnetic storms This video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the week’s activity. A quiet week on the Sun as a cluster of active regions move across the Sun’s disk and around the limb. As of Friday, Sept. 18, there are no active regions on the Earth-facing side of the Sun. The dark “strips” across the Sun that emerge towards the end of the video are coronal holes. These cooler bands of solar material on the Sun (which make them appear darker) are where the Sun’s magnetic field lines open up to space, allowing high-speed solar wind to escape. More about solar activity and space weather: go.nasa.gov/4bLKwte
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#MeteorSighting: Eyewitnesses in Michigan and Canada spotted a bright fireball over Ontario at 8:47 p.m. ET last night, Sept. 13. The event was verified by several cameras belonging to the Southern Ontario Meteor Network and other publicly accessible cameras in the area. Analysis of the data from these systems indicates that the meteor - produced by a small fragment of an asteroid about 2 inches in diameter and weighing approximately 7 ounces - first became visible above the Canadian town of Markstay-Warren, moving northwest at 32,000 mph. It disintegrated above a point midway between Wanapitei Lake and Raphoe. More on this fireball: go.nasa.gov/4dEKo0r
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It’s #SunDay! Here’s your space weather report for the week of Sept. 4 - Sept. 10: • 2 M-class flares • 6 C-class flares • 29 coronal mass ejections • 0 geomagnetic storms This video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the week’s activity. The Sun delivered a “one-two punch” of flares on Sept. 5, with an M1.0-class flare erupting from the Sun’s western limb (right side) at about 0:43 seconds into the video, followed by a C8.5-class flare from the eastern limb (left side) at about 0:46 seconds. Both flares also produced coronal mass ejections that swept through space to either side of Earth. By the end of the video, we have nine active regions on the Earth-facing side of the Sun, most of them clustering together right in the middle of the Sun’s disk. More about solar eruptions and space weather: go.nasa.gov/4bLKwte
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#MeteorSighting: NASA meteor cameras and the Geostationary Lightning Mappers on the GOES 18 and 19 satellites detected a bright fireball that occurred over western Kentucky at 1:33 a.m. CT on Sept. 10. The object - a piece of a comet about 16 inches in diameter and weighing ~200 pounds - entered the atmosphere above Crutchfield, Kentucky, and moved southwest at 145,000 mph. The fireball disintegrated above the town of Mabel, unleashing an energy of 50 tons of TNT and creating a bright flare that lit up the night sky. More on this fireball: go.nasa.gov/4yqAveL
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It’s #SunDay! Here’s your space weather report for the week of Aug 28 - Sept 3 • 1 M-class flare • 4 C-class flares • 55 coronal mass ejections • 0 geomagnetic storms This video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows the week’s activity. While this week’s flare count was fairly low, there was a surplus of coronal mass ejections. The week’s strongest flare was an M3-class, which can be seen erupting from an active region on the eastern limb (left side of Sun) at about 3:02. This active region is rotating onto the Earth-facing side of the Sun, so any eruptions from it in the near future may have some impact on Earth. More about solar eruptions and space weather: go.nasa.gov/4bLKwte
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A small natural object 1.5-5 feet (0.5-1.5m) is predicted to impact Earth’s atmosphere just northwest of Australia and safely disintegrate today, Sept. 6, 12:14 p.m. EDT. While not a hazard, scenarios like this provide an invaluable test of our planetary defense capabilities to monitor for larger objects and predict impact threats.
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The object was first reported to the Minor Planet Center by the Catalina Sky Survey, with earlier detections by Pan-STARRS, and the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies @NASAJPL calculated its trajectory and impact location - all funded by NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office.   This is only the 13th small object that has been detected in space prior to impact, most from @NASA’s routine planetary defense monitoring.
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#MeteorSighting: Eyewitnesses in Oregon and Washington reported a bright fireball seen the night of Aug. 30 at 8:32 p.m. PDT. The fireball was spotted at an altitude of 52 miles above the western slope of Mount St. Helens. Moving west at 48,000 mph, the object traveled some 80 miles through the upper atmosphere before disintegrating 33 miles above Astoria, Oregon. This fireball was not associated with any meteor shower, and meteorites are not thought to have been produced when the object fragmented. More on this fireball: go.nasa.gov/4xysLaI Eyewitness accounts supplied by the American Meteor Society
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It’s #SunDay! Here’s your space weather report for the week of Aug 21 - 27: • 8 M-class flares • 3 C-class flares • 32 coronal mass ejections • 0 geomagnetic storms This video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows the week’s activity. Active region AR14513 — the bright cluster of activity that has made its way across the Sun’s disk this week, appearing in the center at about 2:10 in this video — produced all but two of this week’s flares, though none reached X-class. The strongest flare in this period was an M6.9, also produced by AR14513, appearing at about 1:57 in the video. It still has a few more days on the Earth-facing side of the Sun, so we'll keep watch! More about solar eruptions and space weather: go.nasa.gov/4bLKwte
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It’s #SunDay! Here’s your space weather report for the week of Aug 14 - 20: • 4 M-class flares • 3 C-class flares • 22 coronal mass ejections • 0 geomagnetic storms This video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows the week’s activity. All of this week’s M-class flares happened in the last two days of this reporting period. Their source is the active region AR14513, which appears as a bright cluster that rotates into view from the Sun’s eastern limb (left side) starting on the 19th, about 2:30 into this video. We’ll keep an eye on this busy active region as it moves into an Earth-facing position over the coming days. Related: New NASA-funded efforts to predict active regions before they emerge: go.nasa.gov/4xHkFfE
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It’s #SunDay! Here’s your space weather report for the week of Aug 7 - 13: • 0 M-class flares • 1 C-class flare • 16 coronal mass ejections • 1 geomagnetic storm This video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows the week’s activity. It was a quite calm week on the Sun, with a moderate geomagnetic storm occurring on Aug. 8 after several coronal mass ejections arrived at Earth together. There was also a total solar eclipse on Aug. 12. How come SDO didn't see it? SDO follows a “geosynchronous” orbit, orbiting Earth at the same rate as Earth spins. The spacecraft effectively “hovers” over its ground station in White Sands, New Mexico. White Sands was outside of the eclipse’s path, so SDO didn’t see it. Visualize SDO’s orbit: go.nasa.gov/4ghyUAH
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#MeteorSighting: Hundreds of eyewitnesses in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and the Canadian province of British Columbia reported a bright fireball in the early morning hours of Aug. 14 at 12:48 a.m. PDT. The fireball was first spotted above the Washington town of Soap Lake, moving north at 33,000 mph. It traveled 36 miles through the atmosphere before fragmenting above Sim’s Corner. When it broke apart, the fireball unleashed an energy of 10 tons of TNT, creating a pressure/shock wave that propagated to the ground. Doppler weather radar indicates that some small meteorites may be on the ground in the area. This fireball was not part of the currently active Perseids meteor shower. More on this fireball: go.nasa.gov/3TVadT7 Eyewitness accounts supplied by the American Meteor Society
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Tonight, NASA is hosting a watch party for the peak of the Perseids meteor shower! Tune in to @NASA_Marshall's YouTube channel starting at midnight ET on Aug. 13 to hear from meteor experts, watch live views of the skies, and ask your questions. 📺: piped.video/watch?v=kVRkkrB4…
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Tomorrow: a total solar eclipse over Iceland and Spain. ☀️🌑🌎 The U.S. won’t see totality — so watch it live on X with @NASA and at nasa.gov/live. Coverage begins at 1:15 p.m. EDT!
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It’s #SunDay! Here’s your space weather report for the week of July 24 - July 30: • 3 M-class flares • 1 C-class flare • 31 coronal mass ejections • 0 geomagnetic storms This video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows the week’s activity. SDO remains in its Earth eclipse period, with daily “blackouts” as the spacecraft passes behind our planet, which will continue through Aug. 2. This week’s strongest flare, an M3.2-class eruption, appears at about 1:10 into the video as a brief flash in the middle of the Sun’s disk. Learn more about the Sun and space weather: go.nasa.gov/4bLKwte Note: This week's video does not include imagery from July 30th due to a temporary issue with our data processing pipeline that is being resolved.
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It’s #SunDay! Here’s your space weather report for the week of July 17 - July 23: • 5 M-class flares • 2 C-class flares • 31 coronal mass ejections • 0 geomagnetic storms This video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows the week’s activity. It was a fairly calm week on the Sun as SDO’s daily Earth eclipses punctuate our view of the Sun. The spacecraft’s Earth eclipse season, which began on July 5, continues through August 2. Eclipse seasons are three-week periods twice a year when the spacecraft’s orbit passes “behind” Earth, briefly blocking out the Sun each day. Learn more about space weather: go.nasa.gov/4bLKwte
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It’s #SunDay! Here’s your space weather report for the week of July 10 - July 16: • 1 M-class flare • 3 C-class flares • 29 coronal mass ejections • 0 geomagnetic storms This video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows the week’s activity. Those “blackouts” in the video below aren’t missing data — those are Earth eclipses! SDO is currently in its 33rd Earth eclipse season, which began on July 5 and will continue through August 2. Eclipse seasons are three-week periods twice a year when the spacecraft’s orbit passes “behind” Earth, briefly blocking out SDO's view of the Sun each day. Learn more about SDO and visualize its orbit: science.nasa.gov/mission/sdo…
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It’s #SunDay! Here’s your space weather report for the week of July 3 - July 9: • 1 X-class flare • 36 M-class flares • 3 C-class flares • 42 coronal mass ejections • 1 geomagnetic storm This video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows the week’s activity. The Sun celebrated the fourth of July with a big bang, emitting an intense X-class solar flare (go.nasa.gov/4y5m4xp) and a burst of M-class flares. You can see the show starting at about 0:49 in the video. Learn more about space weather: go.nasa.gov/4bLKwte
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A solar fireworks show! 🎇 The Sun emitted a strong solar flare on July 4, peaking at 4:41 p.m. ET. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an image of the event, which was classified as X1.3. The same view from the spacecraft's AIA 131 channel is shown here colorized in red, white, and blue: go.nasa.gov/4y5m4xp
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Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground. However — when intense enough — they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS & communications signals travel.
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To see how such space weather may affect Earth, check out @NWSSWPC, the U.S. government’s official source for space weather forecasts, watches, warnings, and alerts.
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