Category Archives: Astronomy News

Astronomy News

TWO CMEs ARE HEADING FOR EARTH

GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH (G2): Geomagnetic storms are likely on April 16th when a pair of closely-spaced CMEs is expected to hit Earth’s magnetic field. NOAA forecasters say storm levels could reach category G2 with auroras across Canada and northern-tier US States. The CMEs were hurled toward Earth by a double eruption on the sun; see below. 

A DOUBLE ERUPTION ON THE SUN: Explosions on the sun do *not* require sunspots. Spotless explosions occurred twice over the weekend when these two magnetic filaments lifted off the sun:

Magnetic filaments are tubes of dense plasma held above the sun’s surface by magnetic forces. The two pictured above are about 400,000 km long–longer than the distance between Earth and the Moon. These massive structures can erupt when their magnetic underpinnings become unstable. That happened twice in quick succession on April 12th and 13th–a rare double blast.

Fragments of the exploding filaments ripped through the sun’s atmosphere to produce a pair of closely-spaced CMEs, now heading for Earth. A one-two punch from these CMEs could spark a G2-class geomagnetic storm on April 16th. CME impact alerts: SMS Text.

Astronomy News

Are we on the verge of mining metals from the asteroids above Earth?

Are we on the verge of mining metals from the asteroids above Earth?

BBC, Josh Sims
 

Getty Images An asteroid rock on a starry background (Credit: Getty Images)
Asteroid mining firms say mining for minerals on asteroids is just around the corner now, but not everyone is convinced (Credit: Getty Images)

 

As an asteroid mining start-up’s latest mission goes awry, Josh Sims looks at how close we really are to extracting rare minerals from the many celestial bodies floating above us.

Thirty years ago the seminal BBC science programme Tomorrow’s World made a few predictions about how the world might be by 2025. It was a testament to how hard predicting the technological future is: we would, the programme suggested, have microchip implants to help us deal with ATMs, chat with holographic helpmates in our homes and there would be riots over internet access.

The episode also suggested we would be mining asteroids by now. And while we aren’t there yet, it’s something that some start-ups argue will happen sooner than many imagined.

The founder of the California-based company AstroForge believes it will be the first to get there, and the company has already taken the first tentative steps. On 27 February 2025 it launched its first $6.5m (£5.1m) unmanned spacecraft on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Around nine days later, AstroForge believes the spacecraft – named Odin – likely passed beyond the Moon and into deep space as planned.

Unfortunately, however, AstroForge developed major communications problems with Odin, which it is still trying to rectify at the time of writing. The firm hopes Odin has now entered its nine-month long coast to its mission destination: a fly-by of the carefully pre-selected asteroid 2022 OB5, some eight million km (five million miles) from Earth, which Odin will assess the composition of using its sensors.

“Move fast and break rocks” might be the mantra of Matt Gialich, AstroForge’s ebullient founder with a penchant for swear words, who is not dissuaded by the perhaps unresolvable technical trouble. AstroForge expected nothing less than many hurdles and has, he says, learned much even if contact isn’t made with this spacecraft again. “Yes, there are a lot more baby steps to take,” he concedes. “But we’re going to start to actually do it. You have to try.”

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Astronomy News

STRONG GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH

STRONG GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH
Space Weather News for March 22, 2025

NOAA forecasters have issued a watch for strong G3-class geomagnetic storms on March 23rd when a CME is expected to hit Earth. The Russell-McPherron effect could amplify the effectiveness of the impact, producing widespread equinox auroras. Full story @ Spaceweather.com.

CME impact alerts: Sign up for Space Weather Alerts to receive instant text messages when CMEs strike Earth.

Above: Equinox auroras over Luosto, Finland, on March 20th. “Thanks to the Russell-McPherron effect, the aurora showed up nicely,” reports photographer Zoltán Kolláth.

Astronomy News

COSMIC RAY SHOWERS CAUSE LIGHTNING

Space Weather News for March 20, 2025
https://spaceweather.com
https://www.spaceweatheralerts.com

COSMIC RAY SHOWERS CAUSE LIGHTNING:  A new study by researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory links lightning to antimatter in cosmic ray showers. This could solve a centuries-old mystery of what causes electrical outbursts in thunderstorms. Full story @ Spaceweather.com

Above: 3D images of lightning over New Mexico. Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory used these data to link lightning to cosmic rays.

Astronomy News

LUNAR ECLIPSE OBSERVED FROM THE MOON

LUNAR ECLIPSE OBSERVED FROM THE MOON:  For the first time in almost 60 years, a lunar lander has photographed an eclipse from the surface of the Moon. During last night’s lunar eclipse, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost recorded the sky show from Mare Crisium. Full story with photos @ Spaceweather.com.

Above: A two-planet view of last night’s lunar eclipse. Credit: Eric Allen and Firefly Aerospace.

Astronomy News, Science and technology

Space Snapshot

Good morning, Moon! This image captured by Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander on March 3 shows sunrise on the lunar surface. This marked the beginning of the lunar day and the start of Blue Ghost’s surface operations, which will last throughout one lunar day (about 14 Earth days). Image credit: Firefly Aerospace.

PlanetVac is sampling the Moon! Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost successfully landed on the Moon on March 2, carrying with it 10 NASA science and technology instruments, including Lunar PlanetVac. This sample collection technology was developed and tested by Honeybee Robotics, with key tests funded by Planetary Society members and donors. Firefly Aerospace confirmed this week that Lunar PlanetVac has been deployed to begin collecting samples of lunar regolith.

Moon illustrationWithout an atmosphere, the temperature on the surface of the Moon depends almost entirely on direct sunlight. Near the Moon’s equator, temperatures can reach around 120 degrees Celsius (250 degrees Fahrenheit) in the daytime and ten drop to -130 degrees Celsius (-208 degrees Fahrenheit) at night.

Lunar planetvac
The Lunar PlanetVac instrument on the end of Blue Ghost’s Surface Access Arm. Image credit: Firefly Aerospace.

PlanetVac is sampling the Moon! Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost successfully landed on the Moon on March 2, carrying with it 10 NASA science and technology instruments, including Lunar PlanetVac. This sample collection technology was developed and tested by Honeybee Robotics, with key tests funded by Planetary Society members and donors. Firefly Aerospace confirmed this week that Lunar PlanetVac has been deployed to begin collecting samples of lunar regolith.

Astronomy News

ASTEROID 2024 YR4 UPDATE

Space Weather News for Feb. 18, 2025
https://spaceweather.com
https://www.spaceweatheralerts.com

 ASTEROID 2024 YR4 UPDATE: The odds just increased again. Asteroid 2024 YR4 now has a 2.6% chance of hitting Earth on Dec. 22, 2032, up from 2.2% a week ago, and 1.3% in January. Current probabilities are based on 368 observations spanning 54 days. This growing arc of data is improving our knowledge of the asteroid’s orbit and, so far, steadily increasing the odds of a strike.


Click to view and play with an interactive orbit of asteroid 2024 YR4

That was the bad news. The good news is, even if it hits, 2024 YR4 will not wipe us out. With an estimated diameter of 40 to 70 meters, it is only a few times larger than the Chelyabinsk meteor that hit Russia in 2013. That space rock exploded in the atmosphere, creating shock waves that shattered glass windows and injured hundreds of people (mainly from broken glass). The estimated size of 2024 YR4 reminds researchers even more of the Tunguska impactor, which leveled a forest in Russia in 1908. You wouldn’t want to be at ground zero, but Earth would survive.

The risk profile of 2024 YR4 is unusual. Often we see sensational headlines predicting some newly-discovered asteroid might hit Earth. These are space rocks with huge error bars on their orbits because they haven’t been tracked for very long. As soon as more data are collected, the odds of impact go down. For 2024 YR4, however, the odds are still going up, which makes it interesting.

Reminder: There’s still a 97.4% chance of a miss. Stay tuned for updates.

 

Astronomy News

Hearts on Mars

https://www.planetary.org/

Hearts on mars

Mars may be named after the god of war, but it seems more like a sappy romantic. NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft spotted these hearts on the Martian surface throughout its time in orbit. All of them are natural formations, but let’s just go ahead and interpret them as love notes from the red planet. Image credit. NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems.

Astronomy News

Should you be worried about Asteroid 2024 YR4?

Kate Howells • Jan 30, 2025

https://www.planetary.org/articles/should-you-be-worried-about-asteroid-2024-yr4

Should you be worried about Asteroid 2024 YR4?

A recently discovered near-Earth asteroid, dubbed 2024 YR4, is making headlines because of the slim possibility that it could impact Earth on Dec. 22, 2032. Early observations suggest that it has about a 1% chance of colliding with our planet. So why all the fuss?

2024 YR4 is garnering so much attention because of more than 37,000 near-Earth asteroids already discovered, it is the only one with more than a 1 in 1,000 chance of impact. “It is rare to have an asteroid with a non-zero probability of hitting Earth,” said Heidi Hammel, Vice President for Science at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy and Vice President of the The Planetary Society’s board of directors.

To put it into context, 2024 YR4 has a Torino scale rating of as high as 3. The Torino Impact Hazard Scale ranges from 0 (no chance of impact) to 10 (certain impact likely to cause planetwide devastation). Ratings of 1 are fairly common among newly discovered asteroids, but follow-up observations have always reduced that rating to 0. Asteroid 2024 YR4’s rating of 3 is the second-highest an asteroid has ever reached. The only asteroid ranked higher was Apophis, discovered in 2004 and rated 4, but subsequently downgraded to 1 and then 0. We now know with certainty that Apophis will only pass close to Earth in 2029.

Right now, ESA estimates that 2024 YR4’s diameter is in the range of 40-100 meters (around 130-330 feet). If it did collide with Earth, an impactor of that size could cause an explosion in the atmosphere or even an impact crater, either of which could cause serious, even devastating, damage on the ground.

Asteroid danger by the numbers
Asteroid danger by the numbers The risk, characteristics, and rarity of various kinds of asteroid impacts.Image: NASA
Astronomy News

Venus Valentine

Venus Valentine

From Sky and Telescope

Fortuitously, the Planet of Love reaches greatest brilliancy on Valentine’s Day. At magnitude –4.9, it’s the equivalent of crushing a 1.4-day-old Moon into a point source. That’s bright! Bright enough to cast a shadow from a rural site on a moonless night. Count yourself lucky if you have snow cover. The added contrast makes it the perfect backdrop for shadow-spotting.

Venus casts shadows of the author and his tripod-mounted camera on a garage door on September 14, 2023, during the planet’s morning apparition. Shadows are crisp compared to those cast by the Sun because Venus is a point source, not an extended disk. If you try this experiment and have difficulty seeing your shadow, sway back and forth, and it should become more obvious. Bob King

If you’re wondering what to give your love for Valentine’s Day, consider the nearest planet. In the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, the fictional character George Bailey offers to lasso the Moon for his future wife Mary Hatch. Why not brandish your own imaginary lasso and “pull down” Venus for your sweetheart? (Don’t forget to have a box of specialty chocolates as a backup.)

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