NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a time-lapse video of the sun from March 14-18, and the footage revealed a massive solar tornado that developed near the north pole of the sun. NASA explained that this may be “the tallest tornado” ever captured in the solar system. It reached towering heights of 75,000 miles or 14 times that of Earth’s diameter. Not only was it extraordinarily large, but the fiery twister raged on the sun’s surface for three days before it dissipated and ejected the sun’s plasma out into space. Andrew McCarthy, an astrophotographer based in Arizona, captured the phenomenon in incredible detail using a solar telescope.
The event is not expected to affect Earth, but the sun’s recent solar activity may produce solar winds, which can lead to geomagnetic storms that can trigger auroras on Earth at the end of the week.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a time-lapse video of the sun from March 14-18. A solar tornado emerged near the north pole of the sun, towering as high as 14 Earths!
Streaks of bright lights were spotted across the night sky over Sacramento, California, on March 17. This was likely small debris from a Japanese interorbital communications system.
Skywatchers who had a bit of luck on St. Patrick’s Day spotted an astounding sight over California on Friday around 9:30 p.m. PDT. Jaime Hernandez was in Sacramento on Friday evening for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration and was one of the people across the state who witnessed the stunning sight. “Mainly, we were in shock, but amazed that we got to witness it,” Hernandez told The Associated Press. “None of us had ever seen anything like it.”
Around half a dozen glowing lights were spotted streaking across the sky, but they were unrelated to a meteor shower or an asteroid hitting the Earth. According to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the objects were pieces of space junk burning up as they re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. Experts believe the debris was most likely from a Japanese communications satellite that was launched to the ISS in 2009 but recently jettisoned to create valuable space for newer technology aboard the space outpost. “It probably almost completely burnt up during reentry, but any small surviving debris may have, at a guess, reached the Yosemite area,” McDowell said in a tweet.
This latest image from the James Webb Space Telescope features Wolf-Rayet 124, a dying star on the verge of going supernova.
Spring is on the verge of blooming in the United States, with the start of the new season arriving on the equinox at 5:24 p.m. EDT on March 20. On Tuesday, NASA released an image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that, like a flower about to blossom, showed a star about to burst open.
Star WR 124 is around 15,000 light-years from Earth and is 30 times more massive than our sun. The distant star is nearing its end, and as it progresses through the twilight of its life, it is shedding its outer layer into space, creating an enormous cloud of glowing gas and dust. The pink and purple colors in the image captured by the mid-infrared instruments aboard the JWST are massive clouds of dust and gas cast off by the star.
WR 124 will eventually explode in a cataclysmic eruption known as a supernova. It is rare for astronomers to take observations of a star during this brief stage before exploding into smithereens, making the observations from the JWST valuable for scientists. “Stars like WR 124 also serve as an analog to help astronomers understand a crucial period in the early history of the universe,” NASA said. “Similar dying stars first seeded the young universe with heavy elements forged in their cores – elements that are now common in the current era, including on Earth.”
The luminous, hot star Wolf-Rayet 124 (WR 124) is prominent at the center of the James Webb Space Telescope’s composite image. The star is 15,000 light-years from Earth. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team)
In this handout photo released by Roscosmos Space Agency Press Service, a view of the International Space Station taken on March 30, 2022 by crew of Russian Soyuz MS-19 space ship after undocking from the Station. (Roscosmos Space Agency Press Service via AP)
Four astronauts recently arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) after blasting off from Earth on a SpaceX rocket on Thursday, March 2. It took less than a week before the new residents were introduced to the growing crowd of satellites and space junk orbiting the Earth.
A satellite was on a potential collision course with the football field-sized space station early this week, so NASA had to take action to avoid a potential catastrophe. “The orbital outpost maneuvered out of the way of an Earth observation satellite early Monday,” NASA said in a statement. A space capsule docked to the ISS fired its engines for just over six minutes to avoid the satellite and raise the station’s orbit. The satellite in question is believed to be Nusat-17, an Earth-observation satellite launched in 2020 and operated by Argentina, according to SPACE.com.
Raising the orbit of the ISS is a standard procedure as the pull of the planet’s gravity gradually tugs the station down toward Earth over time. However, it is becoming more common for the station to maneuver out of the way of a satellite or piece of space junk. A NASA report about space debris stated that the ISS made 32 maneuvers between 1999 and 2022 to avoid potential collisions with other human-made objects. Half of these occurred between 2014 and 2022, with nine such maneuvers occurring in 24 months.
An infrared image of Jupiter's north pole, taken by the Juno spacecraft on March 7, 2018. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM)
Nine robotic explorers have journeyed over 500 million miles to Jupiter since the dawn of space exploration. The latest probe, Juno, has taken some of the most detailed observations of the planet to date. On March 7, 2018, NASA unveiled an infrared image of Jupiter’s north pole. Eight cyclones were pictured revolving around the pole, and although they look like lava, temperatures in the cloud formations are as low as 181 degrees below zero. Each cyclone is 2,500 and 2,900 miles across, about the same size as the contiguous United States or roughly one-third the diameter of the Earth.
“Before Juno, we could only guess what Jupiter’s poles would look like,” said Alberto Adriani, Juno co-investigator from the Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology, Rome. “Now, with Juno flying over the poles at a close distance it permits the collection of infrared imagery on Jupiter’s polar weather patterns and its massive cyclones in unprecedented spatial resolution.” Juno photographed a similar geometric pattern over Jupiter’s south pole, but scientists were surprised to see only five cyclones compared to the eight observed circling the north pole.
The basketball court-sized spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter since July 5, 2016, and recently completed its 47th orbit around the planet. NASA extended the Juno mission through September 2025, and the agency could extend the mission again if the spacecraft remains healthy.
It was a tranquil evening along Florida’s Atlantic coast, but tension filled the air around the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Two nights had passed since a crewed mission to the International Space Station was called off just minutes before the countdown reached zero, and NASA and SpaceX were once again preparing to launch four humans to the celestial outpost 259 miles above the Earth.
At 12:34 a.m. EST Thursday, the nine engines of the SpaceX rocket lit up and the rocket took to the sky, the start of a 25-hour journey to the ISS. On board were NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Al-Neyadi -- the first astronaut from the UAE to partake in a long-duration mission in space. Al-Neyadi, who is Muslim, will be in space throughout Ramadan, which takes place from March 22 through April 23. Adult Muslims fast from dawn to sunset during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, but on the ISS, the sun rises and sets once every 90 minutes. According to SPACE.com, there are exceptions to the Ramadan fasting rule for travelers, but Al-Neyadi told reporters that he would try to fast as his schedule allows.
The four-person crew will spend roughly six months on the ISS conducting research, performing maintenance and fulfilling other duties while orbiting the Earth. Thursday’s mission was SpaceX’s 14th launch of the year, good for an average of one launch every 4.2 days.
An engine ignition system issue forced SpaceX to halt a launch attempt Monday, just two minutes from liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The launch, intended to send four humans to the International Space Station for NASA, will be postponed through at least Thursday.
Officials stated the problem was due to ground equipment used for loading engine ignition fluid, equipment a SpaceX engineer compared to spark plugs for a car. The launch team could not be sure that there was a full load of fluid aboard. The SpaceX Crew-6, consisting of two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates, waited about an hour for SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket to be drained of fuel before getting out. “I’m proud of the NASA and SpaceX teams’ focus and dedication to keeping Crew-6 safe,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. “Human spaceflight is an inherently risky endeavor and, as always, we will fly when we are ready.”
The next available launch attempt for Crew-6 will be at 12:34 a.m. EST Thursday, pending a resolution of the equipment issues that prevented Monday’s launch. The crew will replace four current residents of the space station that have been there since October. Currently, there is a 90% chance of favorable weather accompanying the Thursday launch. NASA and SpaceX will forgo a launch opportunity on Tuesday due to unfavorable weather conditions, including sustained winds of 15 mph with gusts up to 29 mph at Cape Canaveral. Fast winds can postpone a launch, as they can disrupt a rocket both at the launchpad and miles above the ground. High winds, lightning and downrange conditions (weather factors off Florida’s east coast and over the Atlantic Ocean) can all hinder a launch.
Jupiter, Venus and the moon aligned in the sky over Disney World's Magic Kingdom on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. (Instagram/ dstarcastle)
Venus, Jupiter and the crescent moon gathered in the evening sky this week, a three-night event that caught the attention of stargazers worldwide -- including one parkgoer in Florida’s famous Disney World resort.
Tuesday evening was the first opportunity to spot the alignment with the crescent moon appearing below Venus and Jupiter. Donna Papaycik was in Disney’s Magic Kingdom, often touted as “The Most Magical Place On Earth,” and snapped a breathtaking photo of the celestial trio. Hues of red and pink in the evening sky nearly matched the enchanting glow of Cinderella’s Castle, the park’s centerpiece.
The celestial spectacle continued on Wednesday evening when the moon appeared side-by-side with Jupiter while Venus shined bright below the pairing. As the sun set on Thursday evening, the trio once again was strung out in a line, similar to Tuesday evening’s event, although this time, the moon glowed above the two planets. Jupiter and Venus are slowly converging in the evening sky, and on March 1, the two will appear extremely close to each other during one of the top astronomy events of 2023.
A huge planet that has never been seen by astronomers could be lurking at the edge of our solar system, some scientists believe.
The existence of another planet hidden in the depths of our solar system has been hypothesized for years. While a planet has not been officially discovered, many refer to it as Planet X.
Astronomers at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, have scanned the icy reaches of the outer solar system for evidence of another planet. They have not confirmed its existence, but they have made a prediction about the planet’s potential characteristics. If the mysterious Planet X does exist, it is likely to be about 10 times larger than the Earth and take roughly 10,000 to 20,000 years to make one orbit around the sun. For comparison, Neptune, the eighth planet from the sun, is four times bigger than Earth and takes 165 years to orbit the sun.
A large gas planet on the background of its star. Computer graphics. Exoplanet in the artist's view. (iStock / Getty Images Plus)
The most challenging aspect of discovering such a planet is spotting it in space. Even if the planet does exist, it may be impossible to see with current technology due to how far away it is from Earth. However, scientists may eventually be able to detect Planet X with its gravity signature as it will influence other objects in the far reaches of the solar system. “I would love to find it,” said Mike Brown, an astronomer at Caltech. “But I’d also be perfectly happy if someone else found it. We hope that other people are going to get inspired and start searching.”
The weekend was a time of celebration for NASA as Saturday marked two Earth years since the Perseverance rover touched down on Mars. “Anniversaries are a time of reflection and celebration, and the Perseverance team is doing a lot of both,” said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley of Caltech in Pasadena, California. The robotic explorer arrived at the Red Planet on Feb. 18, 2021, and in a first for planetary exploration, recorded audio of the Martian winds to convey the mission to folks who are visually impaired.
Since becoming the latest robotic resident of Mars, Perseverance has navigated 9.3 miles of the rocky Martian terrain, captured more than 166,000 images of the planet and gathered over 15,769 hours of weather observations. Perseverance has not been alone, traveling with Ingenuity, the first helicopter to fly on another planet. The rover has even made a friend with NASA scientists discovering a pet rock hitching a ride in one of its six wheels.
Perseverance is already laying the groundwork for future missions to the Red Planet. Since Aug. 6, 2021, the rover has been gathering samples of rocks, dirt and air, placing them in tubes and leaving them on the planet’s surface. Future missions to Mars will collect these sealed tubes and blast them back to Earth, where scientists worldwide can study the samples.
Pink aurora illuminated the night sky over northern Vermont on Wednesday night, a rare sight that could be followed up with more outbursts of the Northern Lights over Canada and the far northern United States into the weekend.
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center issued a G1 storm watch for Thursday night and a G2 storm watch for Friday night. Geomagnetic storms of this magnitude can create enchanting displays of the Aurora Borealis over Canada and the northern tier of the U.S., including New England, the Upper Midwest, the northern Plains and the northern Rockies. Experts say the peak of the activity is likely during the first half of Saturday night, and anyone hoping to get a glimpse of the aurora should travel to dark areas away from light-polluted cities.
The northern lights are visible over Anchorage, Alaska, on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
The Northeast could be the best spot in the contiguous U.S. for viewing the northern lights on Friday night with partly cloudy to mainly clear conditions in the forecast, including areas of Upstate New York north of Albany. Clouds will be an issue for stargazers across most of the Midwest and northern Plains, including around Grand Forks, North Dakota. Poor stargazing conditions are also in the offing for the interior Northwest, including around Spokane, Washington, although a few breaks in the clouds cannot be ruled out.
A minor geomagnetic storm was taking place on Wednesday, setting the stage for northern parts of the United States to see auroras on Wednesday night, according to EarthSky.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) highlighted the potential for the northern lights to be spotted across northern parts of the U.S., including parts of Washington, northern Idaho, Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Michigan, northern New York and northern parts of New England.
The AccuWeather stargazing index is rated as good for places like Billings, Montana, and Fargo, North Dakota, where few clouds will interfere with views of the aurora. Meanwhile, areas farther east like Green Bay, Wisconsin, will have poor stargazing conditions due to clouds from a large storm affecting the U.S.
The Voyager program was instrumental in exploring the outer solar system, and it remains the only time that NASA visited Uranus and Neptune. Decades later, the last image from the historic mission has stood the test of time. On Feb. 14, 1990, the Voyager 1 spacecraft -- located 3.7 billion miles away -- pointed its camera at Earth and captured an image of home. This was the final image taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft before the camera was powered down to conserve energy.
Carl Sagan, an American astronomer who had a pivotal role in the Voyager program, unveiled the image at a press conference and put the picture into perspective. “It looks like more than a dot, but it is, in fact, less than a pixel. You can see that it is slightly blue and this is where we live on a blue dot,” Sagan said.
“On that blue dot, that’s where everyone you know and everyone you’ve ever heard of, and every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. It’s a very small stage in a great cosmic arena. Just speaking for myself, I think this perspective underscores our responsibility to preserve and cherish that blue dot, the only home we have.”
The Subaru-Asahi Star Camera perched atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, captured a rare sighting of red sprites hovering above a distant thunderstorm on Feb. 5.
Hawaii offers incredible night sky views, making it an ideal location for telescopes to observe the night sky. On Feb. 5, 2023, a camera focused on the night sky over the Asahi-Shimbun and Subaru Telescope on the Big Island of Hawaii captured images of a rare weather phenomenon. A thunderstorm was rumbling in the distance behind the telescopes when multiple jellyfish-shaped lightning bolts called sprites appeared high in the sky.
Lightning sprites are much larger and more elusive than typical lightning during a thunderstorm. Unlike standard lightning flashes that are white and can strike the ground, sprites appear red or pink and extend upward over powerful thunderstorms, frequently reaching 30 to 56 miles (50-90 km) above the surface of the Earth. The Kármán line, which many scientists consider to be the edge of space, is 62 miles (100 km) above the Earth’s surface. Spites only last for a fraction of a second, making them incredibly challenging to witness.
Reports of sprite sightings date back hundreds of years but were not captured on camera until 1989. “Researchers from the University of Minnesota were testing a low-light TV camera for an upcoming rocket flight mission,” NASA explained. “By sheer accident, their camera captured the very first credible evidence for what we now call sprites.” Meteorologists have many unanswered questions about the formation of sprites since they are extremely difficult to observe and document. NASA has asked citizen scientists to file reports to help scientists study the electrifying phenomenon.
An image of Jupiter captured by the Cassini spacecraft on Dec. 7, 2000, as the space probe made its way through the solar system toward Saturn. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, but it ranked second in terms of the number of moons after Saturn, which has 83 confirmed moons in addition to its awe-inspiring rings. That is, until 2023.
Astronomers announced the discovery of 12 never-before-seen moons orbiting Jupiter, bringing its total number of confirmed moons to 92. Astronomer Scott Sheppard and a team of fellow scientists at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., made the discovery, although it took around a year to confirm that the objects they were tracking were indeed orbiting the planet. Sheppard believes these moons could be remnants of at least seven larger moons that broke apart when they collided with other moons, asteroids or comets.
And that’s not all. The confirmed number of moons orbiting Jupiter could soon reach triple digits, with Sheppard saying that his team is working to confirm “many, many more moons around Jupiter.”
A cloud of icy molecules that could one day give birth to stars and planets. (NASA, ESA, CSA and M. Zamani (ESA))
The James Webb Space Telescope has captured breathtaking images of the cosmos since its launch on Dec. 25, 2021, including one picture of a region of space that could one day give birth to planets and stars.
The telescope recently observed a massive molecular cloud 630 light-years away from Earth, with its instruments detecting the presence of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur inside the cloud. “These elements are important ingredients in both planetary atmospheres and molecules like sugars, alcohols, and simple amino acids,” NASA explained. “This is the most comprehensive census to date of the icy ingredients available to make future generations of stars and planets before they are heated during the formation of young stars.”
The blue, wispy material in the center of the image is the heart of the icy cosmic cloud, and the shimmering orange bursts of light on the left side of the image are young stars that have developed in the same region of space.
An image of the sun captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory on Aug. 13, 2022. (NASA/SDO)
The sun has been bubbling with activity in recent months with solar flares frequently erupting on the surface of the star. Many of these eruptions have little to no impact on the Earth, but a 133-day timelapse released by NASA revealed how the surface of the sun has been bustling with activity since last summer.
The timelapse began on Aug. 12 and continued through Dec. 22, the day after the December solstice. In the video, the sun’s appearance is much different and more detailed than the human perspective from Earth (with proper eye protection, of course). That is because NASA’s instruments observe the sun through multiple wavelengths of light. Different wavelengths can help scientists identify different features on the sun’s surface, which can improve the accuracy of space weather predictions. “The loops extending above the bright regions are magnetic fields that have trapped hot, glowing plasma,” NASA explained. “These bright regions are also the source of solar flares, which appear as bright flashes as magnetic fields snap together in a process called magnetic reconnection.”
Larger outbursts on the sun can send clouds of charged particles at the Earth and spark vibrant displays of the northern lights. Intense solar activity could also cause issues with GPS systems, fluctuations with power grids on Earth and an increase in radiation exposure for astronauts on the International Space Station.
