A large negative-polarity coronal-hole high-speed stream (CH HSS) has been rotating into Earth’s line of sight since 23 June, prompting NOAA SWPC to issue a G2 geomagnetic-storm outlook for 25–26 June UTC. Solar wind gusts exceeding 600 km/s are expected, with the planetary K-index (Kp) peaking near 5–6. Solar Cycle 25 is nearing its predicted…
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The 24–25 June 2025 event is forecast to reach G1–G2 geomagnetic storming with a peak Kp of 5.67. NOAA SWPC’s 3‑Day Forecast issued on 24 June projects storming for 25–26 June. Up to 14–15 states could see auroras, from Alaska and Washington to New York and South Dakota. A large equatorial coronal hole rotated into…
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1859: British astronomer Richard Carrington observed a powerful solar flare, and within a day telegraph systems worldwide went haywire while auroras appeared near the equator—the Carrington Event, the largest geomagnetic storm on record. During the 1957–58 International Geophysical Year, Explorer-1 became the first U.S. satellite to discover the Van Allen radiation belts encircling Earth. SOHO,…
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Jupiter is the Solar System’s largest planet, about 318 Earth masses, with a rotation period of roughly 9.9 hours per day. It is composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, with a metallic hydrogen layer that powers a strong magnetic field via a dynamo. The Great Red Spot is a storm at least 300–350 years old,…
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Perseids peak on August 12–13, 2025 with 50–100 meteors per hour in the Northern Hemisphere, best after midnight as the Moon wanes. Geminids peak on December 13–14, 2025 with 100+ meteors per hour and the first-quarter Moon sets early. Quadrantids peak on January 3–4, 2026 with about 120 meteors per hour over roughly a four-hour…
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Odin (Brokkr-2) launched on Feb 26, 2025 aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 as part of Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 lunar mission. Its target was near-Earth asteroid 2022 OB5, about 20–30 meters in size (up to ~100 meters diameter) and suspected to be M-type metal-rich, with a flyby planned roughly 300 days after launch to confirm its metallic…
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The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is planned to launch in late 2026 (latest commitment by May 2027) aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy to a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L2, about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. Roman uses a 2.4-meter primary mirror repurposed from Hubble and a 300-megapixel Wide Field Instrument that covers about 0.28…
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JWST launched on December 25, 2021, aboard an ESA Ariane 5 rocket to the Sun-Earth L2 point, reaching about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth in January 2022. Its 6.5-meter segmented gold-coated beryllium primary mirror consists of 18 hexagonal segments, each about 1.32 meters across and roughly 20 kilograms, designed to fold for launch. JWST uses…
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