NASA is shaking things up for its next mission to research the sun.

The six satellites of NASA's Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment (SunRISE) mission are poised to launch to Earth orbit soon, to serve as an early warning system for incoming solar storms. They were originally slated to lift off on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket but have now been assigned a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, according to a NASA mission update.

SunRISE will fly to space as part of a rideshare mission sponsored by the U.S. Space Force's (USSF's) Space Systems Command (SSC). Though it's not stated specifically in the NASA release, that may be a hint as to why the mission's rocket was changed. On its most recent launch, USSF-87, Vulcan experienced an anomaly in one of its solid rocket boosters — the second such incident to occur during the rocket's four launches to date.

Vulcan succeeded in delivering the USSF-87 payload to its designated orbit on that launch, but the recurrence of the booster issue during ascent prompted the Space Force to pause national security launches on Vulcan until it could be addressed. Which mission SunRISE will be manifested on has not yet been released, but SSC has already shifted other launches between Vulcan and SpaceX's Falcon 9, so NASA's change in rockets for SunRISE could indicate either that the mission has been remanifested on a different SSC rideshare, or that another SSC mission has been shifted from Vulcan entirely.

SunRISE is a heliophysics study under the NASA Science Mission Directorate's "missions of opportunity" umbrella and is part of the Explorers Program run by Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. It consists of six small satellites, each about the size of a mailbox. The mini-constellation's mission is led by scientists at the University of Michigan and will be managed out of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

The half-dozen smallsats will be delivered to an orbit about 22,000 miles (35,000 kilometers) above Earth — just above a geostationary parking altitude — and fly in a giant 10-mile (16-km) "X" formation, each extending its roughly 10-foot (2.5-meter) antenna booms to act as a single large radio telescope to track solar radio bursts. These kinds of bursts travel faster than the energetic particles from a solar storm, and precede their arrival when shot towards Earth.

Powerful solar storms, like the one that hit Earth in January, are capable of disrupting or disabling satellites by interfering with onboard electronics, sensitive instruments and communications systems. If a storm is severe enough, it can pose a radiation threat to astronauts in orbit and even airborne passengers flying near Earth's poles, where the planet's magnetic field is weaker.

SunRISE will help researchers better understand the behavior of incoming solar radio bursts, but the mission won't serve as an alert system by itself. Instead, scientists will use data collected by the spacecraft to improve prediction models for impending space weather, which in turn could lead to mitigation plans to better thwart the effects of such solar events on orbital infrastructure.

Falcon Heavy is SpaceX's heavy-lift launch vehicle, capable of launching up to 58,860 pounds (26,700 kg) to geostationary transfer orbit. It's a triple-booster rocket that consists of three modified Falcon 9 first stages, and has launched 12 times since it debuted in 2018. Four of those have delivered national security payloads to orbit, with the most recent of those, USSF-52, launching in December 2023. Falcon Heavy's most recent flight overall occurred this past April, when it sent the Viasat-3 F3 telecom satellite to orbit.

Falcon Heavy's next mission will lift off with NASA's Nancy Roman Space Telescope, currently set for no earlier than Aug. 30. SunRISE is scheduled to launch later this year, but a more specific launch window has not yet been announced.

For several years now, astronomers who study the sun have faced a little mystery — our star seemed to hold too little silver. Whenever scientists examined the sun's outer layers, they've seen significantly less silver than they've expected to find.

Where, then, did the missing silver go?

As it turns out, this mystery may finally be solved. Newly published research suggests that the sun's missing silver may have been hiding in plain sight all along.

At first, the real mystery might seem to be why you'd seek silver in the sun at all. After all, 98.5% of the sun's mass is made from lightweight hydrogen and helium. Silver is just a tiny fraction of the remaining 1.5%, which also includes traces of other heavy elements like iron and copper.

These trace elements can illuminate the history of the cosmos. Silver is thought to form when dying stars violently explode in supernovas. When astronomers find silver in the sun and other stars, they can retrace the silver's origins and how stars have evolved over the eons.

"By studying the light of stars of different types and ages, we hope to understand where silver is formed in the universe, and how it has been distributed throughout the Milky Way over time," says Sema Caliskan, the lead author of the research and now a postdoc at the University of Liège in Belgium, in a statement.

Silver is particularly interesting because it's also found in utterly ancient meteorites called CI chondrites. These meteorites formed from the same primordial matter that created the sun, 4.6 billion years ago. As a result, when scientists break into CI chondrites that have fallen to Earth, they expect to find silver levels that match those they see in the sun.

Astronomers can measure the latter from afar by looking at sunlight's spectral lines. As light streams out from the sun's heart, it crashes into the atoms of our star's outer layers, which absorb the light at certain wavelengths. Look at a spectrum of sunlight, and you'll see dark lines where light has been absorbed. Atoms of different elements absorb different wavelengths, so each element leaves a distinct fingerprint.

Scientists can pore over these spectral fingerprints to reconstruct what elements created them and in what quantities. Therein lies the mystery: The sun seemed to contain much less silver than CI chondrites would indicate. This missing silver is a source for confusion in the sun's history.

Caliskan and her colleagues wondered if astronomers were missing something. They could not visit the sun in person, but they could still find where the silver might be hidden by simulating the sun's atoms on a computer. If they could create a high-silver model that still spawned the low-silver spectral lines, that model could be a good guess for the silver's whereabouts.

Other scientists had tried this before to limited success, but their simulations had been relatively simple. As light strikes an atom, the light has all sorts of intricate effects on the atom's innards. These effects can alter how the atom absorbs the light and, therefore, change how astronomers see that light.

Past models hadn't accounted for many of these tricky "non-equilibrium effects", because simulating them is far easier said than done. They're messy and complex and they vary a great deal from atom to atom.

In fact, no known scientists had ever tried to simulate a silver atom with non-equilibrium effects before Caliskan and her fellow investigators took on the challenge. They tried with their best guesses and the power of the Tetralith supercomputer in Linköping, Sweden.

Indeed, these non-equilibrium effects seem to explain the silver mystery. Based on their model, Caliskan and colleagues calculated that the sun holds 55% more silver than astronomers have measured.

This isn't a perfect match for the CI chondrites, but it's close enough that investigators can rule out any extraordinary cause. Instead, the missing silver may have been right there, in the sun all along, simply occluded from astronomers' view by tricks of physics. Next, Caliskan and colleagues plan to use this method to simulate other types of stars.

They published their work in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics in July 2026.

The most powerful solar storms to strike Earth may pack a bigger punch than scientists realized, according to a new study that suggests the impacts of extreme space weather have been underestimated.

Researchers found evidence that the apparent upper limit on Earth's response to the strongest solar storms may be an artifact of how solar wind has been measured rather than a true physical ceiling. If confirmed, the findings suggest that rare "once-in-a-thousand-year" geomagnetic storms could have a greater impact on modern technology than current estimates indicate, according to a statement.

"Our planet's magnetic field does a really great job of protecting us against many space weather effects and so they often just show up as glitches or beautiful aurora," Maria Walach, co-author of the study from Lancaster University, said in the statement. "There are however extreme cases."

Solar storms occur when eruptions from the sun, such as coronal mass ejections and solar flares, send clouds of charged particles hurtling toward Earth. While they can produce spectacular auroras, they can also disrupt satellites, GPS, radio communications and power grids.

History has shown the damage even less extreme storms can cause. The 1859 Carrington Event, the strongest geomagnetic storm on record, disrupted telegraph systems around the world and pushed auroras from their usual high-latitude skies near the Arctic and Antarctic to locations as far south as the tropics. Another powerful storm in 1989 collapsed Quebec's power grid, leaving millions without electricity, while the 2003 "Halloween storms" disrupted satellites, GPS and radio communications.

While the study doesn't suggest that an unprecedented solar storm is imminent, it argues that scientists may need to rethink how they estimate the severity of the rarest events — an increasingly important challenge as modern society grows more dependent on satellites and other vulnerable technologies.

The researchers traced the apparent upper limit to where most solar wind measurements are collected. Many observations of extreme events come from spacecraft near the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1 (L1), about 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) upstream of Earth. Because the strongest solar wind tends to weaken somewhat before reaching Earth, comparing L1 measurements with conditions at our planet can make it appear that Earth's upper atmosphere stops responding to increasingly intense solar wind, even when it does not.

To test that idea, the team analyzed more than one million solar wind measurements collected by NASA spacecraft orbiting much closer to Earth, where the solar wind directly interacts with our planet's magnetic field. Those observations showed that electrical currents flowing through Earth's upper atmosphere continued to increase alongside stronger solar wind, with no sign of the previously assumed upper limit. The results suggest that exceptionally powerful solar storms could generate stronger geomagnetic disturbances — and greater impacts on satellites, communications systems and power grids — than earlier estimates predicted.

"Fortunately, these very extreme cases are rare, but this also means we have limited data to work with and only time will tell what happens at the very extreme one-in-a-thousand-year kind of event," Walach said in the statement.

The study comes as the sun remains near the peak of its roughly 11-year solar cycle, known as solar maximum, when sunspots, solar flares and coronal mass ejections become more frequent. During the current cycle, strong geomagnetic storms have repeatedly sent auroras far beyond their usual polar skies.

In May 2024, the strongest geomagnetic storm in more than two decades illuminated skies across much of the United States and Europe while causing intermittent disruptions to high-frequency radio communications, GPS-guided equipment and some satellite operations. Although significant, that event was far less powerful than the Carrington Event — or the even rarer storms the new study suggests may be possible.

The findings were published July 15 in the journal Nature.

On Aug. 12, I get to fulfil a lifelong ambition. I'll take a flight to Madrid and travel northwest to the city of Valladolid by rail, before striking out for Valoria la Buena — a charming town in central Spain with a population of less than 1,000.

There, I'll bear witness to one of the most spectacular naked eye shows that the solar system has to offer: a total solar eclipse. My first total solar eclipse.

Don't get me wrong. I've been obsessed with eclipses my entire life. I just haven't found myself in the right place at the right time to experience totality until now. 10-year-old me came pretty close during a deep partial eclipse in 1999, when I caught a fleeting glimpse of the moon's silhouette taking a bite out of the sun in the cloud-ridden skies over the United Kingdom.

Smash cut 20-something years later and I'm inexplicably the Skywatching Writer for Space.com, where one of the major perks of the job is being sent to report on eclipses. Things aligned quite nicely.

For the 2026 eclipse, I'll be joining a volunteer team from NASA's Dynamic Eclipse Broadcast (DEB) Initiative led by citizen scientist Charles Greenwald.

The DEB is a network of enthusiastic solar observers led by professional astronomers who use standardized telescopes and software to share inspiring eclipse imagery to the public, while also capturing valuable scientific data on the sun's disk and golden atmosphere.

It was Greenwald who scouted Valoria la Buena as a prime location to observe the eclipse. He's since been hard at work liaising with DEB initiative leadership to test software updates and troubleshoot other issues, while also travelling to Mexico to help train student members of the team ahead of their expedition to Spain. Two more eclipse enthusiasts are due to join the group once it arrives in Madrid, making it a wonderfully international affair.

Less than a month out, things are pretty settled, and a kind of nervous anticipation has taken hold. Flights and trains are booked, and I have a pair of Celestron EclipSmart 10x42 binoculars and the EclipSmart 3-Piece Solar Eclipse Observing and Imaging Kit, courtesy of Celestron. Also hats and an ungodly amount of suntan lotion. I'm bald after all, so the sun is my greatest natural predator.

Of course, preparations can only get you so far. Once we get to Valoria la Buena on Aug. 10 there'll still be important work to do. The first order of business for Charles and his DEB team will be to stake out a location with a clear line of sight to the west for their equipment. Totality will occur with the sun less than 10 degrees above the horizon — roughly the width of your clenched fist held at arm's length — so line of sight will be everything.

We'll also be at the mercy of the weather. Clouds could easily arrive to hide the cosmic show from view — especially with the eclipse so low on the horizon. The DEB team also has to find a spot with good connectivity, which will allow them to broadcast near-live images of our parent star for the public to enjoy and scientists to pore over.

All being well, myself, the DEB team and over 15 million others in the path of totality will bear witness to a heartstopping display of orbital mechanics that crescendos with the fleeting artificial night of totality, as the moon blocks the last sliver of the sun from view. Space.com's Skywatching Editor Daisy Dobrijevic will also be on hand to report on the total solar eclipse as it unfolds in the skies over Greenland.

We can't wait to share our experiences with you. Be sure to stick with Space.com to discover everything there is to know about the Aug. 12 total solar eclipse, along with details on how to watch it online, which will be published closer to the event!

You should also read our guide to safely observing the sun, to ensure that you're ready to enjoy the eclipse, and our roundup of the best solar viewing equipment available in 2026 if you're looking for safe, quality gear.

Editor's Note: Want to share your eclipse photography with Space.com's readers? Then please send your photos and comments, along with your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

Sometimes weeks go by without anything notable happening in the sky. Then along comes something spectacular, like a total solar eclipse, the peak of a major meteor shower or a bright planet reaching a landmark moment in the evening sky. On Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, all three occur almost simultaneously. As a bonus, if you are under a dark sky for the Perseids, the Milky Way's bright central regions will stretch across the southern sky by around midnight.

Exactly what you'll see of the eclipse depends on where you are on Earth. From within a narrow 180-mile-wide path of totality across eastern Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain, a total solar eclipse will briefly turn day into night for lucky locals and intrepid eclipse chasers. Across the U.K., millions will see a partial eclipse of the sun, ranging from 90% to 95%. Across Europe and northwest Africa, an equally deeply eclipsed sun will peak at sunset, creating a truly strange sight. Minutes later, brilliant Venus reaches dichotomy — appearing exactly half-lit in telescopes, while to the naked eye it blazes at magnitude -4.4 in the western twilight. A few hours later, the annual Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak.

Wherever you are, there will be something worth looking at. Here's exactly what will happen, where and when, depending on where you are (times are from Time and Date).

Iceland or Greenland: a total solar eclipse … and aurora?

If you've traveled to (or live in) western Iceland, or you're booked on an expedition cruise ship on Aug. 12, you're in for a treat. The point of maximum eclipse — 2 minutes 18 seconds — is off the coast of Iceland, accessible by ship, but likely not by many. It's possible that expedition ships in the lower reaches of Scoresby Sund, Greenland, will experience the most totality, with 2 minutes 17 seconds possible at 4:36 p.m. WGST, with the eclipse 25 degrees above the west-southwest. Here, the sun will set at 10:15 p.m., with the darkest time about 12:50 a.m. — there is no truly dark night, just all-night civil twilight. That makes the Perseids and aurora unlikely to be seen even if they're present. Ditto Venus — Greenland is too far north.

In Iceland, totality will begin between 5:43 and 5:50 p.m. GMT, depending on the exact location. It will last longest in regions farthest west, with 2 minutes 13 seconds at Látrabjarg in the remote Westfjords (5:44 p.m.) and 2 minutes 10 seconds at the westernmost coast of Snæfellsnes Peninsula (5:45 p.m.). The eclipse will be 25.5 degrees above the west-southwest. The sun will set at 9:53 p.m. in Reykjavík, with the darkest window from 11:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. (and the darkest time 1:30 a.m.). That makes Perseids and aurora possible — though summer twilight often limits visibility. However, Venus will not be visible after sunset.

Spain: Totality, Venus and the Perseids

For anyone within Spain's path of totality, Aug. 12 promises to be one of the greatest days of skywatching imaginable. The main event comes late in the day as the moon completely covers the sun. In parts of northern and eastern Spain, totality will occur with the sun hanging low above the western horizon, creating one of the most photogenic eclipse scenarios of the century.

In Spain, totality will begin between 8:26 and 8:33 p.m. CEST, depending on the exact location. Its maximum duration in Spain will last longest in regions farthest northwest, with 1 minute 50 seconds at Playa de la Escaladina in Galicia (8:26 p.m.), where the eclipse will be 11 degrees above the west-northwest. It will be at its shortest, at 1 minute 36 seconds, at Bellavista, Mallorca, one of the Balearic Islands (8:31 p.m.). The eclipse will be just a couple of degrees above the west-northwest. The sun will set at 9:16 p.m. in Madrid, with a dark night from around midnight through 4:40 a.m. CEST. The darkest part of the night — and the point when the radiant point Perseus will be high above the horizon — will be around 02:00 a.m. CEST.

Unless there's a whopping solar storm (unlikely), concentrate on the Perseid meteor shower, rather than hoping for aurora. Light pollution is irrelevant for a total solar eclipse, but if you've cross-referenced your eclipse-viewing sight with a Light Pollution Map, you'll be in Bortle 4 skies in rural Spain, ready for a potentially unforgettable Perseids (the solar eclipse means by definition that it's taking place at new moon, after all). Under rural Spanish skies, particularly in dark-sky regions away from towns and cities, observers could see 30 to 50 meteors per hour, with occasional bursts producing even more.

It might be wise to have an afternoon nap before the eclipse — it could be a long, exciting night if skies are clear.

U.K: Deep eclipse, Venus and the Perseids

The path of totality misses Britain entirely, but Aug. 12 will still be a remarkable day. Across most of the U.K., more than 90% of the sun will be covered by the moon, with maximum eclipse shortly after 7 p.m. BST. The sun will hang low above the west-northwest horizon as a narrowing crescent, so the best locations will be coastal viewpoints, hilltops and open landscapes with clear western horizons. London, Manchester and Glasgow all experience about 91% coverage, while Cardiff reaches 93%. The deepest eclipse will be seen in the far southwest, with 96% coverage in the Isles of Scilly and almost 96% at Land's End in Cornwall.

Although it will not become as dark as during totality, observers may notice a subtle drop in temperature and a strange dimming of the landscape. Shadows will soften, colors will become muted, and daylight will take on an unusual quality that many first-time eclipse watchers find surprising.

Once the eclipse ends, Venus becomes the next target. Look west after sunset for the dazzling Evening Star. Venus is only days from its greatest elongation and near its best evening appearance of 2026, making it hard to miss. Even a small telescope will reveal its half-lit phase. The Perseids will then peak during the early hours of Aug. 13.

Western Europe: Eclipsed sunset, Venus and the Perseids

For millions of people across Western Europe, Aug. 12 offers a slightly different spectacle. Instead of totality or a partial eclipse in late afternoon, many locations will witness a deeply eclipsed sun setting below the horizon. An eclipsed sunset is surprisingly rare, and particularly one this deep. In some places, more than 90% of the sun will be obscured as it approaches the horizon, creating a dramatic crescent-shaped sunset. In places such as Corsica, the Ligurian coast, Venice, the Alps and parts of central Europe, photographers will have the chance to capture one of the most dramatic sunset eclipses visible anywhere this decade.

With Venus visible across Europe after sunset, as well as the Milky Way and the Perseids peak, Aug. 12 will effectively become an all-night astronomy festival across Europe.

North America: Partial eclipse, Venus and the Perseids

The total solar eclipse — and a deep partial eclipse — may belong to Europe, but North America gets its own small version of the event. A partial solar eclipse will be visible from Alaska to New England, touching 26 U.S. states and every Canadian province. While the eclipse is modest compared with North America's recent total eclipses, millions of people will still be able to participate in the global event.

The deepest U.S. eclipse occurs in Alaska, where Fairbanks will see about 37% of the sun covered and Anchorage almost 28% (8:21 a.m. AKDT). In the Northeast, Maine gets the best view, with about 28% obscuration (1:50 p.m. EDT), while Boston sees 16% (1:55 p.m. EDT) and New York City about 10% (1:54 p.m. EDT). In Canada, the eclipse becomes considerably more impressive. Iqaluit, Nunavut, will see 61% of the sun covered (1:24 p.m. EDT), while St. John's, Newfoundland, will experience more than half of the sun obscured (3:35 p.m. NDT). Every Canadian province will see at least some part of the eclipse. Remember that eclipse glasses are still essential, even for small partial eclipses.

If you're looking for a telescope or binoculars to make the most of these incredible skywatching events, our guides for the best binocular deals and the best telescope deals are here to help. Interested in capturing the night sky? Check out our best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography.

One month from today, millions will turn their eyes to the skies for one of the most anticipated skywatching events of the year: the total solar eclipse on Aug. 12, 2026.

The eclipse will sweep across parts of Greenland, Iceland and Spain, briefly turning day into night for those lucky enough to be within the narrow path of totality.

It's been a long time coming for European skywatchers, as the event marks Europe's first total solar eclipse since 1999.

Where can I see the total solar eclipse?

If you're hoping to experience totality, now is the time to finalize your plans. The path of totality crosses Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain, with maximum eclipse lasting up to 2 minutes and 18 seconds.

Spain is expected to be one of the most popular destinations thanks to its favorable weather prospects, though it's not without a catch! Viewers will need to secure a clear view of the western horizon because the eclipsed sun will sit very low in the sky during totality.

Will I see the eclipse from where I live?

Not inside the path of totality? Don't worry. A spectacular partial solar eclipse will be visible across much of Europe, with more than 90% of the sun covered from locations including London, Paris and Dublin.

If you're still deciding where to watch, we have several guides on the best viewing locations close to popular Spanish holiday destinations, the best Spanish beaches, and the best places to view the eclipse overall.

How we will be covering the eclipse

Over the coming weeks, Space.com will bring you everything you need to prepare for eclipse day. We'll publish viewing guides, safety advice and information on how to watch the eclipse online.

Closer to the event, we'll launch a dedicated live blog covering the latest eclipse news and insights from our reporters in the field.

Skywatching Editor Daisy Dobrijevic will join an eclipse expedition to Greenland with HX, while Skywatching Writer Anthony Wood will travel to northern Spain with the DEB initiative and citizen scientists to report firsthand from the path of totality.

For decades, astronomers have debated whether Earth's fate was tied to the sun's. When the star exhausts the hydrogen fuel that powers it about 5 billion years, it will swell into a red giant large enough to engulf Mercury and Venus — and, several studies have suggested, Earth as well.

New research, however, suggests our planet has a better chance of escaping that fiery end than previously thought. Using updated models of how aging stars interact with their planets, researchers found that the gravitational forces drawing Earth toward the expanding sun are weaker than older models predicted. That would give the planet more time to drift outward as the dying sun sheds its outer layers into space, potentially avoiding engulfment altogether.

The finding does not guarantee Earth's survival. Instead, researchers say it shifts the biggest uncertainty from how strongly the expanding sun tugs on planets to the poorly understood variable of how much mass the star will lose during its final stages of evolution.

"The largest uncertainty no longer comes from the tidal calculations, but from how much mass the future sun will lose," study lead author Mats Esseldeurs of the KU Leuven's Institute of Astronomy in Belgium said in a statement. "Observations of sun-like giant stars currently point towards Earth's survival, but we need better observations before we can be certain."

When stars like the sun exhaust their core hydrogen and balloon into massive red giants, they trigger a cosmic tug-of-war between expanding tidal forces pulling planets inward and shedding stellar weight pushing them outward, which ultimately decides whether nearby worlds are engulfed or saved.

This planetary push-and-pull unfolds in two stages. As the sun expands, gravitational tides act like a subtle brake, slowly draining Earth's orbital energy and pulling the planet inward. At the same time, the dying star sheds vast amounts of gas through powerful stellar winds, eventually losing about half its mass. As the sun grows lighter, its gravitational grip weakens, pushing the surviving planets outward into a wider orbit that could double their distance from the star, according to NASA.

"The fate of Earth depends on a delicate balance between these two effects," Esseldeurs said in the statement. "If tidal interactions dominate, Earth is engulfed. If mass loss dominates, Earth escapes to a wider orbit."

Previous studies reached different conclusions mostly because they treated those competing processes differently, Esseldeurs and his team argue. A few of those studies neglected tidal interactions altogether, while others relied on simplified prescriptions developed decades ago that predicted a much stronger inward pull, according to the study.

Instead of relying on those older formulas, the new study uses updated calculations of tidal forces based on the shifting internal structure and dynamics of aging stars — which the team says allowed it to precisely account for both tidal friction and shifting stellar winds — before testing the results against a range of possible mass-loss rates for the sun's final giant phase.

The results suggest that even with the weaker inward gravitational pull, Mercury and Venus are unable to outpace the expanding sun and are inevitably engulfed, while Earth and Mars migrate safely through both giant phases, leaving our planet to eventually settle into a broader orbit around the white dwarf remnant the sun will leave behind, the study found.

The picture is far from settled, however. Because astronomers still cannot precisely observe how rapidly sun-like stars lose mass late in life, "the ultimate fate of the Earth remains uncertain," the researchers write in the new paper.

By factoring in real-world mass-loss rates from L2 Pup — a red giant star roughly 183 light-years away that was used as a proxy for our future sun due to its similar mass — the researchers confirmed that Earth will drift outward just quickly enough to avoid being swallowed, tipping the scales toward survival over destruction, the study notes.

For us humans, the finding offers academic comfort rather than practical salvation. Most scientists agree that as the sun ages, it will steadily grow hotter, boiling Earth's oceans and rendering the planet completely uninhabitable in about 1 billion years, long before the sun begins to expand.

Yet even if humans aren't around to witness it, tracking Earth's ultimate survival provides important context for how planetary systems evolve as their stars age, a framework that researchers say will be further refined by future observations of dying, sun-like stars.

"This will enable us to conduct population studies of the planetary orbital evolution around evolved stars," the researchers wrote in the paper, "and help us to constrain the future evolution of the Earth-sun system."

The study was published in June in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The mystery of how the sun's corona, which is its outer atmosphere, reaches millions of degrees could have a surprising explanation: cosmic dust riding the magnetic waves carrying plasma on the solar wind.

"For decades, researchers have focused mainly on how electrons, ions, magnetic fields and plasma waves transport and dissipate energy in the solar atmosphere," said lead researcher Syed Ayaz of the University of Alabama in Huntsville in a statement. "Our work adds a new ingredient to this picture: dust grains."

The finding came courtesy of NASA's Parker Solar Probe, which has flown closer to the sun than any other spacecraft, skirting the corona at a distance of 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million miles). If you've ever witnessed a total solar eclipse, or even seen a photograph of one, then you will be familiar with the corona — the ghostly tendrils of light that surround the eclipsed sun. Those tendrils are formed from plasma, or ionized gas, at temperatures in excess of a million degrees Fahrenheit, compared to the sun's visible surface, the photosphere, which radiates at about 9,932 degrees Fahrenheit (5,500 degrees Celsius). At those temperatures, the photosphere outshines the corona only because the plasma in the corona is so sparsely distributed. This is why the only time we can see the corona is during a total solar eclipse, when the photospheric glare is blocked.

Parker does not carry a cosmic dust detector, and that's because until now dust has not been considered a serious component of the solar atmosphere. Indeed, in the high temperatures of the solar corona it had been thought that dust could not survive for very long and would therefore have no impact.

However, Parker does host a bunch of antennas and magnetometers collectively referred to as the FIELDS experiment, designed to measure the electromagnetic field and radio emissions in the solar corona. The antennas kept picking up unexpected spikes in voltage, which according to Ayaz and his team are produced by clouds of charged particles created when tiny dust grains slam into Parker at high velocity.

These dust grains have accrued an electrostatic charge, which can interact with the electromagnetic field carried by the solar wind as it leaves the sun, which in turn can influence waves of plasma reverberating through that electromagnetic field called Alfvén waves.

There are two possible, competing ways in which dust can affect the Alfvén waves, which in turn could determine how energy is dumped into the corona, heating it. On one hand, the mass of the dust can act to provide extra inertia to the plasma as it rides the solar wind, allowing the plasma energy to be transported across wider distances. On the other hand, the electric charge on the dust grains can bolster the interactions between charged particles in the plasma, the Alfvén waves and the solar electromagnetic field.

"If dust mass dominates, [Alfvén] wave energy may travel farther into the corona," said Ayaz. "If dust-charge effects dominate, the energy may be released more locally as particle heating."

The balance between these two effects can therefore control where and when energy is deposited into the corona, focusing it in areas and causing temperatures there to rise dramatically.

Future solar missions are now going to have to start taking dust into account, said Ayaz, with dedicated detectors designed to measure dust's properties close to the Sun.

"The bigger question is fascinating," said Ayaz. "Is dust simply passing through the near-Sun environment, or is it helping shape how electromagnetic energy becomes heat and solar-wind motion?"

The new discovery was reported on July 1 in The Astrophysical Journal.

Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe an oddball gas giant exoplanet orbiting a dead star, a white dwarf, located some 80 light-years away. This "life after death" system gives scientists a portentous vision of what the solar system may look like in around 6 billion years after the sun has exhausted the hydrogen in its core, shed its outer layers, and left behind a smoldering white dwarf stellar remnant.

Prior to the final stages of that transformation, our star will have become a red giant, swelling out to many times its original radius, swallowing the inner rocky planets including Earth but leaving the outer planets  — although changing them irrevocably. Reflecting this, the white dwarf at the heart of this research is orbited by a Jupiter-sized exoplanet, designated WD 1856 b.

As WD 1856 b orbits its dead parent star, it crosses or "transits" the face of this white dwarf, known as WD 1856+534. By observing these transits with the JWST, the team was able to measure the mass and temperature of this Jupiter-like planet while also observing the composition of its atmosphere. To their surprise, they found WD 1856 b is hotter than expected. They also discovered how this planet came to have such an unusually tight orbit around its host white dwarf star.

"We're used to looking back in time when we use telescopes, but this is the first time we have been able to look forward to what might happen to the outer planets around the remnant of a sun-like star; it's like using a time machine to peer into the distant future of our solar system," team leader Ryan MacDonald from the University of St Andrews in Scotland said in a statement. "This is just the beginning of our exploration of planets orbiting dead stars with Webb, and the search for further planets orbiting white dwarfs is ongoing.

"Our results show that stellar death is not the end  — some planets experience a vibrant and lively future after the death of their star."

The team's research was published on Wednesday (July) in the journal Nature.

Survivor planet is a real oddball

The gas giant WD 1856 b was first discovered in 2020 by NASA's exoplanet-hunting spacecraft TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and the Spitzer Space Telescope. TESS detects exoplanets using the tiny dips in starlight they cause as they transit their host stars, blocking starlight.

This was the first intact planet ever discovered closely orbiting a white dwarf. What immediately stood out about WD 1856 b was how close its orbit is to its white dwarf host. The orbit is around 2% the size of Earth's orbit around the sun and takes just 1.4 Earth days to complete.

"The planet is quite the oddball. It's about the size of Jupiter, but the white dwarf it orbits is the size of Earth, so the planet is seven times larger than its star," MacDonald said.

The planet couldn't have always been in such a close orbit to its star. If it had, it would have been obliterated when the star transformed into a red giant before shedding its puffy outer layers and leaving behind a white dwarf.

"The big question is how WD 1856 b ended up where it is today, and there are two theories," team member Christopher O'Connor of Northwestern University said. "One is that the planet was swallowed by the host star as it was dying, and managed to survive on the inside. The other is that the migration took place due to the gravitational effect of other objects in the system. The white dwarf is part of a triple star system, and the outer companion stars could have influenced WD 1856 b's orbit."

The clue that allowed the team to differentiate between these migration mechanisms was the temperature of WD 1856 b, which at 260 degrees Fahrenheit (127 degrees Celsius) is about 240 degrees hotter than it would be if its only source of heat were the light from its white dwarf parent star.

With no energy available to warm the planet to these temperatures, the team reasoned that the temperature must be a residual effect of prior warming either from being engulfed by the red giant or during an inward migration. Using observations of the planet's mass of between four and 11 times that of Jupiter, the team was able to model how it would have cooled over time.

MacDonald and colleagues determined that WD 1856 b was likely heated up around 3 billion to 5.5 billion years ago. Its host star has been a white dwarf for longer than that, which means the exoplanet was safe during the star's destructive red giant phase, and moved into its tight orbit afterwards.

"As the planet moved inwards, its interactions with the strong gravity of the white dwarf will have caused it to warm up considerably, and it has been cooling ever since," O'Connor said.

The results indicate that Jupiter could move closer to the sun after the violent drama of its red giant phase and the destruction of the inner solar system. The findings also demonstrate the incredible observing power of the JWST and how the $10 billion space telescope is still discovering things no other instrument can.

"White dwarfs like WD 1856 are exceptionally dim compared to the planet-hosting stars we normally observe with the JWST," team member Victoria Boehm of Cornell University said.

"To make things even harder, the planet's transit only lasts 8 minutes, so it's very much if you blink you miss it! Capturing enough light to see WD 1856's spectrum, while also doing so quickly enough to not miss the transit, is something only Webb can do."

Heads up aurora chasers! The sun has been very busy.

After unleashing an X1.1 solar flare on June 30, the sun continued its outburst by firing off 10 M-class solar flares in 24 hours! Several of these eruptions were accompanied by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that appear to be at least partially Earth-directed.

Exactly how many of these solar storms will reach Earth (and how effective they will be) is still being calculated, but space weather forecasters say the coming days could bring heightened geomagnetic activity and increased chances of seeing the northern lights.

Solar physicist Tamitha Skov described the recent activity as a "Machine-gun sun" in a recent post on X, writing that more than five solar storms are on their way to Earth, with at least three offering "good chances" for aurora displays.

"NOAA and NASA model predictions do not show all the storms yet," Skov wrote, explaining that the rapid succession of eruptions has made them difficult to model. Skov added that the first storm could arrive before 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) on July 3, with G2 or stronger geomagnetic storm conditions possible if the incoming CMEs carry a favorable magnetic orientation, allowing them to connect more efficiently with Earth's magnetic field.

According to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, at least one CME from July 1 appears to have an Earth-directed component, although further analysis is still underway. The agency continues to forecast moderate (G2) geomagnetic storm conditions beginning tonight, driven primarily by the CME launched during the June 30 X-class flare, while noting that additional CMEs from the barrage of July 1 eruptions are still being analyzed.

Will the northern lights be visible?

The forecasts are looking increasingly promising for aurora chasers.

NOAA's latest forecast calls for moderate (G2) geomagnetic storm conditions around 8-11 p.m. EDT tonight (0000-0300 GMT July 3), with minor (G1) storm conditions for much of July 3. That could push the northern lights farther south than usual, potentially making them visible across parts of the northern U.S., including New York and Idaho, provided skies are dark and clear.

Exactly how impressive any display becomes will depend on how the incoming CMEs interact with one another and, crucially, the orientation of their magnetic fields when they arrive. When a magnetic field within a solar storm aligns the right way, it can more effectively transfer energy into Earth's magnetic field, producing stronger geomagnetic storms and brighter auroras.

However, nights remain short for observers in the northern hemisphere and lingering twilight could make auroras harder to spot.

That being said, it's worth making sure your cameras are charged and your aurora alerts are switched on. With multiple CMEs heading our way, there could be some natural fireworks lighting up the skies this July 4 weekend.

Northern Hemisphere aurora forecast courtesy of the U.K. Met Office

A restless Earth-facing sunspot unleashed a powerful X-class solar flare on June 30, triggering radio blackouts across parts of North America.

The X1.1 solar flare erupted from sunspot region AR4479, peaking at 4:50 p.m. EDT (2050 GMT) according to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center.

The intense burst of X-rays released during the eruption reached Earth in just over 8 minutes, triggering strong (R3) radio blackouts across the daylight side of Earth. This mainly affected high-frequency radio users across parts of North America who may have experienced temporary signal degradation or brief communication outages while the flare was at its strongest.

The eruption also launched a coronal mass ejection (CME) — a huge cloud of magnetized solar plasma hurled into space. Initial observations suggested most of the material was traveling northward, limiting the chances of a significant Earth impact.

However, after further analysis, NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center issued a Moderate (G2) geomagnetic storm watch for July 3, indicating that at least part of the CME could land Earth with a significant blow.

Will we see the northern lights?

When Earth-directed, CMEs can interact with our planet's magnetic field and spark geomagnetic storms, which can produce dazzling northern lights displays.

A G2-level storm is capable of pushing the northern lights farther south than normal. According to NOAA, auroras could become visible across some northern and upper Midwestern U.S. states, from New York to Idaho, provided skies are dark and clear.

Exactly how impressive the display becomes will depend on the strength of the CME and, crucially, the orientation of its embedded magnetic field when it arrives. If conditions are favorable, the natural light show could provide an extra helping of "fireworks" just in time for the July 4 weekend.

What are solar flares?

Solar flares are sudden bursts of energy released when magnetic fields around sunspots become twisted and reconnect. They are ranked using five classes — A, B, C, M and X — with X-class flares representing the most powerful eruptions.

What are CMEs?

CMEs behave a little differently. Unlike the radiation from a solar flare, which reaches Earth at the speed of light, these clouds of charged particles typically take one to three days to reach us. If they arrive in the right magnetic orientation, they can disturb Earth's magnetic field and trigger geomagnetic storm conditions.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 9:30 a.m. EDT on July 1 to reflect NOAA's latest forecast, including the issuance of a G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic storm watch for July 3 following further analysis of the accompanying coronal mass ejection.

Scientists have discovered that dying stars don't go down without a fight. New research suggests that when stars like the sun enter their red giant phase, they spit out blobs of plasma and receive a corresponding "kick" in the opposite direction.

Stars become red giants when the hydrogen in their cores is exhausted, and that core collapses. This results in the outer layers of the star where nuclear fusion is still occurring, puffing out and expanding the star's radius to as much as 100 times its original size. Those outer layers are eventually lost altogether, leaving behind a dense stellar remnant known as a white dwarf. The sun itself will undergo this transformation in around 5 billion years, swelling out to around the orbit of Mars and engulfing the inner rocky planets, including Earth.

California Institute of Technology researcher Jim Fuller calculated that before a star becomes a white dwarf, it will receive around 10,000 little kicks over the course of hundreds of thousands of years. The cause of these kicks is the ejection of blobs of plasma from the red giant stars.

"In this model, blobs of matter are chaotically being ejected from the surface of the bloated stars in an asymmetric fashion," Fuller said in a statement. "And every time that happens, the star gets a little kick in the opposite direction. Like Newton said, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."

The blobs of plasma will be chaotically ejected in random directions, but this will still result in an overall net push on the red giant, a phenomenon mathematicians call a "random walk." This is akin to randomly flipping a coin to decide whether to move north or south and still eventually finding yourself moved from your starting position.

Fuller determined that for a red giant, this random walk would see a movement in a random direction at a speed of around 2,200 mph (3,540 km/h). This may seem like a lot, but it pales in comparison to the kicks received by massive stars that explode as supernovas.

The lack of an explosion in the transformation of an average-sized star into a white dwarf makes these events less dramatic, but we have still seen evidence of this happening.

Caltech researcher Kareem El-Badry has previously discovered that widely separated binaries are less common in cases when one star has undergone the transformation into a white dwarf. One possible explanation is that repeated kicks during the red giant phase eventually break apart these loosely bound stellar pairs.

"If the orbital speed of the binaries is less than the kick speed, the wide binaries will become gravitationally unbound," Fuller said. Fuller's model also suggests something that astronomers are yet to see. He predicts that in some cases the kicks received by a red giant could send it pinballing toward a stellar companion, causing a massive explosion when the two collide.

Astronomers could now search the cosmos for such events, the discovery of which would help verify Fuller's model.

Fuller's results were presented at the 248th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena. The study has been submitted to the Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

A bold telescope-rescue mission is set to launch later this month, and you can learn all about it today (June 17).

That mission will be conducted by Link, a robotic servicing spacecraft built and operated by the Arizona-based company Katalyst Space Technologies. Link will meet up with NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory in the final frontier, raising the telescope's orbit to give it more time to study the heavens.

NASA and Katalyst representatives will discuss the plan today, during a press conference that starts at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT). You can listen live here or directly via NASA.

Participants will be:

• Shawn Domagal-Goldman, division director, Astrophysics, NASA Headquarters in Washington
• Brad Cenko, principal investigator, Swift, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland
• Kieran Wilson, principal investigator, LINK, Katalyst Space
• Robert Lamontagne, vice president, strategic partnerships, Katalyst Space
• Wes Collier, vice president, launch systems, Northrop Grumman

Swift launched to low Earth orbit in 2004 to hunt for gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the universe. The telescope is still perfectly capable of doing this important job, but Earth's atmosphere is dragging it down toward a fiery death.

Swift doesn't have a propulsion system to fight this downward pull, so it needs some help — which is where Katalyst comes in. Last fall, NASA announced it had tapped the company to raise Swift's orbit.

It's an unprecedented ask: No private spacecraft has ever linked up with a robotic U.S. government satellite. And time is of the essence; some models predicted the observatory could come back to Earth as soon as this summer.

Katalyst has acted fast, getting Link ready for a launch later this month from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. (NASA has not yet announced a target date). Link will fly aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket, an air-launched vehicle that will be carried aloft by a plane.

Scientists may have finally seen the sun telegraph an eruption hours before it happened — and the one caught was one of our star's most powerful explosions.

Drawing on a rare dataset collected in the hours leading up to a massive solar flare, scientists identified a series of changes in the sun's atmosphere that offer new clues about how major eruptions begin. Eventually, these results could help improve space weather forecasting.

"I was not expecting what I found," Louis Seyfritz, a graduate researcher at the New Jersey Institute of Technology who led the new study, told Space.com.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation from the sun driven by the sudden release of magnetic energy. The more powerful of these eruptions can disrupt radio communications, damage satellites and contribute to geomagnetic storms that affect infrastructure on Earth. Yet, despite decades of study, scientists still do not fully understand what causes these eruptions to occur.

Part of the challenge is practical. While spacecraft continuously monitor the sun, detailed observations of the conditions leading up to a flare are difficult to obtain. High-resolution instruments typically focus on active regions already producing solar activity, and researchers often begin tracking a flare in earnest only after it erupts — when it's possible to trace its path through space and assess its potential impacts on Earth.

In the new study, Seyfritz and his colleagues were able to take advantage of an unusually fortuitous dataset that captured the buildup to an X9-class solar flare that erupted on Oct. 3, 2024.

Their analysis identified several changes in the sun's atmosphere hours before the explosion, offering new clues about how major flares begin and potentially revealing early warning signs of future events.

The active region that produced the eruption had already generated several powerful flares in the preceding days, prompting scientists to keep multiple solar observatories focused on the area. Among them was NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, a spacecraft designed to study a narrow slice of the sun's atmosphere in extraordinary detail.

And indeed, because IRIS was already observing the region, researchers obtained nearly five uninterrupted hours of observations before the flare erupted, providing a rare window into the processes unfolding in the sun's atmosphere before the explosion.

"I chose that event because I was expecting the flare to be big enough to see those signs," Seyfritz said. "There's very few that reach that amount of power."

Using data from IRIS, the researchers tracked three properties of plasma in the sun's atmosphere — its brightness, its motion toward or away from observers, and a quantity known as non-thermal velocity, a measure of turbulence and small-scale motions within the plasma. Together, those measurements allowed the team to reconstruct conditions in the hours before the flare, the study notes.

The results showed all three properties began increasing roughly three hours before the eruption, suggesting the sun's magnetic field was gradually becoming more unstable.

Such a long buildup of preflaring signatures is rarely observed, Seyfritz said.

The team also found that the plasma's brightness, motion and turbulence rose and fell in regular cycles before the flare. One repeated every seven to 10 minutes, while another appeared roughly every 18 to 21 minutes. The fluctuations were concentrated near a boundary where oppositely directed magnetic fields meet — a region where scientists suspect magnetic stress builds up before flares.

Scientists do not yet know exactly what causes the oscillations. They may reflect waves moving through the solar atmosphere or a series of small-scale magnetic reconnection events occurring before the larger eruption.

"If we see those oscillations happening before the flare, it can be a strong indicator that a flare is going to happen," Seyfritz told Space.com.

Roughly 15 to 20 minutes before the flare erupted, the sun's atmosphere appeared to shift into a more volatile state, with turbulence surging and plasma streaming outward — changes that may reflect the sudden release of magnetic energy that drives solar flares, the study notes.

No single measurement appeared to provide a definitive warning sign on its own. Instead, Seyfritz said, it was the combination of increasing brightness, rising turbulence and coordinated oscillations that stood out as a possible precursor signature.

To be clear, the findings do not immediately mean scientists can now predict solar flares hours in advance. The study examined a single eruption, and researchers do not yet know whether the same signatures appear consistently before other events. Answering that question will require analyzing many more flares — a challenge made difficult by the scarcity of suitable observations.

The next step, Seyfritz said, is to determine whether the same patterns emerge across a much larger sample of eruptions. If they do, the signatures could eventually become part of future space-weather forecasting systems.

"That's the goal," he said.

The results were published in May in the journal Solar Physics.

On August 12, 2026, a total solar eclipse will be visible in eastern Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain. Eclipse chasers will travel to the path in droves, keen to witness a relatively short but ultimately dramatic totality. From Spain, eclipse chasers on the east coast will witness the rare spectacle on land of a totally eclipsed sun just a couple of degrees above the western horizon, minutes from sunset.

Read more: Total solar eclipse 2026 — Everything you need to know

What many eclipse chasers — and those unable to travel to the path of totality — may overlook is the massive partial solar eclipse visible across Europe. Across almost the entire continent, a huge chunk of the sun will appear eclipsed. Even rarer, a partially eclipsed sunset will be visible in France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Russia, Finland, Ukraine, Slovakia, Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Italy, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Albania. In Northwest Africa, a similar view awaits Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Algeria, Tunisia, Mali, Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso.

This promises to be a mighty event that millions can view in some form — but do many know about it yet? Here's what you need to know about seeing a partial solar eclipse across Europe on Aug. 12, 2026.

How to read an eclipse map

The black line on the map above shows where the maximum partial eclipse will happen at sunset. In Warsaw, Poland, for example, the sun will be 83% eclipsed — the maximum there — as it sets. For locations just east of the black line, the sun sets before the partial eclipse ends. Just to the west, sunset occurs as the partial eclipse deepens.

So where should you be? For the best deep partial eclipse shots at sunset, position yourself west of the black line. Being on the line or just east of it will also work. It's less strict than the path of totality. Still, being close to the line on the northwest side is ideal.

Just remember that for all the focus on lines on a map, the spectacle itself — the deep partial eclipsed sunset — will take place on the horizon in the west-northwest.

"People living along the black sunset line will experience a beautiful deep partial eclipse at sunset," Michael Zeiler, eclipse cartographer, told Space.com. "Some ideal locations to see this over water are Algiers, Corsica, the Italian coast by the Ligurian Sea, and Venice, while High Alpine spots in eastern Austria will also have a dramatic sunset — a photographer's dream."

However, there are a few unexpected things to consider if you want the perfect view. "One interesting thing about these is that all the eclipse maps are calculating those lines for geometric sunset, which is when the middle of the sun is at the true horizon, ignoring refraction," Stephen Trainor at The Photographer's Ephemeris, told Space.com. "So what you tend to find is that actually the line isn't the line because refraction lifts the sun a little bit up — so you can usually creep a little bit the 'wrong' side of the line and you'll still be able to get the sun."

Best places to see the eclipsed sunset in Europe

Here are some places to be in Europe where you'll get views of a partially eclipsed sunset. At the selected sites, maximum obscuration occurs about 10-15 minutes before sunset. From Europe, the crescent sun will set "horns down" — a "sad face" (or upside-down "smiley face").

• Village d'Occi, Corsica, France (96% at 8:25 p.m. CEST, 24% chance of cloud, according to Timeanddate.com)
• La Spezia, Ligurian Sea, Italy (94% at 8:22 p.m. CEST, 43% chance of cloud)
• Modena, Italy (92% at 8:21 p.m. CEST, 38% chance of cloud)
• Venice, Italy (91% at 8:19 p.m. CEST, 43% chance of cloud)
• Kitzsteinhorn, Austria (89% at 8:16 p.m. CEST, 68% chance of cloud)
• Olympiaberg, Munich, Germany (88% at 8:15 p.m. CEST, 61% chance of cloud)
• Letná Park, Prague, Czechia (86% at 8:11 p.m. CEST, 65% chance of cloud)
• Ostrów Tumski, Wrocław, Poland (84% at 8:09 p.m. CEST, 66% chance of cloud)
• Warsaw, Poland (83% at 8:02 p.m. CEST, 61% chance of cloud)
• Kaunas, Lithuania (81% at 8:56 p.m. EEST, 66% chance of cloud)
• Lilastes pludmale, Gulf of Riga, Latvia (80% at 8:57 p.m. EEST, 63% chance of cloud)

Best places to see the eclipsed sunset in Africa

Here are some great places to be in northwest Africa, where you'll get views of a partially eclipsed sunset. Selected sites will experience maximum obscuration no more than 30 minutes before sunset (the sunset line largely passes through the remote Sahara Desert). From Africa, the crescent will slip beneath the horizon in the shape of the letter "C."

• Cape Matifou, Tamentfoust, Algeria (98.5% at 7:42 p.m. CET, 49% chance of cloud)
• Essaouira, Morocco (81% at 7:47 p.m. WEST, 15% chance of cloud)
• Dakar, Senegal (37% at 7:12 p.m. GMT, 82% chance of cloud)
• Banjul, Gambia (34% at 7:13 p.m. GMT, 80% chance of cloud)

Best places to see the eclipsed sunset in Spain

On Aug. 12, mainland Spain will host a path of totality for the first time since 1905. The path, about 182 miles (293 km) wide, will just miss Barcelona and Madrid. Some eclipse chasers will focus on seeing a totally eclipsed sun a few degrees above the horizon — minutes from sunset — from the Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca, and Formentera). That will be spectacular if the horizon is clear. But what some may overlook is this: in some areas, a partially eclipsed sunset will follow totality.

Watch the eclipse from Spain's Meseta region — including Burgos and León — and you'll see totality, followed by a partial eclipse that finishes minutes before sunset. In Soria, Sigüenza, Zaragoza, Teruel, and farther east toward the coast, you'll see totality and then a partially eclipsed sunset. The farther east you are, the more eclipsed the sun will be as it sinks into the horizon.

Planning a trip to see the eclipsed sunset?

An unobstructed, low western horizon is essential. So are clear skies because even distant clouds can block the view of sunset. For the horizon, try this tip: search for "sunset spots near [location] in August" to find recommendations from locals and tourists. However, as Trainor says, "go out and scout the location two or three nights before so you can develop an alternative if it's not going to pan out on the ground." He also advises using both his precision planning tool, which helps photographers visualize the sun, moon, and natural light, and a "sanity check" on Google Street View, just to prove that a shot is possible.

Related: Spain's total solar eclipse 2026 comes with a catch — here's how to avoid ruining your view

For the weather, patience is required — all you can do is check forecasts three days before Aug. 12, when predictions become fairly reliable. However, predicting low clouds along the horizon is tough. You'll need clear weather for many hundreds of miles to the west-northwest.

An annular solar eclipse will occur on Feb. 6, 2027, when the moon's cone-shaped central shadow will not quite reach Earth. The result will be a 'ring of fire' visible to those within a broad path across southern Chile, Argentina and coastal parts of West Africa.

At the point of greatest eclipse in the Pacific, the moon will cover 93% of the sun's disk, leaving a relatively large bright ring visible for 7 minutes and 51 seconds. That makes it one of the longest annular solar eclipses this decade.

During an annular solar eclipse, it is NEVER safe to look directly at the sun without solar eclipse glasses designed for solar viewing. Read our guide on how to observe the sun safely.

This annular solar eclipse has a long and broad path, rising southwest of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in the south Pacific Ocean and setting in the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa.

That journey is 9,011 miles (14,501 kilometers), with the path between 180-220 miles (289-355 km) wide. The path of annularity crosses southern parts of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and (a tiny sliver of) Brazil in South America. After crossing the Atlantic, the northern edge of the path just makes land in the Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.

The Path of Annularity: South America

Eclipse chasers wanting to observe annularity high in the sky while on land should head to Chile or Argentina, with the latter having a better chance of a clear sky. The path crosses northern Patagonia, a region of wide skies, low population, and — crucially in February — a generally favorable climate.

As it reaches Chile's Pacific coast, the "ring of fire" will sit around 50° above the northeast, but this region of mountains and fjords is both logistically challenging and likely cloudy. Average February cloud cover along the centerline in Chile is typically around 65%, while just across the mountains in a classic rain-shadow zone in Argentina's Patagonian plains, cloud cover drops to as low as 30%, according to meteorologist Jay Anderson on Eclipsophile.com.

Standout locations in the rain-shadow include El Maitén (which is being favored by eclipse tour groups), Esquel and Trevelin, where annularity occurs just before midday. There's a similarly small chance of cloud on Argentina's Atlantic coast, with potential observing locations including Las Grutas on the San Matias Gulf and, south of Buenos Aires, the lush Laguna La Brava.

Although the path brushes Uruguay (just missing Montevideo), and nicks Brazil (just missing Rio de Janeiro), once the centerline of the path of annularity leaves Argentina, it doesn't make landfall again.

The Path of Annularity: Africa

After crossing the South Atlantic, the path of annularity makes its final landfall in West Africa, reaching Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.

Here, the eclipse unfolds late in the day, with the "ring of fire" hanging low in the western sky as it approaches the horizon. At Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, the sun will be 7.7° above west-southwest just 30 minutes before sunset, though a potentially orange-golden "ring of fire" will last for just a fleeting moment. Other potential observing locations include Cape of Three Points in Ghana for a long annular phase just six degrees above the horizon, as well as the capital city, Accra, where it's just four degrees up. Lomé in Togo, Cotonou in Benin and Lagos in Nigeria will see the annular phase moments before sunset.

Although statistics show cumulus cloud cover in this region to be common, much of it dissipates by late afternoon, according to Anderson, with sea-breeze winds from the Atlantic — as well as "eclipse cooling" — potentially helping. As such, there's around a 90% chance of a clear sky in this region for a spectacular sunset "ring of fire." A much bigger problem, however, could come from Saharan dust, with reduced clarity likely.

Why does the 2027 'ring of fire' last so long?

The Feb. 6, 2027 annular solar eclipse is unusually long, with its maximum phase lasting up to 7 minutes 51 seconds just off the coast of Brazil — far longer than most annular eclipses, and significantly longer than the totality phase during a total solar eclipse.

The reason is geometry. Annular eclipses happen when the moon is near apogee, its farthest point from Earth, making it appear slightly too small to cover the sun. Instead of a brief blackout, the moon takes longer to cross the sun's face, leaving a bright ring visible throughout. The moon reaches apogee three days before Feb. 6, 2027.

That duration is extended because Earth is near perihelion in early January, when the sun appears marginally larger than average. A smaller apparent moon and a larger apparent sun combine to lengthen the event.

Even so, 2027 is not a record-breaker. Under a near-perfect alignment, annularity can theoretically last up to about 12 minutes and 29 seconds. The longest this century occurred on Jan. 15, 2010, when the ring of fire persisted for just over 11 minutes.

Additional resources

Want to look further ahead? You can find a concise summary of solar eclipses out to 2030 on NASA's eclipse website. Read more about solar and lunar eclipses on EclipseWise.com, a website dedicated to predictions of eclipses. See beautiful maps on eclipse cartographer Michael Zeiler's GreatAmericanEclipse.com and interactive Google Maps on Xavier Jubier's eclipse website. You can find climate and weather predictions by meteorologist Jay Anderson on eclipsophile.com.

Bibliography

Anderson, J. Annular Solar Eclipse February 6, 2027. Retrieved May 5, 2026, from https://eclipsophile.com/ase-2027/

Bakich, M. and Zeiler, M. (2022). Atlas Of Solar Eclipses 2020-2045.

Espenak, F. Solar Eclipse Prime Page: Annular Solar Eclipse of 2027 Feb 06. Retrieved May 5, 2026, from: https://eclipsewise.com/oh/ec2027.html#SE2027Feb06A

Jubier, X. (n.d.). Solar eclipses: Interactive Google Maps. Retrieved May 5, 2026, from http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/SolarEclipsesGoogleMaps.html

Time and Date. (n.d.). 17 February 2026 Annular Solar Eclipse. Retrieved May 5, 2026, from https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2026-february-17

Related: What's the difference between a total solar eclipse and an annular solar eclipse?

An incoming coronal mass ejection (CME) is expected to slam into Earth's magnetic field today (June 8), potentially triggering geomagnetic storm conditions strong enough to supercharge auroras into mid-latitudes.

The CME erupted from the sun on June 6 and is forecast to arrive early to midday GMT on June 8. Space weather forecasters from NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center and the U.K. Met Office suggest the impact could spark minor to moderate (G1 to G2) geomagnetic storm conditions initially, possibly ramping up to strong (G3) levels later in the day.

As such, NOAA has issued a G3 geomagnetic storm watch for June 8 and a G2 watch for June 9 as forecasters monitor the solar storm's approach. This is great news for aurora chasers.

When can I see the northern lights tonight?

The northern lights could become active at various times throughout June 8 as the incoming CME arrives.

The strongest storm conditions are currently expected between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. EDT (1500-1800 GMT), when a strong (G3) geomagnetic storm is possible. While a daytime peak is far from ideal for North American aurora chasers, it doesn't necessarily rule out a nighttime display. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center forecasts geomagnetic activity to remain elevated through the evening, with G2 conditions possible between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. EDT (2100-0000 GMT), before gradually easing overnight.

It's also worth remembering that CME arrival times can shift by several hours. If the solar storm arrives later in the forecast, the strongest geomagnetic activity could occur closer to — or even after — sunset for parts of North America, drastically improving viewing opportunities.

Will the northern lights be visible from where I live?

If the incoming CME triggers a strong (G3) geomagnetic storm, the northern lights could become visible much farther south than usual.

According to NOAA's geomagnetic storm scale, auroras may be visible as far south as:

• G1 (minor): Northern Michigan and Maine
• G2 (moderate): New York and Idaho
• G3 (strong): Illinois and Oregon

But remember, even during strong geomagnetic storms, aurora visibility is never guaranteed. Cloud cover, local light pollution and the orientation of the CME's magnetic field when it reaches Earth can all influence aurora visibility.

For the best chance of seeing the northern lights, head to a dark location with a clear view of the northern horizon and allow your eyes time to adjust to the darkness. If the aurora is faint, a smartphone camera can often reveal colors and structures that are difficult to see with the naked eye, during weaker displays.

For real-time forecasts based on your location, consider using a space weather app. A great option is "My Aurora Forecast & Alerts" (available for iOS and Android). For a deeper dive into space weather conditions, "Space Weather Live" is another excellent choice (available for iOS and Android)

Beaches offer wide-open spaces and low-horizon views, making them ideal for skywatching. For the Aug. 12, 2026, total solar eclipse, Spain's beaches will be among the most sought-after locations — but not all will deliver. The path of totality crosses the north and east of the country just before sunset, with the sun low in the west-northwest. Many top resorts face east for sunrise views, so at the crucial moment, the sun may be blocked by hotels or terrain behind you.

To experience totality — the brief period during a solar eclipse when the sun is completely covered by the moon — clearly, being on the coast isn't enough — you need a clear, unobstructed view to the west-northwest, ideally over open water. That's why the best eclipse beaches are either on Spain's Atlantic-facing north coast, where the horizon is open, or in carefully chosen Mediterranean spots where development is low, and sightlines are clean.

The altitude of the eclipsed sun matters: in Galicia, Asturias, and the Cantabrian Coast, it's 12 to 9 degrees above the horizon — manageable but low. On the Mediterranean and Balearic Islands, it's just 4 to 2 degrees, turning totality into a fleeting event easily obscured by haze or thin cloud.

Choose your beach wisely (checking tide times a few weeks in advance on Surf Forecast or Tide Forecast), and you'll watch the moon's shadow race in from the Atlantic before revealing the corona during totality, just minutes before sunset.

Get it wrong, and you could miss everything.

Essential resources for checking and re-checking intended destinations for totality include Xavier Jubier's Interactive Google Map, which has timings and built-in sightlines from Peak Finder, as well as The Eclipse App, Eclipse Horizon Checker and the Instituto Geográfico Nacional. The best advice is to test your location the day before the eclipse. Let's look at some of the best beaches in Spain for eclipse viewing, complete with details on timing and conditions.

1. Praia de Alba e Sabón, Galicia

Easily accessible just south of A Coruña, this broad, open beach offers excellent infrastructure and long, flat stretches of sand. Its clear west-northwest outlook makes it ideal for a low, pre-sunset eclipse, with uninterrupted ocean horizons, coastal paths, and easy access.

2. Playa de Langre, Cantabria

A wild, cliff-backed beach east of Santander, Langre offers a dramatic natural amphitheater facing west-northwest. Wide sands and elevated viewpoints above the cliffs provide excellent sightlines for a low eclipse. Access requires a short walk, but an expansive horizon and striking scenery are the reward.

3. Playa de las Catedrales, Galicia

Famed for its towering rock arches, this dramatic beach offers a spectacular setting — but requires planning. Strict visitor limits and tides complicate access, so consider the clifftop gardens above for an easier option. Both provide wide northwest views, ideal for watching the eclipsed sun sink toward the Atlantic horizon.

4. Playa El Puntal de Somo, Cantabria

A vast, exposed sandbar near Santander, El Puntal offers huge open skies and uninterrupted west-northwest views across the bay. Easily reached by boat or car, its sheer scale allows plenty of space to spread out — ideal for a relaxed, crowd-free eclipse watch with clear horizons toward the setting sun. An epic experience awaits.

5. Platja de Riumar, Ebro Delta

The Ebro Delta is one of Spain's largest and most distinctive natural landscapes — a vast mosaic of wetlands, lagoons, rice fields, and barrier beaches extending into the Mediterranean. Set close to the mouth of the Ebro River, Riumar Beach offers uninterrupted views to the northwest.

6. Platya del Gurugú, Castellón

This flat, sandy beach south of Benicàssim is unusually open, with minimal development behind it thanks to a nearby airstrip. That translates into clean, unobstructed views toward the west-northwest — crucial for this very low eclipse. Easy access and wide sightlines make it a practical and reliable Mediterranean option.

7. Es Trenc, Mallorca

Remote but popular, Es Trenc offers long sands and wide western sea views. Its undeveloped backdrop ensures minimal obstruction, though its narrow width can feel busy. For a horizon-hugging eclipse, its sightlines and natural setting make it a prime choice in Mallorca. Note: Es Trenc is an unofficial nudist beach.

8. Platja Estanys, Mallorca

Close to Colònia de Sant Jordi, this bright beach offers easy access and unobstructed views to the west-northwest. Minimal elevation and calm waters with nearby facilities make it a straightforward observing spot.

9. Platja des Carbó, Mallorca

A quieter, undeveloped stretch reached by a short coastal walk, Es Carbó offers pristine sands and uninterrupted horizons. Its isolation means fewer crowds — ideal for photographers tracking a low eclipse.

10. Platja de Son Bou, Menorca

Menorca's longest beach provides a broad, accessible platform for a very low, horizon-skimming eclipse moments before sunset. Its west-northwest outlook across the open sea is excellent. Lots of facilities and space make it an easy, reliable choice — though it could be immensely popular.

Astrophotographer Mark Johnston has captured two mesmerizing views of giant solar prominences — towering clouds of glowing plasma suspended above the sun by magnetic fields.

The first video, captured on May 22, 2026, shows a remarkable prominence releasing streams of material that appear to fall back toward the sun as coronal rain. The second, filmed on May 31, 2026, reveals a 'Godzilla'-like prominence looming above the solar surface.

Johnston explained that the flowing plasma may appear wind-swept, but the motion is largely controlled by the sun's magnetic field.

"The movement you see may look like wind effects, but it's mostly caused by magnetic fields and, to a lesser extent, gravity. The hydrogen on the limb is ionized, so magnetic fields pull it along invisible field lines," Johnston told Space.com in an email.

Johnston captured the footage from his backyard in Scottsdale, Arizona, using a 160mm refractor equipped with a specialized hydrogen-alpha solar filter.

"I try to image the Sun every clear morning, and I'm always looking for interesting features," Johnston told Space.com in an email.

While the prominence resembles a fiery eruption, Johnston notes that looks can be deceiving.

"It's not flame. There's no fire on the Sun. Just as your stove can glow red-hot and not be on fire, the hydrogen on the Sun is so hot it glows too."

Solar prominences are immense structures of superheated plasma that extend outward from the sun's surface while remaining tethered by magnetic fields. When viewed against the dark backdrop of space, they can appear as glowing arches, curtains or towering clouds along the sun's edge. The same structures are known as filaments when seen against the bright face of the sun, where they appear as dark ribbons because they are cooler and denser than the surrounding material.

Remember, viewing the sun without the right equipment can be dangerous. Never look directly at it with the naked eye or through a telescope unless you're using certified solar filters.

Editor's Note: If you snap an awesome astrophoto and would like to share it with Space.com's readers, send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

Wow, the sun is certainly putting on quite a show this week.

Our star just unleashed three powerful solar flares in less than 24 hours and potentially sending multiple coronal mass ejections (CMEs) hurtling toward Earth, raising the chances of northern lights displays this week.

Read the latest: Aurora alert! 4 Earth-bound CMEs could spark northern lights as far south as Illinois and Oregon tonight

The culprit behind all three eruptions from the sun is Earth-facing sunspot region 4455. The unstable region produced an M9.3 solar flare that peaked at 9:36 p.m. EDT June 2 (0136 a.m. GMT on June 3), followed by an M7.9 flare at 3:00 a.m. EDT (0700 GMT) and an X1 at 7:28 a.m. EDT (1128 GMT) — the most powerful category of solar flare.

The trio of eruptions triggered radio blackouts across Earth. The M9.3 flare triggered a moderate R2 radio blackout across parts of East Asia and Australia, while the M7.9 eruption caused another R2 blackout affecting portions of Europe and Africa. The strongest blackout came with the X1 flare, which generated an R3 radio blackout across parts of Europe and Asia.

"Region 4455 strikes again!" space weather physicist Tamitha Skov wrote in a post on X following the M9.3 eruption. "Region 4455 continues to grow in complexity, so X-flare risk will remain elevated over the next 72 hours at least."

Skov's warning didn't take long to materialize. Less than 10 hours later, the restless sunspot crossed the threshold into X-class territory.

With multiple eruptions now under analysis, the chances of geomagnetic storm activity later this week are on the rise.

Aurora chaser Vincent Ledvina reported that "three potentially Earth-directed CMEs are currently on the way," though space weather forecasters are still working to determine the exact trajectories and speeds of the solar storms.

The U.K. Met Office has confirmed the M9.3 flare was accompanied by a faint but fast Earth-directed CME, which is expected to arrive at Earth on June 4. The agency is also analyzing a second potential Earth-directed CME associated with the M7.9 flare, while the trajectory of any eruption linked ot the X1 flare remains under investigation.

With at least one solar storm heading our way, the Met Office has issued a strong (G3) geomagnetic storm watch for June 4-6. Forecasters say geomagnetic activity could reach G1-G3 storm levels, with a slight chance of isolated severe (G4) conditions if the incoming CMEs deliver a stronger-than-expected impact.

This is potentially good news for skywatchers. Geomagnetic storms can supercharge Earth's auroras, pushing them farther into mid-latitudes than usual. If the forecast holds, northern lights could become visible at lower latitudes beginning on Thursday evening.

As scientists continue analyzing the evolving CME situation, all eyes remain on region 4455, which still has the potential to unleash further strong solar flares in the coming days. Watch this space!

On Aug. 12, 2026, millions of people across Spain will witness a solar eclipse. Trouble is, some will think they're seeing the main event when they're not, while others will have their view of the all-important, 100% eclipsed sun blocked by mountains or clouds.

This is the first total solar eclipse visible from mainland Europe since 1999, with much of northern Spain within the path of totality. However, this eclipse happens extremely late in the day, with the eclipsed sun hanging low above the west-northwest horizon just before sunset.

From Galicia and Asturias to Aragón, Valencia and the Balearic Islands, successful eclipse-chasing in Spain will depend far less on simply being within the path of totality than on precise positioning.

Here are the biggest ways eclipse travelers could accidentally miss the spectacle — and how experienced eclipse chasers will plan to avoid disappointment.

1. Staying outside the path of totality

If you hear anyone utter the immortal phrase "90% totality" or anything similar, scream. There is no such thing as partial totality — just a partial eclipse and a total eclipse. On Aug. 12, 2026, the path of totality in Spain will be about 190 miles (305 km) wide as it strikes Galicia and, remarkably, will slip between Madrid and Barcelona, Spain's biggest cities.

Observers in those two cities will see an extremely deep partial eclipse, but not totality — no view of the corona and the many other phenomena that occur only during totality. A 99% partial solar eclipse may sound dramatic, but the remaining 1% of direct sunlight is still overwhelmingly bright. For eclipse chasers, there is a simple rule: totality or bust.

2. Choosing the wrong horizon

This eclipse occurs at a very low altitude in Spain. In northwestern Spain, the eclipsed sun will sit roughly 10-12-° above the horizon during totality. In eastern Spain and the Balearic Islands, it will be just 2-5° high. Along the Mediterranean coast, the irony is particularly cruel. Its resorts are designed to face east toward the sea for sunrise views, while the eclipse occurs low in the west-northwest, close to sunset. In these locations, the eclipse could happen behind buildings, trees and hills. Experienced eclipse chasers know that for this eclipse, horizon geometry matters more than almost anything else.

3. Underestimating Spain's terrain

Spain's landscape is spectacular, but it may work against eclipse observers. The mountainous terrain of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Iberian Highlands creates endless dramatic viewpoints, medieval hill towns and forested ridges. However, many of those locations are poorly positioned for a low-altitude eclipse. For the 2026 eclipse, observers need an unobstructed west-northwest view and minimal terrain blocking the horizon. This is especially important inland in eastern Spain, where even distant hills can block the sun when it is only a few degrees above the horizon.

4. Misunderstanding weather forecasts

One of the most misunderstood aspects of eclipse-chasing is weather. Among eclipse chasers, there's a famous saying: "Climate is what you expect. The weather is what you get." Spain's climatology for August is generally favorable, particularly inland in Castile and León, the Ebro Valley and Aragón, but not only is what actually happens on the day hard to predict, but it's also not entirely relevant because totality will occur so low above the horizon. According to the eclipse experts at Besselian Elements, observers on Mallorca waiting for a totality only about 2.5° above the horizon will actually be looking through hundreds of miles of Earth's atmosphere, meaning distant clouds far beyond the local forecast area could still block their view. Most weather forecasts describe conditions directly overhead, which may not be relevant for the 2026 eclipse. That climate change appears to be making traditional seasonal weather patterns less predictable in some parts of Europe just adds to the complication. It's why many eclipse chasers will make their final viewing decision only 24 hours before the eclipse.

5. Getting trapped in traffic

Spain could experience one of Europe's largest eclipse tourism events in modern history. That Barcelona (population 1.7 million) and Madrid (3.5 million) are just outside the path of totality means there could be intense pressure on the road system in the hours before, and particularly after, the eclipse. Expect severe congestion near major cities, coastal resorts and famous viewing locations, with areas around Madrid, Barcelona, Tarragona, Zaragoza and Valencia all potential black spots. Some of the quietest roads are predicted to be from Salamanca, south of the path of totality, to Zamora and Valladolid within the path, a region (Castile and León) with among the best chances of clear skies.

You can maximize your chances of avoiding traffic by prioritizing practicality over aesthetics, avoiding cities, beaches, lighthouses and castles in favor of open farmland, reservoir shorelines, roadside pull-offs — any northwest-facing open terrain. The best eclipse observing site is one with the cleanest sightline low to the northwest horizon.

How to check your viewing spot for the 2026 total solar eclipse

Thankfully, there are extensive resources for checking the eclipse path, sight lines and weather data for any location in Spain during this eclipse. However, nothing beats being at your intended location the night before the eclipse to check for trees and other obstructions at the time of the eclipse. Here are some excellent resources to help you plan and check your observing location, ordered by the workflow an eclipse chaser follows:

• Eclipsophile.com: an analysis of the climate of the path of totality in 2026 by eclipse meteorologist Jay Anderson.
• Eclipse Atlas: eclipse cartographer Michael Zeiler's maps are ideal for understanding the overall geometry of the eclipse path.
• Besselian Elements (map): an incredibly accurate map using the latest solar diameter, which will be extremely useful if you plan to watch the eclipse from somewhere close to the edge of the path of totality.
• Xavier Jubier's Interactive Google Map: with timings and built-in sight lines from Peak Finder to help you check the terrain.
• Google Maps: its 3D mode is useful for getting a basic sense of the terrain and for finding exact coordinates for any location.
• The Eclipse App: includes precise timings, a visualization of exactly where shadows will fall during totality, a countdown and real-time weather.
• Eclipse Horizon Checker lets you enter exact coordinates (which you can get from Google Maps), then checks the sight lines and adds a comment on tree canopy cover, if relevant.
• Instituto Geográfico Nacional: assesses the sight line to the eclipse for any point highlighted on its map
• TPE (The Photographer's Ephemeris): a simulator that allows the user to see precisely where on the horizon the eclipse will take place.
• PhotoPills: a smartphone app that lets you see where the eclipse will be on the horizon.
• NASA Worldview: daily global images back 25 years from NASA's polar-orbiting EOSDIS satellite.
• Windy.com: a popular app for checking real-time cloud forecasts from seven different models (though remember that overhead sky conditions are only half the story)
• Solar Eclipse Timer: a talking timer from eclipse expert Gordon Telepun; the final eclipse-day execution tool once you're on site

For the Aug. 12, 2026, total solar eclipse, Spain's iconic holiday hubs will be buzzing, but many are outside the path of totality. If you're in the Costa Brava or Barcelona, you're in the danger zone of missing out. Barcelona will experience a 99% partial eclipse, which might sound impressive, but in practice it's no more interesting than a 10% eclipse; you miss the corona, the sudden darkness and the drop in temperature.

In eclipse chasing, it's totality or bust — and that means getting in the path of totality, on the east coast of Spain, between Vilanova i la Geltrú in the north, close to Barcelona, and Cullera, just south of Valencia. Here, the eclipsed sun will be about four degrees above the west-northwest horizon, but most Mediterranean resorts face the water to the east, meaning the sun will be behind you, hidden by hotels or hills. To see the corona, you need an unobstructed northwest-facing view. Wide, flat areas like the Ebro Delta, high ground and well-positioned miradors are worth searching out. The same goes for the Balearic Islands, where a sunset eclipse — totality takes place barely 2 degrees above the horizon — can be enjoyed from west-facing beaches.

Essential resources for checking and re-checking intended destinations for totality include Xavier Jubier's Interactive Google Map, which has timings and built-in sightlines from Peak Finder, as well as The Eclipse App, Eclipse Horizon Checker and the Instituto Geográfico Nacional. Do your research and, if you can, check the location the night before for a clear view of the sunset.

1. Playa de Palma, Mallorca

It won't do to be in Palma de Mallorca, the island's capital, come totality. Escaping to the rugged west coast is one option, but another is to head down the coast to this long sandy beach resort stretching between Can Pastilla and S'Arenal. Its lively promenade will host a fine view of the eclipsed sun just before sunset, though avoid the first miles or so southeast of Can Pastilla, which will have obstructed sightlines.

2. Playa de la Malvarrosa, Valencia

Just a stone's throw from the city center, Valencia's best-known beach has fine sand, a relaxed atmosphere and — if you're careful — clear sightlines to the eclipse. The port, at the south end of the beach, is also an option.

3. La Muntanyeta dels Sants, Valencia

Chasing such a short totality might seem crazy, but clear sightlines from the east coast are rare — and this location has everything. Inside Albufera Natural Park, this watchtower is a limestone promontory that gives views across paddy fields.

4. Platja de Llevant, Salou

A popular, family-friendly resort town on Spain's Costa Daurada (or Costa Dorada), Salou is close to the northern limit of the path of totality, but still has a reasonably long totality. It's known for its Llevant golden sand beach, with the place to be a mirador at its eastern end, on the Punta del Cavall promontory that overlooks the coast. It's one of 25 viewpoints along a coastal path.

5. Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia

Also called Circuit de Valencia, this motor racing track holds the finale of the MotoGP season, but on Aug. 12 it looks set to stage a mass observing event. It's got high ground to the northwest, so sightlines will likely be tight, but the southeast of the circuit has a clear view of a short totality

6. Vinaròs, Costa del Azahar

On the Costa del Azahar — the Orange Blossom Coast — Vinaròs is renowned for its beaches, coves and its red prawns. Those after clear sightlines here will struggle, but there is one option: Far de Vinaròs, a lighthouse with views back to the northwest.

7. Altafulla, Catalonia

A smaller, quieter alternative to the neighboring large cities, Altafulla has a well-preserved old town. Its beaches — Platja de Tamarit and Platja d'Altafulla — will offer open views, particularly near Búnquer d'Altafulla. However, it's close to the northern limit of the path, so totality is short.

8. Far d'Artrutx, Menorca

Far d'Artrutx is a lighthouse at the extreme southwest corner of Menorca, from where Mallorca can be seen in the distance. The town above it, Cap d'Artrutx, has a long promenade along a low cliff edge where thousands will gather to watch totality, followed by a deep, partially eclipsed sun sinking into the Mediterranean.

9. Llacuna de l'Encanyissada, Ebro Delta

Llacuna de l'Encanyissada — the largest lagoon in the Ebro Delta — is a nature reserve and has a low and unobstructed sightline west-northwest across a lagoon. It's ringed by raised tracks, levees and birdwatching hides.

10. Montsià Hills, Catalonia

Hikers after something special — and prepared to take the chance of cloud — could consider ascending to la Torreta del Montsià, at 2,506 ft. (764 m), the highest point of the Serra del Montsià range. It's above Sant Carles de la Ràpita and inland from the Ebro Delta.

It's getting to be crunch time for a groundbreaking satellite-rescue mission.

A private spacecraft called "Link" is set to lift off late next month to meet up with NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which launched to low Earth orbit (LEO) in 2004 to hunt for powerful space explosions known as gamma-ray bursts.

Swift is still working just fine. But atmospheric drag is pulling it down at an ever-increasing rate, and the telescope is powerless to resist; it doesn't have a propulsion system. Link will be the scope's savior, if all goes to plan, meeting up with Swift in LEO and boosting it to a higher altitude.

This plan is bold and unprecedented. Link, built by Arizona-based Katalyst Space Technologies, aims to become the first private spacecraft ever to capture a robotic satellite operated by the U.S. government.

Doing so will not be easy, especially since it's unclear where exactly Swift will be in the coming months. That's because Earth's atmosphere — and therefore the drag it imposes on orbiting spacecraft — is not static. Our blanket of air expands when the sun is active and contracts during times of solar quiescence.

Solar activity waxes and wanes on an 11-year cycle, the most recent of which peaked in 2024. That intense round of space weather put the Swift team on notice: Modeling work performed in early 2025 predicted that the telescope would reenter the atmosphere by the summer of 2026.

That dire prognosis laid the groundwork for Link's rescue mission, which NASA funded via a $30 million contract with Katalyst. The modeling work has continued, too, as NASA and the company flesh out their "fast-paced plan" to raise Swift's orbit.

"These predictions evolve over time, based on space weather forecasts and other factors like Swift's current height and orientation," Michael Shoemaker, deputy flight dynamics lead in SSMO (Space Science Missions Operations) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a May 26 statement.

Shoemaker and his team aren't doing this just for Swift; they make such predictions for a variety of satellites, both active and defunct. Their models incorporate a wide range of data, including details from each satellite team, tracking information collected by the U.S. Space Force and solar activity research from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center.

Shoemaker and his colleagues are now generating weekly orbital predictions for Swift, which the mission team has used "to make decisions about when to halt science observations and how to steer the spacecraft to reduce drag as much as possible," NASA officials said in the same statement.

"This innovative new approach to operating Swift has allowed them to successfully slow its orbital decay," they added.

As a result, Swift will likely stay at least 185 miles (300 kilometers) above Earth — the "critical altitude" giving Link's orbit-boosting mission the best chance of success, according to NASA — into early fall.

That's good news, but the modeling team still has work to do.

"We're also working on predictions for where Swift will be when Link is set to launch in June aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket," Russell Carpenter, the deputy project manager in SSMO, said in the same statement.

"The project to re-boost Swift has generated intense interest across the flight dynamics community," he added. "The Swift team is grateful that so many people have been willing to pitch in to help with refining these predictions."

Two Russian cosmonauts worked to install and retrieve science experiments while on a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Wednesday (May 27).

Expedition 74 commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and flight engineer Sergei Mikaev spent 6 hours and 5 minutes outside the space station, conducting an extravehicular activity (EVA) that ran from 10:18 a.m. to 4:23 p.m. EDT (1418 to 2023 GMT). The two spacewalkers installed a solar radiation experiment on the exterior of the Zvezda service module and removed science hardware from the Poisk and Nauka modules on the station's Russian segment.

The Solntse-Teragerts telescope that the duo mounted outside Zvezda was designed to observe and collect data about strong solar flares emanating from the sun. The instrument will help scientists improve their prediction models and better understand solar flare activity at different frequencies. The device is expected to operate through 2028.

Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev then rode at one end of the European Robotic Arm (ERA), a 40-foot-long (11.3-meter) remote manipulator, to retrieve a cassette holding semiconducting material produced by an experiment mounted outside the Nauka mini-research module. The Ekran-M molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) experiment uses gallium arsenide to form ultra-pure, ultra-thin films that can only be borne under the microgravity environment of space.

The cosmonauts ran into some difficulty retrieving the cassette, including losing a pair of pliers and commands sent from the ground failing to move the experiment's interior mechanisms. However, with some workarounds, they were able to collect the sample for its return inside the station.

Before moving on with their other tasks, Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev took a moment to recognize the 80th anniversary of RKK (RSC) Energia, Roscosmos' design bureau founded in August 1946. The spacewalkers held up a card printed with a commemorative logo and posed for photographs.

Not long after, Kud-Sverchkov asked Mikaev if he knew what day it was.

"The 27th," replied the flight engineer.

"Today is the birthday of St. Petersburg," said Kud-Sverchkov. "So, congratulations to all of the residents of St. Petersburg, on the day of the city. Our northern capital of Russia."

The two cosmonauts then moved over to the Poisk module to inspect, photograph and secure one of the Kurs rendezvous antennas on the Progress MS-33 (ISS 94P) cargo spacecraft. The antenna failed to deploy when the vehicle launched to the space station in March, resulting in a manually controlled docking.

Wrapping up the EVA, Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev retrieved a Biorisk science container holding samples of bacteria, seeds and other organisms and then jettisoned a bundle of used window cleaners before heading back inside the space station. All the activities planned for the outing were successfully completed.

The spacewalk on Wednesday was the second for Kud-Sverchkov and the first for Mikaev. Kud-Sverchkov now has logged 12 hours and 11 minutes working in the vacuum of space.

It was the 279th spacewalk in support of International Space Station assembly, maintenance and upgrades since 1998.

A rare crimson aurora glowing over northern Japan may be a sign that some solar storms are more powerful than scientists once believed.

Researchers studying faint red auroras observed above Japan in June 2024 found that the displays stretched far higher into Earth's atmosphere than expected, reaching altitudes between roughly 310 and 500 miles (500 to 800 kilometers) — which is unusually high for a storm that was not considered especially severe by conventional geomagnetic indices, according to a statement from Hokkaido University.

The discovery suggests that even "moderately intense" geomagnetic storms — which are a disturbance in Earth's magnetic field caused by charged particles and magnetic energy from the sun — may carry far more energy than previously thought, challenging scientists' understanding of how these space weather events develop and how their strength is measured.

"I was really surprised because I didn't expect such tall auroras to appear even during moderately intense storms," Tomohiro M. Nakayama, lead author of the study, said in the statement. "This suggests that these storms may actually be stronger than conventional indices indicate."

Auroras are usually seen near the poles as bright, shimmering lights produced when charged particles from the sun collide with gases in Earth's upper atmosphere. When they appear farther south, in areas like Japan, they are generally linked to strong geomagnetic storms and occur at lower altitudes of around 124 to 249 miles (200 to 400 kilometers).

The unusual auroras were photographed over Hokkaido, Japan, where observers captured diffuse red glows hanging low over the horizon. Unlike the vivid green curtains commonly associated with the northern lights, these auroras appeared as soft crimson veils spread across the night sky.

This contrast in auroras is because different gases — and different altitudes — produce different colors. Green auroras, the most common type, form when energetic particles excite oxygen atoms about 60 to 150 miles (100 to 250 km) above Earth. Red auroras also come from oxygen, but they occur much higher in the atmosphere, where the air is extremely thin and oxygen atoms can release a dim red glow before colliding with other particles. Blue and purple auroras are typically linked to nitrogen molecules.

Red auroras are generally faint and usually occur at very high altitudes, making them less commonly seen compared to green displays. They are also more often associated with especially strong geomagnetic storms capable of pushing auroral activity farther from the poles.

What's more is that Japan sits much farther south than the regions where auroras are usually visible. While powerful solar storms can occasionally push the auroral oval toward lower latitudes, scientists did not expect such extensive high-altitude red emissions during a storm categorized as only moderate.

The team analyzed five auroral events recorded between June 2024 and March 2025, combining observations from Hokkaido with satellite data and photographs captured by citizen scientists across Japan. By measuring the elevation angles of the auroras in the images and tracing them along Earth's magnetic field lines, the team reconstructed how high the glowing structures extended into the atmosphere. Their analysis suggests that an unusually dense solar wind — streams of charged particles flowing from the sun and interacting with Earth's magnetic field — may have fueled the rare crimson auroras even without an officially "extreme" geomagnetic storm, according to the statement.

The study comes as the sun remains near the peak of Solar Cycle 25, a period of heightened solar activity that has already produced spectacular aurora displays across the globe. In May 2024, one of the strongest geomagnetic storms in decades pushed auroras deep into mid-latitude regions around the world. Understanding these unexpected auroras could improve forecasts of dangerous space weather, which can disrupt satellites, GPS systems, communications and even power grids during extreme solar storms.

"As the number of satellites in low Earth orbit continues to grow, understanding these effects is increasingly important," Nakayama said in the statement.

Their findings were published May 19 in the Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate.

A European-Chinese space weather mission launched to orbit on Monday night (May 18).

The SMILE spacecraft lifted off atop a Vega C rocket from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana Monday at 11:52 p.m. EDT (0352 GMT and 5:52 a.m. local Kourou time on May 19).

Everything went according to plan: The three-stage Vega C deployed SMILE in a circular orbit 439 miles (707 kilometers) above Earth about 56 minutes after liftoff.

SMILE (short for Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) will use four science instruments to study how Earth is affected by the solar wind, the flow of charged particles streaming constantly from the sun.

"In doing so, SMILE will improve our understanding of solar storms, geomagnetic storms and the science of space weather," European Space Agency (ESA) officials wrote in a mission description.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences is responsible for SMILE's satellite platform, spacecraft operations and three of the four science instruments — the Ultraviolet Imager (UVI), the Light Ion Analyser (LIA) and the Magnetometer (MAG).

ESA provided SMILE's payload module, the other science instrument (the Soft X-ray Imager, or SXI), the rocket and assembly and testing integration and services. The agency also contributed to the UVI instrument and will help with operations in orbit, according to ESA's mission description.

SMILE can't start doing its science work just yet. It will conduct 11 engine burns over the next 25 days, changing its orbit to a highly elliptical one that takes it 75,185 miles (121,000 km) above the North Pole and 3,107 miles (5,000 km) above the South Pole.

After that, the mission team will perform a number of checkouts to make sure SMILE and its instruments are working properly.

"About three months after launch, the team will receive the first X-ray and ultraviolet images, and then finally begin the science that SMILE is designed to do. The planned mission lifetime is three years," ESA officials wrote in the mission description.

The 115-foot-tall (35 meters) Vega C, which was developed by ESA, debuted in July 2022. It now has seven flights under its belt to date, six of them successful. Monday's launch was the first Vega C mission operated by the Italian company Avio; the others were managed by France-based Arianespace.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 12:45 a.m. ET on May 19 with news of successful launch, then again at 12:55 a.m. ET with news of satellite deployment.

Twice each year, New Yorkers gather along Manhattan's cross streets to watch the setting sun perfectly align with the city's grid, creating one of the most striking urban skywatching events in the world: Manhattanhenge.

In 2026, Manhattanhenge occurred on May 28-29 and will happen again on July 11-12. The best views are typically along 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd and 57th Streets looking west toward New Jersey.

On May 28 and July 12, viewers will see a "half sun" resting on the horizon, while May 29 and July 11 feature the dramatic "full sun" effect.

But why does Manhattanhenge happen in the first place?

The answer lies in the unique layout of Manhattan's streets and the changing position of the setting sun throughout the year.

Let's face it. If you live in New York City, where light pollution is among the worst in the United States, there aren't too many celestial sights that you can look forward to seeing. And yet, twice each year, people not only from in and around New York, but from across the country and even perhaps from around the world come to Manhattan to be mesmerized by an uncommon phenomenon that occurs near sunset.

Around Memorial Day and again for a day or two around July 12, New Yorkers become intrigued by an unusual circumstance that allows the setting sun to be seen on many of Manhattan's east-west cross streets simultaneously, provided you have a clear view down to the New Jersey horizon. Indeed, it is not unusual on those special evenings to see people clustered on the corners of favored cross streets watching the setting sun as it aligns with Manhattan's canyons of brick, glass and steel, creating dramatic vistas. In recent years, the Manhattanhenge term has become very popular in pop culture, even being used for the title of a 2009 episode of the television series "CSI: NY," as well as official clips for the TV Land series "Younger" (Season 3).

Enigma of Stonehenge

Of course, there are other places on Earth where the sun aligns with certain landmarks at specific times of the year. The most famous is Stonehenge, the Neolithic monument at Wiltshire in the Salisbury Plain of England, where on the day of the summer solstice, as seen from inside Stonehenge, the sun appears to rise directly above the so-called Heel Stone. It's an event that attracts thousands each year.

Although we are certain that the massive upright stones that comprise Stonehenge took about 1,500 years to construct and that it probably once served as a burial ground, many mysteries about it still abound. More than half a century ago, British astronomer Gerald S. Hawkins (1928-2003) and co-author John B. White published a book, "Stonehenge Decoded" (Doubleday, 1965), which claimed that Stonehenge was used to predict a wide number of astronomical occurrences. While attracting a large following, the book also attracted some reputable scientific scholars who scoffed at its findings. All these years later, the issue remains a contentious one and the true nature of Stonehenge may forever be a mystery.

The Gridiron of Manhattan

So far as Manhattanhenge is concerned, its origins are not nearly as mysterious. It is based on a design for Manhattan outlined in "The Commissioners' Plan of 1811" — for a rectilinear grid, or "gridiron" of straight streets and avenues which intersect each other at right angles. This design extends from north of Houston Street in lower Manhattan to just south of 155th Street in upper Manhattan. Most cross streets in between were arranged in a regular right-angled grid that was tilted 30 degrees east of true north to roughly replicate the angle of Manhattan Island.

And it is because of this 30-degree tilt in the grid that the magic moment of the setting sun aligning with Manhattan's cross streets does not coincide with the June solstice, but rather with specific dates in late May and early July.

While we say that the sun sets in the west, most times that's not exactly the case! Like the popular axiom, "A broken clock is correct twice a day," the sun sets precisely due west only twice each year — on the equinox days in March and September. But between the first day of spring and the first day of autumn, the position on the horizon where the sun appears to set (known as the azimuth) occurs somewhat north of due west. The azimuth of the sunset slowly shifts northward until the day of the June solstice; thereafter, it reverses course and shifts back to the south. On June 21, the sun sets at an azimuth of 302 degrees or 32 degrees north of due west.

But for the setting sun to be seen from all of Manhattan's cross streets, its azimuth must be 300 degrees or 30 degrees north of due west. That happens twice — first as the sun is climbing toward the solstice in late May — and then for a second time after the solstice, as the sun migrates back toward the south in early July.

And that first opportunity in late May is rapidly approaching.

Dates and times to look

The man who first brought attention to the Manhattanhenge phenomenon nearly 30 years ago is the noted astrophysicist and director of New York's Hayden Planetarium, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. He has written an interesting blog about the event.

For those who will be in New York City and hoping to get a view of, and maybe even photograph this year's spectacle, here is a tip: While any cross street will suffice, Dr. Tyson suggests the wider, "two-way" cross streets that ensures the best views of the west-northwest horizon (toward New Jersey) at 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd and 57th Streets. "The Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building render (respectively) 34th street and 42nd streets especially striking vistas," he notes.

Popular viewing locations can become crowded, especially on 34th and 42nd Streets, so arriving at least 30 minutes before sunset is recommended.

We should also note here that the times provided below are not for the exact moment of sunset. Sunset is defined as when the very top of the sun disappears below a "true" astronomical horizon (such as what one might see from a ship out at sea). For the Manhattanhenge effect, allowances must be taken for hills and any landmarks along the distant New Jersey landscape, so the sun's altitude is assumed to be one degree (or slightly less) above the actual horizon.

In 2026, there are not two, but four possible dates.

For your first opportunity in May, the dates to circle on your calendar are May 28 and May 29. On the first date, at 8:14 p.m. EDT, you will see a "half sun," that is, half above and half below the landscape. On the following night, at 8:13 p.m. EDT, you will see a "full sun," with the entire solar disk resting above the horizon.

If you miss out in May, you'll get a second chance in July, on the 11th and 12th. On the first July date a "full sun" appears at 8:20 p.m. EDT, while on the second date, we get the "half sun" effect at 8:21 p.m. EDT.

Popular viewing locations can become crowded, especially on 34th and 42nd Streets, so arriving at least 30 minutes before sunset is recommended.

We should also note here that the times provided below are not for the exact moment of sunset. Sunset is defined as when the very top of the sun disappears below a "true" astronomical horizon (such as what one might see from a ship out at sea). For the Manhattanhenge effect, allowances must be taken for hills and any landmarks along the distant New Jersey landscape, so the sun's altitude is assumed to be one degree (or slightly less) above the actual horizon.

In 2026, there are not two, but four possible dates.

For your first opportunity in May, the dates to circle on your calendar are May 28 and May 29. On the first date, at 8:14 p.m. EDT, you will see a "half sun," that is, half above and half below the landscape. On the following night, at 8:13 p.m. EDT, you will see a "full sun," with the entire solar disk resting above the horizon.

If you miss out in May, you'll get a second chance in July, on the 11th and 12th. On the first July date a "full sun" appears at 8:20 p.m. EDT, while on the second date, we get the "half sun" effect at 8:21 p.m. EDT.

Manhattanhenge in the morning?

Some of you might be wondering if Manhattanhenge is visible at sunrise. The answer is yes, but you'll have to wait until late in the year or at the very start of next year to see it. Once again, there are four opportunities, this time flanking the date of the winter solstice on Dec. 22. We now must look 180 degrees in the opposite direction, toward an azimuth of 120 degrees or 30 degrees south of due east. The first chance comes on Dec. 9 as the sun continues to shift to the south, with a "full sun" at 7:13 a.m. EST, followed by a "half sun" on Dec.10 at 7:12 a.m. EST.

After the solstice, the sun reverses course and begins to shift back to the north. On Jan. 1, we'll see a "half sun" at 7:26 a.m. EST, followed the next morning by a "full sun" at 7:28 a.m. EST.

Keep in mind, however, that unlike with sunset, there are more likely to be local obstructions to your visibility of the rising sun. Those living in Upper Manhattan and Harlem must contend with buildings and structures rising up from The Bronx; those on the Upper East Side and Midtown will be looking toward Queens, while those in the East Village, down to Houston Street, are facing Brooklyn edifices.

Of course, in attempting to see or photograph Manhattanhenge in the morning, one must also consider that the ambient late fall/early winter morning air temperature is likely to be anywhere from 30 to 60 degrees F. colder compared to late spring/early summer evenings, and there could even be some snow underfoot (especially in January). And lastly, the weather odds for a clear and sunny winter morning are considerably less favorable compared to having a clear and sunny summer evening.

But whenever you attempt to see it, be it summer or winter, evening or morning, we wish you good luck and clear skies!

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, Sky and Telescope, The Old Farmer's Almanac and other publications.

A powerful M5.7 solar flare erupted from the sun on May 10, unleashing an impressive coronal mass ejection (CME) that could deliver Earth a glancing blow tonight and potentially spark northern lights displays at high latitudes.

The eruption peaked at 9:39 a.m. EDT (1339 GMT) from sunspot region AR4436, now rotating into Earth's "strike zone" on the sun's northeastern limb. As the active region swings further into view over the next few days, any major flares or CMEs it produces will have a greater chance of being directed toward Earth.

While most of the recently launched CME appears to be racing east of Earth, NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center and the U.K. Met Office say part of the expanding plume of solar material may still brush past Earth around early May 13. If that happens, it could trigger minor (G1) geomagnetic storm conditions, enhancing aurora displays across the northern U.S. and the U.K.

Solar flares are ranked using a scale A, B, C, M and X — the latter being the most powerful category. Each step represents a tenfold increase in energy output. The May 10 event reached M5.7 strength, making it a powerful flare capable of disrupting radio communications on Earth.

The solar flare eruption triggered a radio blackout over the Atlantic Ocean, according to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center. These blackouts occur when intense X-ray and ultraviolet radiation from solar flares ionize Earth's upper atmosphere, interfering with high-frequency radio signals used by aviators, mariners and amateur radio operators.

The timing of the eruption is especially notable for aurora chasers. Almost exactly two years ago, on May 10, 2024, Earth experienced the first "extreme" G5 storm since 2003 — the strongest in more than two decades. The historic event produced dazzling auroras visible far beyond their usual high latitude range, with skywatchers reporting northern lights deep into mid-latitudes such as southern Florida and Mexico.

While the latest CME is not expected to produce anything close to the May 2024 storm, forecasters say a weak glancing blow from the May 10 eruption could still produce minor geomagnetic storm conditions later this week.

Looking ahead, both NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center and the U.K. Met Office are warning that more solar activity could be on the way. Both agencies agree there is a chance for additional M flares and maybe even X-class eruptions over the coming days as sunspot regions AR4436 and AR4432 continue to evolve.

If you've ever dreamed of seeing a total solar eclipse, the next few years present a rare opportunity. Between 2026 and 2028, Earth will experience three total solar eclipses in two years, but it's the first two that are sparking debate among wannabe eclipse chasers.

On Aug. 12, 2026, and Aug. 2, 2027, the moon's shadow will sweep across some of the most accessible and visually striking regions on Earth. Both events promise unforgettable views of the sun's corona, plunging daytime into an eerie twilight. Yet they offer very different experiences.

Given that eclipse chasing is an expensive business, if you can only choose one, which should it be?

2026 total solar eclipse: pros and cons

Do you really want to miss the next eclipse? By the time Aug. 12, 2026, comes along, it will have been almost two-and-a-half years since the last one in North America. This time, the path of totality begins in Siberia, crosses eastern Greenland and western Iceland, then arcs across northern Spain, before ending in the Mediterranean.

For Europeans, this is a no-brainer. The first total solar eclipse over mainland Europe since 1999, the path of totality includes Reykjavik, Iceland and Spanish cities such as Bilbao, Zaragoza, León, Burgos and Valladolid. The path of totality is only a few hours' drive from Toulouse, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Marseille and Lyon in France and only a day's drive from Paris, Geneva in Switzerland and Turin in Italy. Besides, Spain receives about 11 million visitors each August; many Europeans will already be in Spain.

While in Iceland, there are dramatic landscapes — volcanic terrain, glaciers and rugged coastlines — in Spain, the sun will be relatively low in the sky, creating the relatively rare spectacle of a totally eclipsed sun on land just before sunset (that effect will reach its nadir in the Balearic Islands).

However, there are trade-offs. Congestion is expected in Iceland and Spain, maximum totality will last just over two minutes — a shorter time than is possible — and clear skies are not guaranteed. In Spain, wildfires could create a smoky atmosphere, reducing clarity (as happened in summer 2025).

2027 total solar eclipse: pros and cons

On Aug. 2, 2027, the "eclipse of the century" will take place, its nickname derived from its exceptionally long duration of totality. In Luxor, Egypt, the moon will completely cover the sun for 6 minutes and 22 seconds — more than three times longer than in 2026. In fact, it will be the longest inland totality since July 11, 1991, and the longest until Aug. 3, 2114.

The path of totality will stretch from Spain — this time, the south of the country — through North Africa and into the Middle East. While Spain offers a European setting, many eclipse chasers are eyeing destinations like Tunisia and Egypt for their very long totalities and very high chances of clear skies. Luxor, in particular, has become a focal point. With its ancient sites such as Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings nearby, it offers a striking backdrop. The risk of clouds is lower than that of a dust storm.

Again, there are trade-offs. Travel to North Africa or the Middle East may require more planning, higher costs and longer journeys. The scramble to get on organized tours to Luxor makes it prohibitively expensive, and by now, near-impossible. There's also intense summer heat to worry about (an average daytime high of 105°F/41°C in Luxor), adding another layer of preparation.

Key factors to consider

When choosing between the 2026 and 2027 eclipses, a few core differences stand out that may help eclipse chasers decide:

• Duration: The 2027 eclipse is significantly longer, offering an immersive experience. The 2026 event is shorter and arguably more dramatic. However, this only applies if you are close to the centerline of the path of totality.
• Weather: Northern Spain and Iceland in 2026 carry moderate cloud risk, while southern Spain and North Africa in 2027 generally offer more reliable sunshine, though coastal cloud can still be an issue. Don't conflate climate — the science of averages — with weather forecasts three days before the eclipse. The latter is all that matters.
• Accessibility: The 2026 eclipse is easier for European travelers, with straightforward transport and familiar infrastructure. The 2027 eclipse may involve more complex planning, especially outside Spain.
• Viewing conditions: A low sun in 2026 creates dramatic visuals, but requires a clear horizon. The higher sun in 2027 simplifies viewing, but takes place in mostly much hotter conditions.
• Crowds and logistics: Both events will be busy, but 2027 — especially in southern Spain — may see more concentrated crowds, particularly if the 2026 eclipse acts as a global advertisement for 2027's "eclipse of the century."

Why prioritizing by duration is a mistake

There's a number that dominates almost every conversation among inexperienced eclipse chasers about a total solar eclipse: duration. Two minutes, four minutes, six minutes. It's treated like a score — as if longer automatically means better. It doesn't. The miracle isn't how long totality lasts — it's that it happens at all. The sun and moon appear almost the same size in our sky by pure coincidence. When they align perfectly, day turns briefly into night. Given how short all total solar eclipses are, being at all concerned about how many seconds totality lasts is actually ridiculous.

In fact, shorter eclipses are very often more dramatic — more sudden, more intense, more unforgettable. If you're after drama, a total solar eclipse will deliver — and I guarantee you will never remember exactly how many seconds it lasted. There's a reason why some experienced eclipse chasers head to the edge of the path of totality to glimpse a 1-second totality.

Sure, there's a good case to be made that the 2027 total solar eclipse is the exception to this rule purely because of the extreme length of totality. After all, the longest until 2114 is really hard not to get excited about. Yes, there will be more time to absorb the changing light, the drop in temperature, and to take in the solar corona in detail. If you're heading to Luxor in 2027, great decision — you'll not regret it. However, anyone watching an eclipsed sun on the cusp of setting while on a beach in the Balearic Islands in 2026 will have just as much drama — if not more.

There's a cautionary tale from recent history. Many eclipse chasers ignored South America's total solar eclipse in 2019, which was short and predicted by some to be cloudy, for a slightly longer, supposedly clearer one in 2020 in almost the same place. Both COVID-19 and intense rainstorms kiboshed those plans.

The conclusion, of course, is simple: if you can afford it, always go to the next total solar eclipse, no matter the duration, no matter the climatic predictions.

Spain's double totality

One of the most fascinating aspects of this eclipse cycle is Spain's unique position. It sits in the path of totality for both 2026 and 2027 — offering two entirely different eclipse experiences just a year apart.

In 2026, Spain delivers a low, sunset eclipse across its northern and central regions. Open landscapes in Castilla y León — around León, Burgos and Palencia — are expected to be popular for their clearer western horizons and slightly higher sun. Coastal and eastern areas offer more dramatic settings, but come with greater risk from haze and obstruction.

In 2027, the focus shifts south to Andalucía. Here, the eclipse occurs high in the sky, with durations exceeding 4 minutes near the Strait of Gibraltar. Locations like Tarifa, Cádiz and inland hill towns offer expansive views and long totality, though with the likelihood of heavy crowds.

The contrast is striking. One year offers a fleeting, cinematic eclipse around sunset; the next delivers a long, high-altitude spectacle. Anyone heading to Spain twice in succession will have a case study in how different eclipses can feel.

What kind of eclipse experience do you want?

Eclipse chasing is about choosing the experience you want, so if you're deciding between the 2026 and 2027 total solar eclipses, think about where you want to travel. "I always highly recommend picking someplace in the path of totality you'd like to go to, regardless of whether or not the total eclipse would be happening," Tyler Nordgren, an Ithaca, New York-based astronomer and eclipse artist at Space Art Travel Bureau, told Space.com.

Iceland in August — with an almost midnight sun — is a bucket-list experience in itself. So is touring the castles of Spain, or seeing the Arctic fjords in Greenland.

Wherever you plan to go, bear in mind the practical reality on the day. You may plan to be on the centerline for a super-long totality, but if there are clouds, you may find yourself driving to the edge of the path, where totality lasts only a few seconds, but in a clear sky. Be inside the moon's umbral shadow, and be forever grateful, for being able to witness nature's most perfect moment is the real prize.

On Aug. 12, 2026, the moon's shadow will sweep across northern Spain, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, creating a rare sunset total solar eclipse. For a few fleeting minutes and seconds, the sun will be completely blocked, revealing its delicate outer atmosphere — the corona — as the landscape is bathed in an eerie twilight.

Spain offers an exciting opportunity to experience low-altitude totality near sunset. By the time totality begins, the sun will already be sinking toward the western horizon — around 10 degrees high in the northwest and dropping to just a few degrees in eastern regions.

That's why rural locations matter. Wide-open landscapes — miradors on high plateaus, wetlands, vineyards and semi-desert terrain — offer the kind of uninterrupted sightlines needed to track the eclipsed sun as it dips toward the horizon.

These locations have all been checked using resources including Xavier Jubier's Interactive Google Map, which has timings and built-in sightlines from Peak inder, as well as The Eclipse App and Eclipse Horizon Checker, while cloud cover is from Time and Date. However, the best advice is to check the weather, choose a location and confirm sightlines the night before the eclipse.

1. Castildetierra (Fairy's Chimney), Navarre

A bizarre, eroded pillar in the shape of a chimney, Castildetierra (known as the Fairy's Chimney), is within Bardenas Reales Natural Park, near the town of Tudela in Navarre. It's a semi-desert landscape with clear sightlines and plenty of places to park.

2. Talatí de Dalt, Menorca

The island of Menorca — also a Starlight-certified destination — is scattered with dozens of sites from a Neolithic Talayotic culture, which built huge stone structures without mortar between about 1,000 and 123 B.C.E. There are many sites, but Talatí de Dalt stands out for both its accessibility and unusual T-shaped ceremonial monument. It's on flat land, but this remains a risky choice because the eclipse will take place very low on the horizon, so if you're planning to come here, check the sightlines the previous day.

3. Zamarramala, Castile and León

The historic city of Segovia, northwest of Madrid, will be hugely popular for the eclipse because of its aqueduct, but it has relatively difficult sightlines for such a low eclipse. Just to the north is Zamarramala, a village that stands above its surroundings on a high plateau. It will have an unobstructed 360-degree view of the eclipse above a flat landscape of Castilian fields.

4. Calatañazor, Castile and León

Above the ominously named Valley of Blood, close to the centerline of the path of totality, is Calatañazor, a small village named after the tiny fortified city on top of a hill. Its well-preserved medieval look, with paved streets and traditional houses, has made it a backdrop for movies, most famously Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight.

5. Laguna de Gallocanta, Spain

Almost bang on the centerline, this rain-fed salt lake on a high plateau in the south-west of Aragon is best known for cranes in winter, though in August you're more likely to see bustards, flamingos, harriers, vultures and the golden eagle. It's a wide, flat, undeveloped landscape framed by picturesque mountain ranges, with nearby places to stop, including Observatorio de la Reguera, Observatorio El Cañizar, and Mirador de aves de Tornos.

6. Alfaro Wetlands, La Rioja

The Alfaro wetlands nature reserve in La Rioja, near the border with Navarre, is a protected wetland area along the Ebro River. Among its meanders, islands and beaches, there are storks, herons, cormorants and kingfishers. The best eclipse-viewing spots will be open meadows and flat, grassy areas away from trees.

7. Arcos de las Salinas, Teruel

South of Teruel, in the heart of the Gúdar-Javalambre region, is the "interstellar town" of Arcos de las Salinas. It's home to Galáctica, Europe's largest astronomy outreach center, which will stage a special ticketed event for the eclipse. Mirador de Estrellas de Arcos de las Salinas, beside an area of telescopes, will have a view of the totally eclipsed sun just above the mountains.

8. Fortaleza califal de Gormaz, Soria

This Islamic citadel, dating to the 8th century, has well-preserved walls, watchtowers and a horseshoe arch above its main door. Almost as if it were created for the eclipse, the walls face northwest to create the perfect balcony for watching the moon's shadow approach across a rural landscape.

9. Lago Enol, Asturias

There are myriad miradors in the Parque Nacional de los Picos de Europa that offer spectacular vistas not only of the mountains but also of the Cantabrian Sea beyond. One is Lago Enol, a high mountain lake that won't see the eclipse, but whose Mirador del Príncipe de Asturias offers an excellent vantage point if the weather is clear.

10. San Vicente de la Sonsierra, La Rioja

The Ebro River basin is a major destination for this eclipse, stretching from La Rioja and Navarra in the west through Zaragoza and into Aragón. On the slopes of the Sierra de Cantabria in La Rioja, San Vicente de la Sonsierra is a village at the top of a hill overlooking the Ebro River, with sweeping views toward the setting sun in August. It's also a winemaking area along the Ruta del Vino.

The growing debris field in Earth orbit may someday endanger our access to the stars.

Today, that field consists of nearly 130 million pieces of space junk — dead satellites, old rocket bodies and tiny fragments generated by on-orbit collisions.

Understanding how debris shifts in orbit can help to avoid disastrous collisions. And a new study increases that understanding, showing that space debris falls to Earth faster when the sun is more active.

"For the first time, we find that, once solar activity passes a certain level, this loss of altitude happens noticeably more quickly," the study's corresponding author, Ayisha Ashruf, a scientist and engineer at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, India, said in a statement.

"This observation is expected to be key for planning sustainable space operations in the future," Ashruf added.

All objects in Earth orbit lose altitude over time, slowly moving toward our atmosphere. While space stations and satellites compensate for this loss with engine burns to maintain their desired orbits, space junk falls naturally.

In the new study, researchers measured the trajectories of 17 pieces of space junk in low Earth orbit over a 36-year span, starting two generations ago.

"All of this information comes from objects launched back in the 1960s," Ashruf said. "They are still contributing to science, serving as valuable tools for studying long-term effects of solar activity on the thermosphere."

Thirty-six years covers three different cycles of solar activity, which waxes and wanes with a periodicity of 11 years. To figure out the sun's behavior during this timespan, the scientists used data from the German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, which tracks sunspots and daily changes in solar emissions.

After linking the space-junk trajectories to the long-term solar data, the researchers found that increased solar activity boosted atmospheric density around the space junk. This created more drag, which slowed the debris pieces' orbit and sped up their descent.

"Our results imply that when solar activity passes certain levels, satellites — just like space junk — lose altitude faster so that more orbit corrections are required," Ashruf said. "This directly affects how long satellites stay in orbit and how much fuel they need, especially for missions launched near a solar maximum."

The new study was published today (May 6) in the journal Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences.

Looking for inspiration or deep research for the total solar eclipse on Aug. 12, 2026? Stretching across eastern Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain, the moon's shadow will carve out a roughly 190-mile (305 kilometers) wide path of totality — a fleeting corridor where the sun will be completely blocked by the moon, revealing its ghostly corona for a minute or two and plunging the landscape into twilight.

What follows is a curated mix of 15 locations — from remote Arctic fjords to city center viewpoints and high, dry plains — each offering a different way to experience one of nature's most extraordinary spectacles.

However, this is not a simple one-size-fits-all eclipse — the experience will dramatically differ depending on where you stand. In Greenland and Iceland, the eclipsed sun will hang relatively high in the sky. In Spain, it will be about 12 degrees above the horizon in Galicia, but dropping to just a few degrees above the horizon in the Balearic Islands. In some areas of Spain, even a low ridge, a distant hill or a line of buildings could block your view at the crucial moment, so choosing the right location is everything.

These locations have all been checked using resources including Xavier Jubier's Interactive Google Map, which has timings and built-in sightlines from Peak Finder, as well as The Eclipse App, Eclipse Horizon Checker and the Instituto Geográfico Nacional.

However, the best advice is always to scout out the location the day before, at the time of the eclipse, to check sightlines. Cloud cover information comes from Time and Date, though check the weather forecast before traveling, and again on the day itself.

1. Segovia, Spain

An epic vista for the eclipse will be possible from this mirador, which also has views of the majestic Alcázar de Segovia, the inspiration for the castle in Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty. It faces the open plains of Castile to the west and is accessed via a path from Arco de la Fuencisla. However, it's a short totality from Segovia.

2. Saxhóll Crater, Iceland

The western end of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula is where totality lasts longest in Iceland. About 5.5 miles (9 km) south of Hellissandur on the peninsula's westernmost tip, Saxhóll Crater is an easy climb. It's inside Snæfellsjökull National Park.

3. Becerril de Campos, Spain

Becerril de Campos is one of many small towns within the flat plains of Palencia that will offer open views across the surrounding landscape. The town's San Pedro Cultural Becerril de Campos is a converted Romanesque church now used as an astronomy center. Inside is a Foucault pendulum, which demonstrates the Earth's rotation.

4. Reykjavík Domestic Airport, Iceland

Both airports in Iceland — Reykjavík Domestic Airport (RKV) and Keflavík International Airport — are in the path of totality. The former, just a short walk from the city center, has a fabulous southwest-facing coastline where food stalls will be set up, with plans to accommodate around 10,000 people all along the seafront.

5. Nordvestfjord, Greenland

Getting close to the centerline of the path of totality anywhere but Spain is a challenge, but it comes with a reward. Realistically, the only option in Greenland is Nordvestfjord (Northwest Fjord) in Scoresby Sund, a region known for icebergs and Arctic wildlife, including muskox with occasional sightings of polar bears and walruses. Here, a 2-minute, 16-second totality is possible, but you'll need to be on an expedition cruise ship to access it.

6. Castillo de Osma, Spain

This strategically placed citadel, dating from the 11th century, perched above the Ucero River, Osma Castle offers sweeping views of the Castilian landscape and a sense of Spain's medieval frontier history. Its weathered stone walls and commanding hilltop position on the edge of Ciudad de Osma make it a striking stop for eclipse chasers.

7. Mount Helgafell, Iceland

For sweeping, uninterrupted views across Reykjavík, Faxaflói Bay, and the Reykjanes Peninsula, take a 45-minute hike from Kaldársel through a lava field to the top of this 338-meter volcanic hill. It's just south of Hafnarfjörður in Greater Reykjavík.

8. Mirador del Sablón, Spain

You may have to get here early to get a place on the most beautiful bench in the world, but if the sky is clear on the wild Asturian coast, you'll get a view of the eclipse above the Cantabrian Sea.

9. Hallgrímskirkja, Iceland

The chances of getting a vantage point in the tower of Iceland's tallest and most dramatic church are probably slim, but whoever does get a ticket is sure to get a spectacular 360-degree view of the city, surrounding mountains and the Atlantic Ocean beyond.

10. Muriel Viejo, Spain

Mirador La Peñota is an observation deck on high ground at the western end of the Sierra de Cabrejas, a 33,000-hectare area of juniper forests. Although completely isolated and with a clear view to the northwest, it's close to the small town of Muriel Viejo, a Starlight Tourist Destination in the Pinares de Soria region west of Soria. Muriel Viejo is home to the Starlight Foundation-certified El Cielo de Muriel, which is fully booked but intends to hold an observation event open to non-guests.

11. Ella Island, Greenland

The only way to visit this remote island in East Greenland is via a polar expedition cruise ship. At the confluence of five iceberg-filled fjords, it hosts a summer station used by the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, an elite Danish naval unit enforcing Danish sovereignty in the Arctic.

12. Santillana del Mar, Cantabria

Home to medieval towers, Renaissance palaces and churches, Santillana del Mar is one of Spain's most beautiful villages. Just 5 miles (8km) north is Torre de San Telmo, a 14th-century medieval watchtower on a cliff with expansive views over the ocean to the north and the Picos de Europa mountains to the south. It's part of a beautiful coastal walk.

13. Santander Bay, Spain

About 3 miles (5 km) from Santander, the 19th-century Faro de Cabo Mayor lighthouse watches the entrance to Santander Bay and offers dramatic cliff-top views — and spectacular coastal walks — perfect for the eclipse if skies are clear.

14. Geirfuglinn (The Great Auk), Iceland

The geirfuglinn (great auk) was a flightless bird that lived on Iceland and became extinct in the mid-19th century. Stand close to this sculpture, and you'll be among the last in Iceland to experience totality. Reykjanes lighthouse is nearby.

15. S'Arenal, Spain

For a clean, sea-level view of totality, S'Arenal is one of the most practical locations on Mallorca's south coast. Sitting at the southeastern end of Playa de Palma, it offers an uninterrupted west-northwest horizon — exactly where the eclipsed sun will hang just a couple of degrees above the sea.

Astronomers have, for the first time, spotted the "breath of the solar system." The finding comes in the form of X-ray emissions generated when the electrically charged solar wind slams into both Earth's atmosphere and the bubble that surrounds our solar system, the heliosphere.

This phenomenon, known as "solar wind charge exchange," was observed by the eROSITA space telescope, allowing a team of scientists to create a map of the sky in so-called "soft X-rays." This X-ray glow is radiated when the heavy ions of the solar wind, like carbon and oxygen, grab an electron from neutral atoms in either our outer atmosphere or the heliosphere.

Solar wind charge exchange had previously been considered interference or background noise interfering with astronomers' attempts to measure the density and temperature of plasma in distant galaxies and galaxy clusters. By producing the clearest map to date of soft X-rays, this team has further validated the phenomenon as a fascinating area of study in its own right.

Launched by Russia's space agency Roscosmos on July 13, 2019, eROSITA currently sits at a gravitationally stable point between Earth and the sun known as Lagrange Point 2. This point, also known simply as L2, is located 932,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth. From the vantage point of L2, the X-ray spacecraft was able to gather the data that informed this soft X-ray map by scanning the sky four times between 2019 and 2021.

"We were interested in studying the Milky Way's X-ray emission, particularly the circumgalactic medium, which should extend into a large sphere of plasma around our galaxy," Gabriele Ponti, team member and an astronomer with the Brera Astronomical Observatory said in a statement translated from Italian. "Analyzing the eROSITA data, we noticed significant and unexpected variations in this diffuse radiation.

"We realized that they couldn't come from distant galactic structures, which are constant, but must be linked to a phenomenon much closer to us: the charge exchange of the solar wind."

Team member and Max Planck Institute researcher Konrad Denneri pointed out that the team was then able to isolate the local radiation component, adding: "In this way, we not only reconstructed an unaltered image of the emissions from deep space, but also obtained valuable information on the solar wind emitted in all directions, as well as its variations over a two-year period."

The research suggests that solar wind emitted by the solar system follows the fluctuation of the solar cycle, weakening during periods of minimum activity and intensifying during periods of increased solar activity.

"With this work, what was previously an obstacle becomes a powerful diagnostic tool for heliophysics, allowing us to study the components of the solar wind and its interaction with the interstellar medium," Ponti said. "Understanding how the dynamics of the heliosphere modify the appearance of the X-ray sky is fundamental to correctly interpreting the Milky Way's warm phase."

The team's research was published on April 16 in the journal Science.

The sun has certainly woken up! It has fired off not one but two powerful X2.5 solar flares within just 7 hours.

Both eruptions came from a sunspot region on the sun's western limb, AR4419. The first solar flare peaked at 9:07 p.m. EDT on April 23 (0107 GMT April 24), followed by the second at 4:14 a.m. EDT (0814 GMT) on April 24. These are the strongest solar flares we've seen in 78 days, according to solar physicist Ryan French.

The bursts of radiation from the flares triggered strong radio blackouts on the sunlit side of Earth — the first affecting parts of the Pacific Ocean and Australia and the second impacting East Asia.

The active sunspot region is putting on quite the show before it rotates out of view. The X-flares were preceded by a flurry of M-class solar flares on April 23, along with a rare "sympathetic flare" where eruptions occurred in two separate sunspot regions on opposite sides of the sun.

The X-flares appear to have been accompanied by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) — large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the sun. However, because the sunspot is positioned on the sun's western edge, it's unlikely these CMEs are heading directly toward Earth. That said, forecasters are still modelling their paths and a glancing blow remains possible. If that happens, it could trigger geomagnetic storm conditions and spark vivid aurora displays.

What are solar flares?

Solar flares are powerful explosions from the sun that release intense bursts of electromagnetic radiation at the speed of light, including X-rays and ultraviolet light.

They are classified by strength into five categories, A, B, C, M, and X, each letter representing a 10-fold increase in intensity, with X-flares being the most powerful.

How do they cause radio blackouts?

When radiation from a solar flare reaches Earth, it ionizes the upper atmosphere known as the ionosphere, which can disrupt shortwave radio communications.

Under normal conditions, high-frequency radio waves can travel long distances by bouncing off the upper layers in the ionosphere. But during a strong solar flare, the lower layers become much more ionized than usual.

This creates a denser environment where radio waves are more likely to collide with charged particles and lose energy. As a result, signals can weaken, become distorted or be completely absorbed, leading to shortwave radio blackouts according to NOAA.

Acting as stellar archaeologists, scientists have found fossilized magnetism on long-dead stars known as "white dwarfs." This discovery may help explain how stars evolve from their "puffed out" red giant phase to their compact and smoldering white dwarf phase, a process our sun will undergo in around 5 billion years.

The team behind this research linked a theoretical model to observations of stars at different stages of their evolution, connecting evidence of magnetic fields at the surfaces of white dwarfs to magnetism detected at the cores of red giants. The team's model hinges on the idea that magnetic fields, which form early in a star's life, persist throughout all of their later stages, finally emerging on white dwarfs billions of years later as "fossil fields."

With this information in hand, the researchers then used measurements of stellar oscillations, or simply "starquakes," by tapping into techniques in the field of asteroseismology. This allowed them to further develop the fossil field theory as an explanation for stellar magnetism.

"The magnetic field in a star is important for how the star works on the inside and how long it lives and evolves," team co-leader Lukas Einramhof of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) said in a statement. "Generally, more of the older white dwarfs tend to be more magnetic than younger white dwarfs."

To understand the connection between red giants and white dwarfs, consider the final evolution of our own star, the sun.

From red giants to white dwarfs

In around 5 billion years, the sun will have exhausted the hydrogen in its core, no longer able to perform its nuclear fusion process that converts this element into helium. As this process is the main source of energy produced by the sun, this will mean the outward pressure that stops the sun from collapsing under its own gravity also ceases.

As the sun's core collapses, its outer layers, where nuclear fusion is still occurring, will puff out to around 100 times the original width of the sun — maybe more. This is the red giant phase. the solar system, it could see the sun swallow the rocky planets, including Earth, right out to the orbit of Mars.

The red giant phase of the sun will be relatively short-lived, expected to last just 1 billion years. The outer layers of the star will eventually cool and disperse, leaving a nebula of ex-stellar material surrounding the sun's core, which will then become an exposed cooling stellar remnant called a white dwarf. That is the final stage of life for all stars of a similar mass to that of the sun.

Recently, stellar scientists have been studying the interiors of red giants using starquakes just as seismologists here on Earth use seismic waves and earthquakes to investigate the interior of our planet.

This has revealed magnetic fields exist at the cores of red giants, while white dwarfs seem to have magnetic fields at their surfaces. Einramhof and colleagues think the fossil field model of stellar magnetism connects these magnetic fields at the two distinct evolutionary phases of stars, despite this being a theory that has fallen out of favor with scientists over recent years.

"Because a white dwarf is the exposed core of a red giant that has shed its outer layers, these different observations essentially examine the same region of a star’s interior at different evolutionary stages," Einramhof said. "If the magnetic field observed during the red giant phase is the same as the one that evolves to be observed at the surface of the white dwarf, then the fossil field theory can explain and connect the observations."

He and the team theorize that following the red giant phase, the shedding of a star's outer layers will leave distinctive properties at the surface of its white dwarf remnant successor. One of the key elements of this is how far the magnetism at the core of the red giant extends.

"To connect the magnetic fields observed at the surface of older white dwarfs with the ones found at the core of their red giant progenitors, a larger fraction of the star must be magnetized," Einramhof explained. "However, this doesn’t mean the stars are more strongly magnetized, only that the magnetic fields must already reach a larger portion of their core."

The team also determined how the evolution of a star influences the shape of its magnetic field, finding that instead of being centered at one point, it forms a segmented structure like the surface of a basketball, which is stronger near the surface than it is at the core.

All of this could give scientists a better idea of what the future has in store for the sun and also the general state of our star deep below its surface.

"We still don't know whether the sun's core is magnetic. Even though it's our own star, we're practically blind to what happens at its center," Einramhof said. "Current predictions assume that the sun's core is not magnetic. But if it turns out to be, this information would change everything we know and all the models we’ve based our work on. Given how little we know at this stage, our work suggests that stars are most likely all magnetic. But we can't always detect this magnetism."

Following the team's lead, scientists may also discover that our 4.6 billion-year-old star has a little longer left to live than currently calculated.

"If the sun can somehow bring hydrogen from its outer layers into its core, it would be able to live longer. One way to do this would be through strong magnetic fields," Einramhof said. "However, the magnetic fields might also lead to a very different outcome."

The team's research was published on April 14 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Last week, Artemis 2 astronauts witnessed a total solar eclipse from space, as the Orion spacecraft spent nearly an hour in the moon's shadow. But, as a remote team at the French-Italian Concordia Research Station recently experienced, you don't need to travel beyond the moon to see a truly private eclipse.

The Concordia Research Station is the most remote research base in Antarctica, located 750 miles (1207 kilometers) inland at an altitude of 10,600 feet (3,230 meters). The small crew stationed there endures average winter temperatures of -58 degrees Fahrenheit (-50 degrees Celsius), and four months each without seeing the sun rise above the horizon. This region is also one of the driest on Earth — part of Antarctica's vast polar desert.

Despite its harsh environment, Concordia is an ideal site for a wide range of scientific research, including glaciology, atmospheric science, astronomy and space medicine.

On Feb. 17 2026, the Concordia team witnessed something likely seen nowhere else on Earth — an annular solar eclipse.

Annular solar eclipses, often called "ring-of-fire" eclipses, occur when the moon passes in front of the sun at a point in its orbit where it appears slightly smaller in the sky. Instead of completely blocking the sun, the moon leaves a bright ring of sunlight visible around its edges.

Unlike total solar eclipses, which reveal the sun's faint outer atmosphere, annular eclipses are still a form of partial eclipse and require proper eye protection to view safely.

The path of annularity, where the ring-of-fire effect is visible, crossed Antarctica during the Feb. 17 event. It passed over just two inhabited locations: Concordia Research Station and Mirny Station, a Russian base.

But clouds obscured the view over Mirny.

That left a small group at Concordia as the only people on Earth to witness this eclipse in its full annular form. I spoke to one of them, Andrea Traverso, about the experience.

Traverso arrived at Concordia in November 2025 and will remain there until November 2026. He oversees scientific experiments and monitoring systems across the station, including studies of geomagnetism, seismology and meteorology, as well as investigations into how the upper atmosphere interacts with solar wind.

This marks his third "winterover" at the base, following previous stays in 2019 and 2020.

When I asked where he observed the eclipse from, Traverso described the station's layout — two cylindrical towers with windows facing multiple directions.

During the event, he positioned himself at "a window in perfect alignment with the eclipse," which offered "many possibilities from a photographic point of view".

Sheltered from the extreme cold, he simply opened the window to avoid reflections from the glass and began taking photos.

The result was remarkable.

Traverso captured a striking image of the ring-of-fire eclipse that was later shared widely by the European Space Agency.

But it wasn't until after the event that the full significance of the event came clear.

Traverso contacted other Antarctic stations to ask about their weather conditions. Many, including Mirny, had been clouded out.

No one else had seen it.

It was the he said, that he "became aware of the uniqueness of my observation."

In a Facebook post translated from Italian, Traverso wrote:

"Yesterday night's eclipse, photographed by me, visible in this form exclusively from the Italian-French base Concordia in Antarctica. My wonderful white lady also gave me this spectacle that only me and my 11 companions could enjoy live."

Surprisingly, the team had not prepared in advance for the event.

"I wasn't aware in advance about the eclipse and the possibility of observing it from Concordia," Traverso said.

Capturing an annular eclipse requires solar filters — similar to eclipse glasses — to safely reduce the sun's brightness. But none had been specifically set aside for the event.

Instead, Traverso improvised.

He found some sheets of mylar film stored at the base, which had previously been used for solar observations a long time ago and used cardboard and glue to build a makeshift filter for his camera lens.

"The solution proved to be effective," Traverso said.

Given that his image remains the only known photograph of the eclipse from Earth, it's hard to argue otherwise.

Head's up, aurora chasers! A surge of speedy solar wind is currently hurtling toward Earth at speeds up to 430 miles per second (700 km/s) and the conditions could spark geomagnetic storms tonight (April 17) and tomorrow (April 18)

NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a moderate (G2) geomagnetic storm watch while forecasters at the U.K. Met Office say there is a chance of strong (G3) bursts if activity intensifies.

If that happens, the northern lights could push much farther south than usual, becoming visible in parts of the U.S. as far south as Illinois and Oregon.

Geomagnetic storms are ranked on a G-scale, from G1 (minor) to G5 (extreme). Stronger storms can push auroras much farther from the poles, making them visible across mid-latitudes.

Auroras form when solar wind interacts with Earth's magnetic field, sending charged particles into the upper atmosphere. There, they collide with gases such as oxygen and nitrogen, transferring energy that is released as light, producing the colorful displays seen in the night sky. The stronger the solar wind, the more dynamic and widespread the auroras can become.

Where can I see the northern lights tonight?

Depending on whether conditions align and geomagnetic storms are triggered, the northern lights could become visible across the northern U.S. tonight. But remember, auroras are never guaranteed and depend on how successfully the solar wind interacts with Earth's magnetic field.

Northern Hemisphere aurora forecast courtesy of the U.K. Met Office

What time should I look for the northern lights tonight?

The northern lights may be visible across northern U.S. states tonight and tomorrow (April 17-18).

According to NOAA's 3-day forecast, activity is expected to peak during the following windows:

How can I see the northern lights from where I live?

Find a north-facing vantage point with a clear view of the northern horizon, as far from light pollution as possible.

• Use your phone camera to scan the sky, as a phone camera is great at picking up faint auroras before your eyes spot them. This will give you a good idea of which direction to focus your attention.
• Try and let your eyes adapt to the dark for at least 30 minutes; this will help your night vision develop.
• Wear warm clothing! Part of the fun of aurora hunting is the chase. Be prepared to sit or stand for hours if conditions are looking promising, as you won't want to miss the show when it starts!

We recommend downloading a space weather app that provides aurora forecasts based on your location. One option I use is "My Aurora Forecast & Alerts," available for both iOS and Android. However, any similar app should work well.

While you're at it… look for Lyrid meteors!

If you're heading outside tonight or over the weekend to hunt for auroras, keep an eye out for the Lyrid meteor shower too.

The Lyrid meteor shower is active between April 16 and April 25 and will peak in the predawn hours on April 22.

Lyrids will appear to emanate from the radiant in the Lyra constellation, which rises in the northwest and climbs higher in the sky toward the early morning hours. But make sure you don't look directly at the radiant, as while meteors appear to originate from Lyra, the longer, more dramatic shooting stars often appear farther away, so scan as much of the sky surrounding the radiant as possible.

The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS' chemistry was changing as it made its close approach to the sun last fall, a new study has found.

3I/ATLAS is fascinating to scientists because it is just the third object ever found passing through our solar system that was born around another star. Thus, it offers an opportunity to investigate the raw materials that existed in other star systems as they were forming planets, asteroids and comets.

In the new study, researchers observed 3I/ATLAS using the Subaru Telescope, an 8.2-meter optical-infrared telescope located near the summit of Maunakea, Hawaii, on Jan. 7, 2026.

"By applying the observational and analytical techniques we have developed through studies of solar system comets to interstellar objects, we can now directly compare comets hailing from both inside and outside the solar system and explore differences in their composition and evolution," team leader Yoshiharu Shinnaka, of the Koyama Space Science Institute in Japan, said in a statement.

By studying the colors of 3I/ATLAS' coma, the bubble of gas that surrounds comets regardless of their origins, Shinnaka and colleagues estimated the ratio of carbon dioxide to water around the interstellar invader.

They discovered that this ratio had changed since 3I/ATLAS made its close approach to the sun on Oct. 29, 2025.

This discovery didn't just suggest that the chemistry of 3I/ATLAS is changing, however. It also provided hints about the internal structure of this interstellar object.

That is because a comet's coma forms from gas that escapes from its frozen core when it passes close to the sun, and solar radiation causes solid ice to immediately change into gas, a process called sublimation.

The change in coma chemistry observed by the team implies that the internal chemistry of 3I/ATLAS differs from its external chemistry.

"With the full-scale operation of survey telescopes in the coming years, many more interstellar objects are expected to be discovered," Shinnaka said. "Through studies of such objects, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of how planetesimals and planets formed in a wide variety of stellar systems, including our own solar system."

The team's research is set to appear in the Astronomical Journal on April 22. A peer-reviewed version appears on the paper repository site arXiv.

Solar wind in the sun's atmosphere, the corona, flows up to four times faster than scientists had thought, a study based on photographs taken by a solar eclipsing spacecraft revealed.

The type of wind that the researchers studied forms very close to the sun's surface and had previously been known to blow at speeds of 60 miles per second (100 kilometers per second). That's considerably slower than the 480 miles per second so-called fast solar wind that blows from coronal holes — dark, cool regions with open magnetic field lines in the sun's upper atmosphere, the corona. But images taken by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Proba-3 mission — a duo of satellites flying in a formation to simulate the solar eclipse — revealed that even the slow kind of solar wind can be much faster than expected.

"In the inner corona, a region very difficult to observe, we saw slow solar wind gusts moving three to four times faster than expected," Andrei Zhukov, a solar physicist at the Royal Observatory of Belgium and the lead author of the study, said in a statement.

Instead of the expected 60 miles (100km) per second, the wind gusts just above the solar surface were reaching speeds up to 300 miles (480km) per second.

Solar wind is a stream of charged particles that constantly emanates from the sun and spreads across the solar system, causing geomagnetic storms and bringing intense radiation. The slow kind of solar wind, which was the object of this study, is likely generated when the sun's magnetic field lines break and reconnect, scientists think. But the process is still shrouded in mystery. Unlike the smooth stream of fast coronal wind, the slow solar wind comes out of the sun in gusty blobs, which are visible in coronal images as bright rays.

Until recently, imaging the solar corona was rather difficult. The corona is extremely faint compared to the luminous disk of the sun, which outshines it a million times, unless hidden behind special instruments called occulters. The problem with occulters mounted on Earth-based telescopes is that they must also cover the region of the corona nearest to the sun's surface to prevent the solar light from spilling over. It's in this region where the solar wind originates. Until recently, the only option to view this region was during natural total solar eclipses.

The moon, by coincidence, is just the right size and at the right distance from Earth to cover the entire solar disk. The distance between the moon and observers on Earth means that the overspilling of light that plagues telescopes on Earth is negligible. But total solar eclipses are a rare phenomenon. They occur on average less than once a year somewhere on the planet and only last a few fleeting minutes — not enough to allow scientists to crack the sun's major mysteries.

The ESA Proba-3 mission solves this problem. It consists of two spacecraft flying in a formation 490 feet apart (150 meters), with the spacecraft closer to the sun acting as a giant occulter to the observer satellite farther away. Since its launch in December 2024, the spacecraft has recreated 57 artificial solar eclipses, capturing 250 hours of high-resolution video of the little-understood region where solar wind forms.

"We can track how solar wind speeds up close to the Sun, we see it all over Proba-3's field of view, and we have already seen speeds and accelerations that surprised us," Joe Zander, the Proba-3 project scientist at ESA, said in the statement.

The measurements reveal that the slow solar wind emerges from the sun's surface in a nonuniform manner, producing small-scale magnetic-field disturbances.

"This first dataset is just the beginning of the much longer journey to fully understand what's happening," Zander said.

The study was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters in March.

Space weather refers to the influence of solar activity on the Earth and the near-Earth environment. Solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and solar energetic particles can disrupt satellite operations, damage power grids, and risk the health of aircrew and astronauts.

The impacts of space weather fall onto a spectrum. Lower impacts of space weather are experienced often, as satellite operators frequently adjust satellite orbits to deal with the loss in altitude resulting from solar flares. Larger impacts of space weather, however, are far rarer.

In January 2026, the U.K's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) released the fourth edition of Summary of space weather worst-case environments, a report exploring what a "worst-case scenario" might look like. In this context, a worst-case event refers to something that occurs roughly once every 100 to 200 years, similar in scale to the Carrington Event.

The report focuses on how such an event could impact modern technology, something explored in a previous article. But it also highlights another important aspect: how extreme space weather events could influence human behavior.

Let's take a closer look.

Rampant conspiracy theories

If you've spent time on social media, you've likely encountered conspiracy theories, from moon landing denial to flat Earth claims. Space weather is no exception.

The report highlights that a lack of public understanding makes society particularly vulnerable to misinformation. A 2014 U.K. survey found that 46% of adults had never heard of space weather, while a further 29% had heard of the term but knew almost nothing about it.

With limited awareness, scientific communication risks being drowned out by misinformation spreading through what the report calls the "echo chamber effects of social media." Fear-driven and sensational narratives could take hold, increasing public anxiety and amplifying other behavioral risks.

the term, but knew almost nothing about it. (With some mainstream space weather events occurring since then, perhaps these statistics have since improved. But with a populous unknowledgeable on the subject, the document discusses that scientific communication and expert advice may be undermined by conspiracy theories traveling

Panic buying

We've seen how quickly public behavior can shift during crises. During the COVID-19 pandemic, panic buying led to widespread shortages of everyday items like toilet paper — in part creating the very problem people feared.

The report suggests similar behavior could occur during an extreme space weather event. As warnings of potential disruptions — such as power outages — spread, people may rush to stockpile essentials like food, fuel and water.

Even without direct damage to supply chains, the surge in demand alone could lead to shortages and long wait times, demonstrating how human behavior can worsen the overall impact of a crisis.

Rising public disorder

Public response to government action during emergencies is not always uniform.

While some people view measures as necessary and protective, others may see them as excessive or unfair. The report warns that similar tensions could emerge during a severe space weather event.

For example, in the event of widespread power outages, perceived inequalities in how power is restored, with some regions prioritized over other could trigger public frustration. In extreme cases, this could act as a "major catalyst for protests", particularly if communities feel they are being treated unfairly.

Religious and extreme belief responses

The report also explores a lesser-known concept: Millenarianism — the belief that a major event could trigger the end of the world or a profound societal transformation.

In the context of extreme space weather, some individuals or groups may interpret such an event as an impending apocalypse.

History provides sobering examples. In 1997, members of the Heaven's Gate cult died by suicide following the appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp. In 1994, members of the Order of the Solar Temple died in a series of tragic events in Switzerland.

While such cases are rare and difficult to predict, the reprot raises concerns that extreme space weather — particularly if widely misunderstood — could trigger similar reactions among vulnerable groups. In today's digital world, where ideas spread rapidly online, the boundary between fringe beliefs and large communities can become blurred.

A link between technology and behavior

A key takeaway from the summary of space weather worst-case environments is that the impacts of extreme space weather cannot be separated into purely technological or purely human effects — the two are closely linked.

Disruptions to infrastructure can influence behavior, while human reactions can, in turn, amplify the overall impact of an event.

Improving resilience means addressing both sides of the equation. Strengthening infrastructure is essential, but so is improving public understanding of space weather and how it affects our lives.

In a world increasingly shaped by both technology and information, even small steps — like sharing accurate knowledge — can help reduce the risks. If you are reading this, perhaps you could contribute to the cause by telling a friend or family member about space weather!

For many of us, checking the weather is part of daily life. But, in an increasingly technology-dependent world, there is another kind of forecast we can't afford to ignore: space weather.

Space weather refers to activity on the sun and how it affects Earth and the space around it, a complex, chaotic system scientists are working to understand, forecast and mitigate.

There are three primary types of space weather (radio blackouts, geomagnetic storms and solar radiation storms), each relating to different processes on the sun. Solar flares, intense bursts of energy in the sun's atmosphere, can trigger radio blackouts on Earth by increasing ionization in the upper atmosphere, which disrupts radio signals. Geomagnetic storms, on the other hand, are caused by the impact of rapid streams of plasma on Earth's magnetic field, most dramatic during violent eruptions of plasma (coronal mass ejections) from the sun. Finally, solar radiation storms are caused by the arrival of high- energy protons and electrons coming from the sun.

We have experienced several strong space weather events over the past few years, with the strongest in May 2024. During this period, a loss of satellite navigation resulted in a $500 million loss to the U.S. agricultural industry. This was the strongest space weather event since October 2003, when Sweden and South Africa experienced widespread power outages. But what would a worst-case scenario look like?

In January 2026, a technical report from the U.K.'s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) set out to answer this question in the fourth edition of: Summary of space weather worst-case environments. The document covers all terrestrial impacts of space weather (not including outer space operations), spanning 80 pages.

But what do we mean by 'worst-case scenario'? In reality, it is not worthwhile planning for events that might happen once every million years. Instead, scientists and policy makers consider a 'worst-case' space weather event to be the type of event we might experience every 100-200 years. The report outlines how a worst-case space weather event over this timescale could affect everything from power grids to satellites. Although the scenarios are based on conditions in the U.K., similar impacts could be felt in other parts of the world — especially at similar latitudes.

Could space weather knock out power?

During geomagnetic storms, additional electric currents are created in power lines on the ground. If the additional electric currents, plus those already flowing through the system, are strong enough, then they can trip power grid safety systems and potentially lead to regional power outages. The report also explains how this process can cause direct damage and premature aging of transformers, lowering the grid capacity in the months (or even years) after the space weather event.

Satellites at risk

According to the report, one of the most immediate impacts of a severe space weather event would be felt in orbit. Satellites, which underpin everything from GPS to weather forecasting, are particularly vulnerable to both radiation and changes in Earth's atmosphere.

During an extreme space weather event, bursts of charged particles can damage onboard electronics and gradually degrade solar panels, shortening a spacecraft's lifespan by years. In the most severe cases, some satellite systems could fail permanently.

The report also highlights another disruptive effect of solar flares, whereby Earth's atmosphere can temporarily expand when heated by incoming X-rays from the sun. That increase in atmospheric drag can slow satellites down, causing them to lose altitude and potentially burn up above us.

We've already seen a version of this in recent years. Following heightened solar activity in 2022, up to 40 Starlink satellites re-entered Earth's atmosphere after launching during a solar flare. A worst-case scenario would amplify this effect, making it harder for operators to track spacecraft and space debris.

When signals fail

As you read this, radio signals are traveling through and around you. Our society relies on these signals, used in satellite navigation, mobile phone networks, WiFi, communication with flights and ships, and so on. Many of these systems will be disrupted during the worst-case space weather events.

Solar flares themselves produce radio waves, which can 'drown out' radio signals used on the ground. Systems reliant on detecting weak radio signals will be particularly at risk, including radar and global navigation systems. This will be a short-term effect, lasting around an hour on the daylit side of the Earth.

Many radio signals travel long distances by bouncing off a region of the upper atmosphere called the ionosphere. During geomagnetic storms, this layer becomes unstable, disrupting those signals. This can lead to widespread degradation and potential loss of satellite-based navigation and communications for several days. Many systems rely on satellite navigation in surprising ways, such as the US agricultural industry, which was impacted hard during the May 2024 extreme geomagnetic storm.

Radio communication in "Ultra-High Frequency" (UHF) and "Very-High Frequency" (VHF) ranges will also be disrupted for several days. These frequencies will not disrupt your mobile phone, but will interfere with the long-range communication systems used for planes and ships, likely leading to the grounding of flights. This grounding of flights is not necessarily a bad thing, as the report also discusses the risk of hazardous radiation exposure to aircrew, with a higher risk at higher latitudes. Aircrew may need to limit future radiation doses by limiting future flight duties, with pregnant crew particularly vulnerable.

While extreme space weather is unlikely to trigger a doomsday scenario, it could still have serious consequences for modern infrastructure.

The good news? Our ability to monitor the sun and forecast solar storms is improving, giving us more time to prepare for the next big event.

Editor's note: This article was updated on April 15 at 3:00 a.m. EDT to correct a typo it was a $500 million loss to agriculture, not $500 billion.

The Artemis 2 astronauts will get a rare skywatching treat on Monday (April 6).

The quartet will see a total solar eclipse that evening as they slingshot around the moon's far side, in a flyby that breaks humanity's all-time distance record.

And that eclipse will be something that none of us stuck on terra firma have ever seen. (And, to be clear, groundbound viewers won't see this one; it will be visible only to the Artemis 2 crew.)

"From our vantage point, the moon and the sun in the sky appear approximately the same size," NASA's Kelsey Young, Artemis science flight operations lead, said during a press conference on Saturday (April 4).

But Artemis 2's Orion capsule "has a much different view than we do," she added. "And so the moon appears much, much, much larger in their view than it does from us here on Earth."

As a result, the sun will disappear from Artemis 2's view for about 53 minutes on Monday — about seven times longer than the maximum period of totality possible for eclipses seen from Earth.

Artemis 2's total solar eclipse will begin Monday at about 8:35 p.m. EDT (0035 GMT on April 7), 90 minutes after Orion reaches its maximum distance from Earth — 252,757 miles (406,773 kilometers), which is about 4,000 miles (6,400 km) farther than NASA's Apollo 13 mission got in April 1970.

Eclipses give solar scientists a rare chance to study the sun's wispy outer atmosphere, or corona, which is usually drowned out by the overwhelming glare of the solar disk. So NASA is pressing the Artemis 2 crew into sun-watching service on Monday evening.

"We've included prompts for them to describe the features that they can see in the solar corona, which can ultimately help solar scientists understand these processes in general, especially given the unique vantage point that the crew are going to have relative to our orbiting spacecraft here on Earth and our observers, our scientists, here on Earth as well," Young said.

Such work is part of a broader flyby observation campaign, during which the four Artemis 2 astronauts — NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency — train their sharp eyes on the moon.

And human eyes are special, Young said; they're capable of picking up nuances of shade and color that the cameras on robotic lunar orbiters can miss. She cited the example of the Apollo 17 astronauts, who noticed oddly orange regolith on the moon that eventually revealed "that volcanic processes were active on the lunar surface much more recently than we had expected before."

So the astronauts' up-close observations on Monday should be quite valuable.

"We're looking for the crew to take time during their flyby, let their eyes adjust to what they're seeing, and call out any of those subtle color nuances, especially on the parts of the far side that have never been seen before by human eyes," Young said. "And we're able to ask more intelligent questions because of what Apollo gave us and because of what those orbiting spacecraft provided to us."

Monday's skywatching event won't be unprecedented, by the way: The Apollo astronauts — who orbited the moon rather than flew by it, as Artemis 2 will do — also saw solar eclipses from lunar realms, Young said.

The eclipse campaign comes as something of an unexpected treat for the Artemis 2 astronauts, who had been targeting an early February launch. Minor issues with their Space Launch System rocket pushed things back a bit, however, into a window that allows them to see a celestial spectacle.

"That's something that we hadn't been thinking we were going to be able to do," Hansen said on Saturday, during an interview with Canadian media. "But because we launched on April 1 — the birthday of the Royal Canadian Air Force, I'll just add in there — we're going to get to see that now, which is pretty neat."

Monday's lunar flyby will send Artemis 2 back toward Earth. The astronauts will splash down on Friday (April 10) off the coast of San Diego, bringing their 10-day moon mission to an end.

The sungrazing comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) has been causing a stir in recent months as it brightened during its headlong rush towards the sun, which culminates in a high stakes close approach known to astronomers as perihelion on April 4. Here's how you can watch its final do-or-die approach for yourself through the technological eye of a sungazing spacecraft.

C/2026 A1 (MAPS) is thought to belong to the Kreutz family of comets — enigmatic solar system wanderers that are thought to have a shared progenitor and whose orbits take them perilously close to our parent star.

At perihelion, C/2026 A1 (MAPS) is expected to pass just 101,100 miles (162,700 km) from the sun's photosphere — a passage that could either spell its doom as volatiles buried beneath its surface vaporize and undermine its integrity, or may even see it shine bright enough to appear in the daytime sky.

Either way, you may be able to spot the wandering solar system body as it careens towards the sun in imagery captured by the Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraphy (LASCO) mounted on the joint ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.

LASCO was designed to take detailed images of the sun's atmosphere by blocking out the light coming directly from its surface. Each of SOHO's "C3'" images captures a field of view 32 times the diameter of the sun, revealing how material ejected from its surface interacts with the space environment and, occasionally, detecting the presence of interlopers, such as C/2026 A1 (MAPS).

Space.com columnist Joe Rao forecast that comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) will enter the LASCO instrument's field of view from 8:00 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) on April 2 through to 1:00 a.m. EDT (0500 GMT) on April 6. It will briefly disappear as it passes into the blind spot created by the instrument's occulter disk for the four hours surrounding periohelion, before emerging back into LASCO's field of view, assuming it survives the close brush with our parent star.

Once the Artemis 2 astronauts get beyond the protective environment of Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field, they will be subject to space radiation.

While en route to and from the moon, the four-person Artemis 2 crew will be vigilant, eyeing radiation detectors and listening for caution and warning alarms. They will also be outfitted with active dosimeters, devices that measure exposure to radiation, such as X-rays or gamma rays.

Artemis 2's Orion spacecraft is relatively highly shielded. However, the astronauts would still take defensive measures if they encountered particularly high radiation levels — from a powerful solar storm, for example. The astronauts would establish a shelter utilizing central stowage bays, whose contents would be moved to a known "hot spot" within Orion. Doing so would create a lower-dose region in the capsule, helping to reduce the crew's radiation exposure.

Radiation shielding

Artemis 2 will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen, on a roughly 10-day trip around the moon and back to Earth. NASA is targeting a launch as early as April 1.

As its name suggests, Artemis 2 will be the second mission of NASA's Artemis program. The first, Artemis 1, successfully sent an uncrewed Orion to lunar orbit and back in late 2022.

During Artemis 1, Orion spent more than 25 days in space and traveled a total of 1.4 million miles (2.25 million kilometers), gathering a wealth of valuable data about the deep-space environment and the capsule's performance within it.

"From the measurements on Artemis 1, we learned that the Orion is a good vehicle to be in during a radiation storm, as it is compact and dense and hence offers up good radiation shielding," said Stuart George, radiation instrumentation lead at NASA's Space Radiation Analysis Group (SRAG), based at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"We learned that the Orion radiation storm shelter performs as expected and at different locations in the vehicle," George told Space.com.

Artemis 1 carried an instrument-laden manikin and two torso-only "body phantoms," which showed that doses to internal organs can be much lower than doses to skin during space weather events, said George.

The radiation exposure of the Artemis 2 crew will be gauged by Hybrid Electronic Radiation Assessors (HERA) and by small Crew Active Dosimeter badges that the crew will wear. There are six active HERA sensors deployed at various spots inside the Orion crew module.

Additionally, NASA has again partnered with the German Space Agency DLR, using an updated model of its M-42 sensor — an M-42 EXT — for Artemis 2. The new version — four of which will fly on Orion during Artemis 2 — offers six times more resolution to distinguish between different types of energy, compared to the Artemis 1 version.

Shelter in place

What about "go, no-go" decision-making for Artemis 2 in regards to dealing with a space weather or other space radiation event?

"While background galactic cosmic rays are difficult to shield from due to their high energies, solar particle events generated by the sun are a different matter," George said.

For solar particle events, NASA has predefined radiation dose rate levels after which the crew will work to construct a radiation shelter to reduce their exposure, said George.

If that dose rate threshold is exceeded, he added, the Artemis 2 crew would take material out from spacecraft storage bays and place those objects along the least shielded wall of the Orion capsule to build a radiation shelter.

"In addition, if an event is particularly bad, there are some places in the capsule, such as storage bays and down by the toilet, that the crew can go to," said George. Such areas would be pretty tight but would offer up even more shielding.

The sun unleashed a powerful X1.4 solar flare in the early hours today (March 30), triggering radio blackouts on Earth and raising potential concerns for NASA's Artemis 2 mission preparations.

The flare peaked at 11:19 p.m. EDT (0319 GMT) according to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center. It caused widespread degradation of high-frequency (HF) radio signals across the sunlit side of Earth at the time of the eruption, affecting southeast Asia and Australia.

The eruption came from active region 4405, a magnetically complex sunspot group now rotating further into Earth's view — meaning any continued activity could have more direct impacts on Earth and Artemis 2 preparations in the coming days. The flare also launched a coronal mass ejection (CME) with a possible Earth-directed component.

NASA is preparing to launch Artemis 2, its first astronaut mission to the moon since 1972, with liftoff set for no earlier than April 1, at 6:24 p.m. EDT (2224 GMT). The mission will send four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the moon, but heightened solar activity could complicate preparations if conditions intensify.

Read more: Could bad space weather endanger the Artemis 2 moon astronauts?

"NASA is paying attention regarding the upcoming Artemis 2 launch," solar physicist Tamitha Skov told Space.com in a reply to a comment on X. "We need to pay attention to radio bursts now. Those can really impact HF/VHF as well as satellite radio communications during critical launch operations and early orbit maneuvers!" Skov continued.

You can keep up to date with the latest Artemis 2 news with our Artemis 2 live blog.

NASA officials aren't the only ones paying close attention to the sun's outbursts this week. Aurora chasers will also be getting excited about the prospect of a possible glancing blow from the speedy CME released during the eruption. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a moderate (G2) geomagnetic storm watch for March 31, with minor (G1) storm conditions possible on March 30 and April 1.

If the CME delivers a glancing blow to Earth, it could trigger geomagnetic storm conditions and lead to auroras visible at lower latitudes than usual. If conditions align, auroras could be visible as far south as New York, Wisconsin and Washington state under G2 conditions, according to NOAA.

NASA's Artemis 2 mission will send four astronauts outward to the moon, far beyond the shielding cocoon of Earth's magnetic field.

This first piloted sojourn of the Artemis program — a 10-day outing targeted to launch on April 1 — will be the first human passage over that distance since the final Apollo flight ended in December 1972.

To support the flight, there has been a sharpening of space weather forecasting skills — an ability to better gauge the sun's activity and to help assure crew safety if a hazardous uptick in solar action rears its energetic head.

High doses

Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field protect us from the steady stream of radiation and charged particles released by the sun. But solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) — huge eruptions of solar plasma — could be a threat to Artemis astronauts venturing far beyond our planet, as could cosmic rays, which originate far beyond our solar system.

So, how much of a threat does space radiation pose to the four Artemis 2 astronauts, who will journey beyond the moon in their Orion capsule?

For Artemis 2, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA are partnering to provide space weather support and radiation-hazard warnings.

Decision-makers

Shawn Dahl is a service coordinator at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) in Boulder, Colorado.

"We at SWPC are fully prepared to support the Artemis 2 mission," Dahl told Space.com. The SWPC team is currently slated to have a pair of forecasters present at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, working side by side with Space Radiation & Analyses Group (SRAG) experts for the entirety of the mission, he said.

"SWPC forecast operations here in Boulder will of course be the decision-makers on any forecasts that could impact the mission; however, the in-place forecasters will be there to provide instant decision-support should any solar energetic proton event (SPE) occur during the mission," Dahl said. "The deployed SWPC forecasters will be in close and continual contact with our SWPC forecasters back in Boulder."

Read more: Powerful X-class solar flare triggers radio blackout ahead of Artemis 2 launch

Justified concern

Dahl said that, at this time, he and his colleagues have no way of knowing what the sun might have in store for the Artemis 2 launch or the mission overall. "Perhaps we will get a better feel for that in the week or so prior to launch," he said.

A thing to keep in mind, Dahl said, is that we are still in solar maximum, a high point in the sun's 11-year activity cycle — although activity may now be trending down.

"But, significant solar radiation storms have happened as we are coming down from solar maximum in the past," said Dahl. "Therefore, there is still justified concern for planning's sake should an extreme storm occur during the mission."

Testbed exercise

In support of Artemis 2, a testbed exercise was held at SWPC in April and May of 2025. More than 70 participants from NASA, the U.S. Air Force, commercial space companies and leading research institutions took part in the exercise.

Each exercise spanned 2.5 days and was designed to strengthen collaboration among the SWPC, NASA's SRAG, the space agency's Moon to Mars Space Weather Analysis Office, the Department of Defense (DoD), private-sector industry experts and the academic research community.

Participants collaboratively worked through a simulated radiation storm scenario and evaluated space weather products.

The hands-on, immersive experience assisted in honing space weather forecasting activities, not only for Artemis 2 but also the future. NASA, after all, wants to build a crewed lunar outpost in the next few years and eventually launch human expeditions to Mars.

'Optimistically confident'

"From a purely space weather perspective, I think we're feeling optimistically confident right now," said Jamie Favors, space weather program director in the Heliophysics Division at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

"We have continued to improve, both on the technical side and in communications, how the various groups talk to each other," he told Space.com.

Favors said an array of consensus-building space weather modeling tools will be in play during the Artemis 2 flight, which will be the Artemis program's first crewed mission.

"It's very similar to hurricane forecasting. You want to see what all the models are saying and to see where there's a central line, to get a sense of confidence in what might be coming," said Favors.

Working 24/7

The trio of space weather teams — NOAA's SWPC, NASA's SRAG and the Moon to Mars Space Weather Analysis Office — "will be working 24/7 during the mission, keeping an eye on everything as the mission goes on," Favors said. "We provide both the all-clear forecasting and 'Hey, we've had an event.'"

Data gleaned from in-space assets and ground observations will be fed into space weather forecasting models, Favors said. A huge part of the story is data — and the more data the better, he said.

"There's a lot of analogous thinking on what's happening in our ability to forecast weather here on Earth. And it's very true for space weather," said Favors. "We have put a lot of work into this for decades now. I think we're in a good spot to make sure the crew knows exactly what the space weather environment is and could be for them during the 10-day mission."

The sun's powerful magnetic dynamo that drives sunspot activity and contributes to unleashing powerful solar flares and coronal mass ejections has been confirmed as existing 124,000 miles (200,000 kilometers) beneath the sun's visible surface — equivalent to 16 Earth widths' deep.

Earth's magnetic dynamo is situated in our planet's outer core, where the convection of molten iron generates electrical currents.

The sun's core is a nuclear furnace of shredded atoms, and its inner two-thirds make up a radiative zone of gamma-ray photons, so the solar magnetic field cannot be generated there. Instead, all the convection takes place in the sun's outer-third, in the suitably named convective zone.

Some scientists had wondered whether the sun's magnetic dynamo was situated in a narrow near-surface layer, or perhaps extends throughout the entire convective layer. The most popular hypothesis, however, has been that the magnetic dynamo is generated at the boundary between the lower convective zone and the inner radiative zone.

We call this boundary the tachocline, and through about 30 years' worth of studying oscillations reverberating across the sun's visible surface — the photosphere — and its deep interior, Krishnendu Mandal and Alexander Kosovichev of the New Jersey Institute of Technology have found direct evidence that the dynamo is generated there.

"For years we suspected the tachocline was important for the solar dynamo, but now we have clear observational evidence," said Mandal in a statement. "[But] until now, we simply hadn't heard enough from inside the star to be certain where the Sun's intense magnetic fields are organized."

Mandal and Kosovichev utilized data collected by the Michelson Doppler Imager on the joint NASA–ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), which launched in 1995, and the National Solar Observatory's ground-based Global Oscillation Network Group of six telescopes around the world that came online that same year.

Both SOHO and GONG are still in operation, and between them they measure the changing pattern of oscillations rippling through the photosphere every 45 to 60 seconds.

The oscillations are influenced by the structure of the Sun's interior, which is defined by flows of plasma within the convective layer. The temperature and motion of these rotational flows of plasma therefore affect the period and amplitude of the oscillations as they pass through the flows before breaking through the photosphere.

Mandal and Kosovichev found that these rotating bands of plasma inside the Sun form a butterfly pattern that matches the way the location of sunspots changes across the sun's 11-year cycle of magnetic activity. Sunspots are cooler patches of the sun created by magnetic fields looping out through the photosphere. As such, they are a fingerprint of the Sun's magnetic field.

"Now, with nearly three 11-year solar cycles' of data, we're finally seeing clear patterns take shape that give us a window inside the star," said Mandal

The measurements show that this butterfly pattern originates from the tachocline, 200,000 kilometers below the sunspots on the photosphere. In the tachocline, the rotation of plasma is distinct from the convective layer above, with more shearing motions that drive electric current generating the magnetic field.

"Rotating bands originating from magnetic structural changes near the sun's tachocline can take several years to propagate to the surface," said Mandal. "Tracking these internal changes gives us a clear picture of how the solar cycle unfolds."

Moreover, a better understanding of how the sun's magnetic field is generated, and how it manifests on the surface in active regions that produce sunspots, flares and ultimately coronal mass ejections, could aid in better predictions of harmful space weather. Eruptions from the sun can send clouds of charged particles heading our way, which can disrupt satellites, communications and energy grids and endanger astronauts.

"While our findings do not yet enable precise predictions of future solar cycles, they highlight the importance of including the tachocline in space weather prediction models," said Mandal. "Many current simulations account for processes only on near-surface layers, but our results show the entire convection zone, especially the tachocline, must be considered."

Further afield, the findings will help us to better understand magnetic activity on other stars. As our Sun is the only star that we can observe close up, it is often used as a baseline for understanding other stars.

The findings are presented in a paper published on January 12 in Scientific Reports.

A satellite that generates artificial solar eclipses in space has reestablished contact with its handlers after a month of silence.

The European Space Agency (ESA) announced today (March 19) that it has gotten back in touch with the Coronagraph spacecraft, one of the two satellites that make up its Proba-3 mission. The Coronagraph had been silent since mid-February, when an anomaly knocked it offline.

"Hearing back from the Coronagraph is amazing news, and a great relief!" Proba-3 Mission Manager Damien Galano said in a statement today.

The Coronagraph and its partner satellite, the Occulter, launched to Earth orbit together from India in December 2024.

The two work together to generate solar eclipses. As its name suggests, the Occulter blocks out the sun's disk, allowing the Coronagraph to study the sun's faint outer atmosphere, or corona, which is usually drowned out by our star's overwhelming brightness.

This work requires incredibly precise formation flying: The two satellites cruise through space about 500 feet (150 meters) apart, maintaining their positions with an accuracy of 1 millimeter. If either the Occulter or the Coronagraph goes down, the mission is effectively over.

So, last month's events were bad news for the Proba-3 team. The Coronagraph anomaly "triggered a chain reaction that led to the progressive loss of attitude (spacecraft orientation) and prevented its expected entry into safe mode," ESA officials said in a statement on March 6.

But things are better now, as today's update noted. ESA's ground station in Villafranca, Spain, received a packet of data from the Coronagraph, which provided information about the satellite's voltage and temperature, among other characteristics.

The satellite is stable and in a protective "safe mode" at the moment. But it's not out of the woods; the mission team is conducting health checks to determine if it suffered any damage, ESA officials said in today's update.

"The spacecraft’s solar panel is facing the sun, powering the essential electronics on board, and charging the battery with the remaining power," they said. "After a month of floating in space and exposed to extreme cold, onboard systems need time to warm up before any major actions are taken. "

Several coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are currently hurtling toward Earth. The first expected impact was due in the early hours this morning (March 19) but appears to be running a little late.

Forecasters now say geomagnetic activity is likely to ramp up through March 19-21, with multiple CME impacts expected to trigger minor to moderate (G1 to G2) geomagnetic storms and a chance of stronger (G3) conditions, pushing the northern lights farther south than usual.

NOAA space weather forecasters have issued a G2 (moderate) geomagnetic storm watch for March 19-21 as a combination of incoming CMEs and high-speed solar wind is expected to buffet Earth's magnetic field. While there remains significant uncertainty around the exact timing and strength of the incoming CMEs, forecasters have higher confidence that a coronal high-speed stream will arrive by March 21 — helping sustain geomagnetic storm conditions even if earlier CME impacts are weaker or delayed.

Where can I see the northern lights tonight?

States that could see auroras tonight

Based on the latest NOAA aurora forecast map, the following 18 U.S. states appear fully or partially above the aurora view line:

1. Alaska
2. North Dakota
3. Minnesota
4. Montana
5. Washington
6. Idaho
7. Wisconsin
8. South Dakota
9. Michigan
10. Maine
11. Vermont
12. New Hampshire
13. Oregon
14. Wyoming
15. Iowa
16. Nebraska
17. New York
18. Illinois

But remember, auroras can be relatively unpredictable. The list is based on current forecast data at the time of publication, but if conditions strengthen, northern lights could reach much farther south than expected. Equally, if conditions don't align, we could end up sitting in the dark with no auroras at all. Whether the incoming CMEs deliver impressive aurora shows or end in disappointment largely depends on their magnetic orientation when they hit Earth. If the CME's magnetic field is aligned southward — a component known as Bz — it can link up with Earth's magnetic field, allowing solar energy to stream into our atmosphere and fuel geomagnetic storms. But if it's oriented northward, Earth's magnetic field deflects much of that energy, and the show may never materialize.

Some CME's contain both north- and south-facing fields, which can lead to patchy or fluctuating activity — keeping forecasters and aurora chasers on their toes. We won't know the CME's true magnetic orientation until it's sampled directly by solar wind satellites like DSCOVR and ACE, positioned about a million miles from Earth.

Northern Hemisphere aurora forecast courtesy of the U.K. Met Office

When is the best time to look for the northern lights tonight?

If the skies are clear, make sure to look for the northern lights as soon as it gets dark, as geomagnetic activity will be at elevated levels if the CMEs arrive as predicted. Currently, high geomagnetic activity is forecast to persist all night.

According to NOAA's 3-day forecast, geomagnetic storm activity is expected to be best at the following times:

Even if individual CME impacts are delayed, the arrival of high-speed solar wind later this week means aurora chance could remain elevated into March 21.

How to see the northern lights tonight

If you're in one of the 16 U.S. states where auroras might make an appearance tonight, a little preparation can go a long way toward improving your odds of seeing them.

1. Start by finding a spot with an unobstructed view toward north, preferably somewhere dark and well away from city lights. The clearer your view of the northern horizon, the better.
2. Start scanning the sky with your phone's camera as they are usually good at picking up faint auroral glows that aren't immediately obvious to the naked eye, helping you identify where activity may be starting.
3. Dark adaptation is crucial and often overlooked when aurora chasing. If you can, give your eyes at least 30 minutes to fully adjust to the darkness so you can detect subtle auroral features. Keep in mind that even a quick look at a bright light or phone screen can reset the process, forcing you to start over.
4. Dress for the wait. Aurora shows can be unpredictable and if conditions look promising you may find yourself waiting outside for a while. Make sure to wear plenty of layers!

We recommend downloading a space weather app that provides aurora forecasts based on your location. One option I use is "My Aurora Forecast & Alerts," available for both iOS and Android. However, any similar app should work well. I also use the "Space Weather Live" app, which is available on iOS and Android, to get a deeper understanding of whether the current space weather conditions are favorable for aurora sightings. Want to capture the perfect northern lights photo? Our how to photograph auroras guide can help.

If you snap a photo of the northern or southern lights and would like to share it with Space.com's readers, send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has issued a G2 geomagnetic storm warning for March 19 (UTC) — which translates to late March 18 in North America — with G1 conditions likely to continue into March 20, as multiple coronal mass ejections (CMEs) head toward Earth. Geomagnetic storms are classified using a G-scale, which ranks their intensity from G1 (minor) to G5 (extreme).

While the initial forecast focused on a single CME launched during an M2.7 solar flare on March 16, forecasters now say at least four CMEs may impact Earth in quick succession, potentially extending and complicating geomagnetic activity through March 20-21.

CMEs are vast plumes of plasma and magnetic field from the sun which, when conditions are right, can impact Earth's magnetic field and trigger geomagnetic storm conditions, which in turn can lead to impressive aurora displays.

This is great news for aurora chasers as the predicted G2-level storm could bring northern lights as far south as New York and Idaho, but NOAA's SWPC says there is a chance that G3 levels could be reached, which could lead to aurora sightings deep into mid-latitudes such as Illinois and Oregon.

When will the solar storm hit?

The possible arrival time for the incoming solar storms is still evolving, and depends on which of the multiple CMEs strike Earth and what effect they have.

According to NOAA's latest forecast, the first impacts could begin as early as 11 p.m. EDT March 18 (0300 GMT March 19), with moderate (G2) geomagnetic storm conditions most likely between 2:00 a.m. and 8 a.m. EDT (0600-1200 GMT).

However, other models, including those cited by the U.K. Met Office, suggest the main CME could arrive later on March 19 or even early March 20, prolonging auroral activity through the weekend.

Because multiple eruptions are involved, geomagnetic activity could persist for 24-48 hours or longer, rather than peaking in a single short burst. So make sure your camera batteries are charged! We could be in for multiple nights of aurora shows down at mid-latitudes.

Will auroras actually be visible?

Even during strong geomagnetic storms, aurora visibility is never guaranteed.

While G2 conditions can push the auroral oval southward, how far auroras are visible depends on factors like magnetic field orientation, storm timing and local weather conditions.

Auroras are also highly dynamic, often intensifying during short-lived bursts known as substorms — meaning the best displays may last only minutes at a time.

Clear, dark skies and timing your viewing around peak geomagnetic activity will be key.

But if there is even a chance you might get a good show and your weather forecast is looking clear, I'd definitely be heading outside and keeping an eye out, as you never really know!

Seasonal boost to auroras

This week's storm watch comes at an especially exciting time for aurora hunters, with many regarding March as one of the best months to see the northern lights.

Around the spring and autumn equinoxes, Earth's orientation in space makes it easier for its magnetic field to connect with the magnetic field carried by the solar wind and incoming CMEs. This seasonal boost in geomagnetic activity is known as the Russell-McPherron effect, first described by geophysicists Christopher Russell and Robert McPherron in 1973.

During the equinoxes, the sun shines directly over Earth's equator, giving both hemispheres equal day and night. This geometry also helps incoming solar wind interact more effectively with Earth's magnetic field.

For most of the year, Earth's tilt reduces this interaction, helping to deflect some of the incoming charged particles. But around the equinoxes, that natural shield becomes more open to incoming solar wind. As a result, space weather events such as fast solar wind from coronal holes or CMEs can deliver a stronger impact, increasing the chances of auroras.

Stay tuned!

Keep up to date with the latest space weather news with our aurora forecast live blog. For real-time forecasts based on your location, consider using a space weather app. A great option is "My Aurora Forecast & Alerts" (available for iOS and Android). For a deeper dive into space weather conditions, "Space Weather Live" is another excellent choice (available for iOS and Android)

Northern Hemisphere aurora forecast courtesy of the U.K. Met Office

Editor's note: This article has been updated with the latest forecasts from NOAA and the U.K. Met Office, including revised storm timing, updated geomagnetic storm levels and new information indicating multiple coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are now expected to impact Earth.