TYB
G4 Solar Storm - Biggest Impact Still Coming | S0 News and other sun funsies
Nov.12.2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLUd961kzLk
https://x.com/StefanBurnsGeo/status/1988466890541560063
https://www.youtube.com/@ve3en1
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
https://spaceweathernews.com/
Severe geomagnetic storm sparks northern lights across North America and as far south as Mexico
November 12, 2025
A severe (G4) geomagnetic storm lit up skies across the Northern Hemisphere overnight (Nov. 11-12), with vivid northern lights visible across Canada, the U.S, and as far south as Mexico.
The incredible display followed the arrival of multiple coronal mass ejections (CMEs) — eruptions of magnetic field and plasma from the sun — launched by sunspot AR4274, one of the most energetic sunspot groups of the current solar cycle.
The ongoing storm ranks among the strongest of Solar Cycle 25 and last night's peak at G4 clocked in as the third strongest geomagnetic storm this solar cycle.
The first two CMEs struck in quick succession last night, compressing Earth's magnetic field and unleashing spectacular aurora shows that lasted well into the night.
But the show might not be over yet! A third, faster CME, released during an X5.1 solar flare yesterday (Nov. 11), is still on the way, with NOAA and the U.K. Met Office forecasting another possible round of strong (G3) to severe (G4) conditions tonight (Nov. 12-13).
If it arrives as predicted, we could even see extreme (G5) conditions, potentially pushing auroras even farther south than last night.
In the meantime, while we wait to see what tonight's space weather has in store, let's sit back and enjoy some of the best aurora photos from last night's activity, captured by skywatchers across North America and Europe.
moar!
https://www.space.com/stargazing/auroras/severe-geomagnetic-storm-sparks-northern-lights-across-north-america-and-as-far-south-as-mexico-photos
https://www.iflscience.com/watch-out-for-aurorae-tonight-the-strongest-solar-flare-of-2025-so-far-just-erupted-from-the-sun-81536
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/q-a-about-3i-atlas-and-beyond-5810fe3cefa8
https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/2025/11/12/comet-c-2025-k1-atlas-fragmentation-12-nov-2025-image/
https://www.iflscience.com/interstellar-object-3iatlas-shows-evidence-of-galactic-cosmic-ray-processing-thats-not-great-news-81501
https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/us/3i/atlas-sending-radio-signals-new-shocking-revelation-by-the-south-african-radio-astronomy-observatory-throws-challenge-to-speculations-and-scientific-theories-heres-the-reality-behind-latest-observation/articleshow/125269308.cms
https://trending.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/fun-and-mesmerizing-pics-of-the-atlas-comet-in-action/87620262
https://x.com/DobsonianPower/status/1988220639283736675
Q&A About 3I/ATLAS and Beyond
November 12, 2025
Below is a set of questions from the journalist Ivan Petričević along with my answers:
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Professor Loeb, you have written extensively here about the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, and you have pointed out several anomalies that distinguish it from ordinary comets or asteroids.
Now that the object has reemerged from behind the Sun, new observations reveal a complex structure of jets that appear unusually intricate for a typical comet.
Could you explain what makes 3I/ATLAS so scientifically interesting at this stage? What are the specific features, whether in its brightness, orbit, or fragmentation, that continue to raise questions about its true nature?
And, considering the potential importance of this object, why do you think NASA has not yet released what could be the clearest image or detailed observational data available?
The series of collimated jets in post-perihelion images of 3I/ATLAS extend out to a million kilometers towards the Sun and 3 million kilometers away from the Sun.
They could be generated by sunlight heating pockets of ice on the surface of a natural object for about a month or by thrusters on the surface of a spacecraft.
In the first case, the jet speed should be at most a few hundred meters per second whereas in the second case, it should be at least a few kilometers per second.
Spectroscopic measurements of molecular or atomic lines can easily distinguish between these scenarios by measuring the Doppler velocity of these jets in the coming weeks.
Science is fun because it allows us to choose the correct interpretation based on the humility to learn from evidence rather than from the arrogance of expertise.
My assessment is that NASA did not release as of yet the HiRISE images of 3I/ATLAS when it arrives within 29 million kilometers from Mars on October 3, 2025, because of bureaucratic reasons during the U.S. Government shutdown over the past 42 days.
It is interesting to note that the HiRISE website here releases many new images of Mars on a daily basis but singles out 3I/ATLAS by stating: “Any images of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS are considered NASA-wide news.
Because the federal government is in shutdown, communications of NASA news have been suspended.” An interesting question is why was 3I/ATLAS singled out.
It should have been straightforward to share data through a suitable repository with the scientific community. Science should not be held hostage by bureaucracy.
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Your ideas often challenge mainstream interpretations and invite lively debate within the scientific community.
In the case of 3I/ATLAS, how do you respond to critics who argue that every anomaly must have a natural explanation, and that invoking an artificial origin should be the very last resort?
Where should science draw the line between cautious skepticism and open-minded exploration?
These critics are trained on data sets of past knowledge, just like AI systems. They are used to analyzing asteroids or comets and will insist that everything entering the solar system must be asteroids or comets.
This simply underscores their limited vocabulary. My advance to them is simple: please add to your training data set all the technological objects that humanity launched to space.
Once you do that, you would not confuse the Tesla Roadster car for a near-Earth asteroid, as the Minor Planet Center did on January 2, 2025.
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Given that 1I/‘Oumuamua, 2I/Borisov, and now 3I/ATLAS are three interstellar objects we have detected in just a few years, how many others do you think are currently crossing our Solar System unnoticed?
Are we only beginning to uncover a much larger population of interstellar visitors, and how might upcoming instruments such as the Vera Rubin Observatory transform our understanding of what is moving through our cosmic neighborhood?
The NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory started surveying the southern sky with a 3.2 gigapixel camera and is expected to discover several dozens of new interstellar objects in the coming decade.
We must check if all of them are icy rocks or maybe some are “tennis balls thrown by a cosmic neighbor.” We need to invest in constructing a twin telescope to the Rubin Observatory that covers the northern sky.
But even state-of-the-art telescope like these are missing objects that are moving too fast (at more than hundreds of kilometers per second) or small objects (less than 100 meters, the size of a football field) within the Earth-Sun separation.
We launched only smaller payloads in the past and our survey telescopes cannot detect them unless they pass close to Earth.
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One of the reasons your work resonates so strongly with the public is your ability to communicate science clearly and imaginatively.
Yet we have seen that new ideas often face harsh backlash online, even among people who claim to support science.
How do you personally balance the need to share bold hypotheses with the responsibility to avoid premature conclusions?
I do not regard myself any different than a typical member of the general public. I do regard myself as fortunate to get paid for maintaining my childhood curiosity. I do not subscribe to social media and do not care about how many likes I get from my colleagues.
This, combined with their jealousy for the public attention that my common-sense gets from the media and the public, must make some of my colleagues furious. I leave this problem to their therapists.
It is common practice in science to lay out conjectures and test them by experimental data, like the work of a detective that searches for clues in order to resolve a mystery.
This is what I do with respect to 3I/ATLAS and what I did routinely in the thousand scientific papers that I published in other fields, like cosmology or black hole research, where this approach was encouraged and appreciated.
For some reason, the community which studies icy rocks appears to be very conservative. I prefer not to engage in mud wrestling because it gets everyone dirty.
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I think that you often emphasize that progress in science requires curiosity, courage, and willingness to challenge convention.
Do you feel that today’s academic and institutional climate still allows for that kind of intellectual freedom? Or is modern science becoming too cautious and too dependent on consensus and funding structures that discourage risk-taking?
The biggest damage of personal attacks against me is that they discourage fledgling scientists from thinking outside the box.
They notice the scrutiny I get and do not think creatively to secure their job prospects in academia. My critics want to keep the herd in a tight configuration because they lack imagination.
Unfortunately, this reduces our chances of discovering new knowledge.
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Your expedition to retrieve fragments of the interstellar meteor known as IM1 was a groundbreaking moment, since it may represent the first physical material from beyond our Solar System ever recovered on Earth.
What do you believe these findings could reveal about the composition of interstellar objects and their possible connection to technology or life beyond our planet?
And in a broader sense, how does such a discovery influence the way we see humanity’s place in the universe?
We have published half a dozen papers on the findings from the expedition in peer-reviewed journal. We identified a new material with a chemical composition that was never identified in the solar system before.
A Netflix documentary about the expedition is scheduled to appear in 2026, where everyone can enjoy our scientific process of discovery. I still have a scar on my leg from an injury on the deck of the expedition ship “Silver Star”.
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Finally, Professor, would you ever consider visiting other countries to speak about science and inspire our young people? Various countries have enormous curiosity but very limited scientific outreach, especially in astronomy and space exploration.
What message would you give to students and aspiring scientists here who look up to your work and want to pursue the same kind of fearless curiosity?
I would love to visit your country and others. We are all in the same boat and we share a common destiny.
My hope is that a technological visitor from interstellar space will convince us to change our priorities and invest trillions of dollars a year in space exploration rather than conflicts around the globe.
My message to students and aspiring scientists is: “stay true to your childhood curiosity and never pretend to be the adult in the room. Life is a learning experience.”
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NASA Tracking Two House-Sized Asteroids Approaching Earth Today
Nov 12, 2025 at 09:31 AM EST
NASA is tracking two house-sized asteroids zipping toward Earth today as fast as around 20,500 miles per hour.
One asteroid, known as "2025 VW," is projected to make its closest approach at about 1.29 million miles from our planet, while another, known as "2025 VC2," is expected to come as close as around 1.92 million miles, according to the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).
Estimated to be anywhere from 39 to 91 feet in diameter, 2025 VW is approaching Earth at around 15,900 miles per hour. 2025 VC2 is estimated to measure around 32 to 75 feet in diameter and traveling around 20,500 miles per hour, according to the CNEOS.
Asteroids are small, rocky masses left over from the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. They are found concentrated in the main asteroid belt, which lies around the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
The so-called "near-Earth objects" are asteroids whose orbits bring them within 120 million miles of the sun and into the Earth’s "orbital neighborhood."
Earlier this year, in February, data from the CNEOS showed that the impact probability of the asteroid known as "2024 YR4” in 2032 was at 3.1 percent, which was "the highest impact probability NASA has ever recorded for an object of this size or larger," the space agency said at the time.
Further observations throughout this year led NASA to conclude that "the object poses no significant impact risk to Earth in 2032 and beyond," added the space agency.
Experts from the JPL have also established where the asteroid will be on December 22, 2032 by about 20 percent.
"As a result, the asteroid’s probability of impacting the Moon has slightly increased from 3.8 percent to 4.3 percent," NASA said, noting that "in the small chance that the asteroid were to impact, it would not alter the Moon’s orbit."
According to the space agency, "asteroid 2024 YR4 is now too far away to observe with either space or ground-based telescopes. NASA expects to make further observations when the asteroid’s orbit around the sun brings it back into the vicinity of Earth in 2028."
"The majority of near-Earth objects have orbits that don’t bring them very close to Earth, and therefore pose no risk of impact," NASA says. However, a small portion of them, known as potentially hazardous asteroids, do require closer monitoring.
Measuring more than about 460 feet in size, PHAs have orbits that bring them as close as within 4.6 million miles of the Earth’s orbit around the sun, the space agency notes.
Despite the number of PHAs out in our solar system, none is likely to hit Earth any time soon.
"The 'potentially hazardous' designation simply means over many centuries and millennia the asteroid's orbit may evolve into one that has a chance of impacting Earth.
We do not assess these long-term, many-century possibilities of impact," Paul Chodas, manager of the CNEOS, previously told Newsweek.
https://www.newsweek.com/nasa-tracking-house-sized-asteroids-approaching-earth-today-11033358
https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/
Q Station works to boost business access to NASA White Sands testing amid federal budget cuts
Nov 11, 2025
The company said there's an underrated importance to NASA's work at White Sands Missile Range, which can aid the state and the space industry as a whole.
paywall
https://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/news/2025/11/11/nasa-q-station-testing-access.html
https://www.qstation.tech/
>100 years of mortages.
take us back to land owndership, please
>Kek, housing market catastrophe?
We could sure use it, its borked
Watch Blue Origin's huge New Glenn rocket launch a NASA 'ESCAPADE' to Mars today after weather delay
November 12, 2025
Update for 10 a.m. ET on Nov. 12: Blue Origin is standing down from today's New Glenn rocket launch attempt due to ongoing geomagnetic storms caused by multiple coronal mass ejections from a highly energetic sunspot.
In a post on X, Blue Origin says the launch attempt was cancelled "due to highly elevated solar activity and its potential effects on the ESCAPADE spacecraft."
A new launch date has not been set, but NASA and the company are evaluating launch windows based on space weather and other launch schedules.
scrub
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/blue-origin-new-glenn-escapade-mars-launch-webcast
https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/11/05/nasas-escapade-mission-to-mars-twin-uc-berkeley-satellites-dubbed-blue-and-gold-will-launch-in-early-november/
https://www.blueorigin.com/missions/ng-2
https://x.com/blueorigin/status/1988621902881914961
https://www.youtube.com/@blueorigin
https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_weather/ESA_actively_monitoring_severe_space_weather_event
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp9llYv6LTU (ThorNews: Wave after Wave of X-Class Flares & Geomagnetic Storms! Saturday Severe Weather! Big Southern Flood?)
ESA actively monitoring severe space weather event
12/11/2025
In brief
On 11 November 2025, an intense solar flare was observed, with a peak around 10:04 UTC.
This was followed less than an hour later with the observation of a coronal mass ejection (CME), with an initial speed estimated to be around 1500 km/s and arriving at Earth on 12 November in the late evening or on 13 November in the early morning, although these estimates include some uncertainty.
The impact of the resulting geomagnetic storm is estimated to be severe and might affect satellites, power grids, and navigation systems. The event does not pose a direct biological risk to people on Earth.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is closely monitoring this powerful space weather event and is collecting detailed information from all its expert service centres.
The following description is based on the information currently available and might be subject to change.
In-depth
Three space weather events back-to-back
Activity on the surface of the Sun generates space weather that spreads outwards, across the Solar System.
Earlier this week, two strong, X-type solar flares have been observed from the same solar active region (NOAA Active Region 14274) and have generated two CMEs that arrived at Earth this morning triggering a severe geomagnetic storm of intensity G4.
On 11 November, a more powerful, X5.1-class solar flare was observed, with a peak around 10:04 UTC. Following the flare, shock waves have been observed on the solar surface radiating away from the active region.
This was followed less than an hour later with the observation of a CME by SOHO’s LASCO and GOES-19’s CCOR-1 coronagraphs.
Our initial observations show an initial speed of around 1500 km/s, with an estimated arrival to Earth on 12 November in the evening, or on 13 November in the early morning although these estimates include some uncertainty.
Estimated impact
Major solar flares of this type are known to impact radio communication and satellite navigation applications (GNSS) in the regions facing the Sun when the event occurs. For this event, those regions Europe, Africa, and Asia.
"Our planet was hit by two consecutive CMEs last night triggering a severe geomagnetic disturbance. We are expecting a third one to arrive later today or tomorrow.
The impact of the third CME heavily depends on whether it merges with the first two or not,” says Juha-Pekka Luntama, Head of ESA Space Weather Office.
“The geomagnetic storm is estimated to continue at severe level, and it may impact satellites, power grids, and navigation systems.
We have observations of further CMEs erupting from the Sun, so severe space weather activity is foreseen to continue for second half of this week."
While these effects are concerning for technology, they do not pose a direct biological risk to people on Earth thanks to our planet's protective atmosphere and magnetosphere.
New projects to fine-tune estimations
Big solar storms are common so close to solar maximum. Although it is possible to forecast the probability of an eruption, the exact moment of the event – when the elastic band snaps – and the precise magnitude are still difficult to predict.
The big active areas on the Sun’s surface are closely monitored at all times and ESA maintains a host of space weather services used by industry and spacecraft operators to be able to respond quickly to a space weather event.
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The bottleneck of information has been the estimation of the time of arrival of the CME and that of the severity of the resulting geomagnetic storm. To reduce these forecast uncertainties, ESA is developing a set of new missions.
ESA's Vigil mission will pioneer a revolutionary approach by observing the 'side' of the Sun from Lagrange Point 5 in deep space, unlocking continuous insights into solar activity.
To be launched in 2031, Vigil will detect potentially hazardous solar events before they come into view as seen from Earth, giving us advance knowledge of its specificities and offering invaluable time to protect spacecraft and ground infrastructure.
Current in-situ measurements of solar flair and CME are done from Lagrange Point 1 (L1) and allow us to predict the impact of this solar storm only about 20 minutes before impact.
Located more than 15 million kilometres from Earth, approximately ten times further away than L1, the proposed Shield mission would be able to give an alert of his storm around two hours and a half before impact, which would allow critical infrastructure operators to efficiently prepare and minimise geomagnetic storm impacts.
About solar storms
During a solar storm, the Sun can follow the following sequence of events, although not all the elements are apparent every time. When a solar flare erupts, the explosion can release as much energy as a billion atomic bombs.
A torrent of electromagnetic waves leaves the Sun at the speed of light and arrives at Earth eight minutes later potentially disrupting short-wave radio transmissions and causing errors in navigation systems.
Following on, a fraction of an hour behind, are high-speed solar energetic particles including protons, electrons, and alpha particles.
This radiation can harm astronauts, damage spacecraft and can produce a cascade of secondary particles in our atmosphere that could cause errors in electronic components if they reach the ground.
A flare is often accompanied by a large eruption of ionised gas from the Sun’s outer atmosphere, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME).
A CME creates gusts and shock waves in the solar wind, which, if heading towards Earth, can take anything from 18 hours to a few days to reach us.
When a CME arrives at Earth, it stresses its magnetic field, causing a geomagnetic storm. This makes compass needles wander and can lead to damaging surges of electrical current in long metallic structures such as power lines and pipelines.
During geomagnetic storms, particles from space find paths to the upper atmosphere, where they collide with atoms and molecules, creating auroras.
The currents injected into the atmosphere not only produce light but can also heat Earth’s upper atmosphere, making it swell and increasing its drag on low-altitude satellites.
If a satellite does not compensate by using its thrusters, it can be dragged out of orbit. This effect also has a positive side, as it helps to drag space debris down into the atmosphere, where it burns up.
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