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NASA's official notifications on cosmic activity in near-Earth space including solar events, asteroids, comets, and meteors. Verification: nasa.gov/socialmedia

We study the Sun and how it affects space around Earth and other worlds, helping protect astronauts, satellites, and more.

11/01/2026

It’s ! Here’s your space weather report for Oct. 23-29:
• 0 M-class flares
• 3 C-class flares
• 25 coronal mass ejections
• 0 geomagnetic storms

This video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows the week’s activity.

It was a quiet week on the Sun, which makes it a good time to look back. This week marked 23 years since the Halloween Storms of 2003, when three giant sunspot groups unleashed some of the most powerful solar eruptions of the space age. On Oct. 28, 2003, one of them fired an X17 flare, still among the strongest ever recorded, and the geomagnetic storms that followed sparked auroras as far south as Texas and Florida. The 2003 storms happened before SDO launched (in 2010), but several other NASA spacecraft did capture imagery of the spectacular eruptions. Check out the archival video from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio: go.nasa.gov/4A0Rgho.

This year, the strongest flare of the week was a much more meager C2.8 on Oct. 26. It shows up as a small brightening just inside the western limb (right edge), below the Sun’s equator, at about 1:41 in the video. 🎃

More about solar activity: go.nasa.gov/3Naeuv9

10/25/2026

It’s ! Here’s your space weather report for Oct. 16-22:
• 2 M-class flares
• 0 C-class flares
• 24 coronal mass ejections
• 0 geomagnetic storms

This video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the week’s activity.

Both of this week’s M-class flares came from active region AR14551. The first, an M1.3 on Oct. 16, appears as a small bright flash just below and to the right of the Sun’s center at about 0:17 in the video. The second, an M1.6 on Oct. 19, erupts at about 1:30, after the region had drifted about halfway to the western limb (right edge).

From about 2:00 to the end, watch AR14551 rotate off the Sun’s lower right edge, with glowing coronal loops towering above the limb. Quite a farewell! 🌅

At about 2:29, a calibration maneuver briefly moves the Sun out of frame.

More about flares and active regions: go.nasa.gov/3Naeuv9

10/18/2026

It’s ! Here’s your space weather report for Oct. 9-15:
• 3 M-class flares
• 0 C-class flares
• 19 coronal mass ejections
• 1 geomagnetic storm

This video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the week’s activity. After the Oct. 10 geomagnetic storm, which led to aurora sightings across northern Europe, Canada, and the northeastern United States, it was a relatively calm week on the Sun.

The Moon makes a special guest appearance in this week’s video beginning at about 0:36. Note the sharp outline of the Moon’s edge. That’s because the Moon has almost no atmosphere to scatter sunlight.

At about 2:30, we also see a calibration maneuver, which the spacecraft performs periodically to account for changes in its instruments’ optics over time.

More about solar activity: go.nasa.gov/4bLKwte

10/16/2026

: Over 200 eyewitnesses in the Pacific Northwest spotted a fireball at 6:56 p.m. PT on Oct. 14. An analysis of the available video data places first visibility of the meteor 49 miles above Mountain Top, Washington. The meteor moved northeast at 36,000 mph before disintegrating 29 miles above Lenville, Idaho.

More on this fireball: https://go.nasa.gov/4ipTpNC

Supplemental data was provided by the American Meteor Society.

10/11/2026

It’s ! Here’s your space weather report for Oct. 2-8:
• 4 M-class flares
• 1 C-class flare
• 23 coronal mass ejections
• 1 geomagnetic storm

This video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the week’s activity.

The week’s strongest flare, an M6.7, erupted Thursday, Oct. 8, and appears at about 2:58 in the video. The eruption also sent a coronal mass ejection toward Earth. As of Friday, Oct. 9, forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center expect it to arrive Sunday, Oct. 11. It could trigger a geomagnetic storm or strengthen one already underway. If you’re in the northern U.S. or Canada, keep an eye out for auroras!

More about solar activity: go.nasa.gov/4bLKwte

10/04/2026

Our Solar Dynamics Observatory post is taking a break this week as we update some of our image processing software.

We'll be back next week with more views of our closest star. ☀️

09/27/2026

It’s ! Here’s your space weather report for the week of Sept. 18 - Sept. 24:
• 0 M-class flares
• 1 C-class flare
• 14 coronal mass ejections
• 0 geomagnetic storms

This video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the week’s activity, though a momentary data gap (which has since been resolved) left out imagery from Sept. 24.

It was another quiet week on the Sun. The coronal holes that took form last week — the dark “stripes” that indicate cooler, darker regions where fast solar wind escapes to space — have continued sending high-speed streams toward Earth, though none powerful enough to create a geomagnetic storm.

September 22 marked the beginning of autumn in Earth's Northern Hemisphere, as well as a high point in “aurora season.” Aurora season happens twice a year around the equinoxes, when Earth’s roughly 23-degree “tilt” tips our planet’s magnetic field so it more easily lines up with the Sun’s magnetic field. As a result, in September and October and in March and April (around the equinoxes), geomagnetic storms and auroras tend to become more common and more intense. The phenomenon is known as the Russell-McPherron effect.

More about solar activity: go.nasa.gov/4bLKwte

09/20/2026

It’s ! Here’s your space weather report for the week of Sept. 11 - Sept. 17:
• 0 M-class flares
• 0 C-class flares (only counted if associated with coronal mass ejections)
• 17 coronal mass ejections
• 0 geomagnetic storms

This video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the week’s activity.

A quiet week on the Sun as a cluster of active regions move across the Sun’s disk and around the limb. As of Friday, Sept. 18, there are no active regions on the Earth-facing side of the Sun.

The dark “strips” across the Sun that emerge towards the end of the video are coronal holes. These cooler bands of solar material on the Sun (which make them appear darker) are where the Sun’s magnetic field lines open up to space, allowing high-speed solar wind to escape.

More about solar activity and space weather: go.nasa.gov/4bLKwte

09/14/2026

: Eyewitnesses in Michigan and Canada spotted a bright fireball over Ontario at 8:47 p.m. ET last night, Sept. 13. The event was verified by several cameras belonging to the Southern Ontario Meteor Network and other publicly accessible cameras in the area. Analysis of the data from these systems indicates that the meteor - produced by a small fragment of an asteroid about 2 inches in diameter and weighing approximately 7 ounces - first became visible above the Canadian town of Markstay-Warren, moving northwest at 32,000 mph. It disintegrated above a point midway between Wanapitei Lake and Raphoe.

More on this fireball: https://go.nasa.gov/3UU1Vvd

09/13/2026

It’s ! Here’s your space weather report for the week of Sept. 4 - Sept. 10:
• 2 M-class flares
• 6 C-class flares
• 29 coronal mass ejections
• 0 geomagnetic storms

This video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the week’s activity.

The Sun delivered a “one-two punch” of flares on Sept. 5, with an M1.0-class flare erupting from the Sun’s western limb (right side) at about 0:43 seconds into the video, followed by a C8.5-class flare from the eastern limb (left side) at about 0:46 seconds. Both flares also produced coronal mass ejections that swept through space to either side of Earth. By the end of the video, we have nine active regions on the Earth-facing side of the Sun, most of them clustering together right in the middle of the Sun’s disk.

More about solar eruptions and space weather: go.nasa.gov/4bLKwte

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