14,000 years ago, the most powerful solar storm ever recorded hit Earth. 'This event establishes a new worst-case scenario'

NASA names geomagnetic storm for 1st time | Most powerful solar storm hit Earth 14,000 years ago | Mysterious white streak spotted over US skies Created for ceo.studentlike.spuniv@blogger.com | Web Version May 20, 2025 CONNECT WITH SPACE.COM       Something amazing every day. SIGN UP ⋅   WEBSITE The Launchpad (Lorena Sopena/Europa Press via Getty Images) NASA names geomagnetic storm for 1st time The powerful geomagnetic storm that sparked beautiful auroras across the world in May of 2024 was the first to receive a name - and its namesake is a space weather scientist who NASA scientists say was a champion in the field, and who passed away suddenly that same year. Read More (Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Getty Images) Most powerful solar storm hit Earth 14,000 years ago An extreme solar storm hit Earth some 14,300 years ago, more powerful than any other such event known in human history, a new analysis of radiocarbon data has revealed. The solar storm, the only known to have taken place in the last Ice Age, long eluded scientists as they lacked appropriate models for interpreting radiocarbon data from glacial climate conditions. But a new study by a team from the Oulu University in Finland has taken a stab at the measurement interpretation with eye-opening results. Using a novel chemistry-climate model, the team found that the marked spike in the carbon-14 isotope detected in fossilized tree rings was caused by a solar storm more than 500 times as powerful as the 2003 Halloween Solar Storm, which was the most intense in modern history. Read More Skywatching (Mike Lewinski (Flickr)) Mysterious white streak spotted over US skies The night sky offered lucky skywatchers an unexpected double feature on May 17 -- a surprise geomagnetic storm and a mysterious white plume slicing through the auroras. The moderate (G2 class) geomagnetic storm came as quite a surprise, kicking off early Friday (May 16) after Earth caught the glancing blow of a coronal mass ejection (CME). The CME was launched during a colossal filament eruption on May 12 from the sun's northern hemisphere. Initially expected to miss Earth, the "bird-wing" ejecta was wider than predicted, with some of the material striking Earth 4 days after it left the sun. But the real head-turner came when a streak of bright white light lit up the sky over Colorado and other parts of the U.S. At first glance, you could be mistaken for thinking it was a strange version of STEVE -- a rare atmospheric phenomenon that can accompany the northern lights. But skywatchers quickly realized it was something entirely different. Read More Spaceflight (VCG/VCG via Getty Images) China's private Ceres-1 rocket launches from a ship at sea The Chinese company Galactic Energy launched its solid-propellant rocket this morning (May 19) from a ship at sea. The Ceres-1 rocket launched today from the waters off the east coast of China's Shandong Province. The Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center coordinated the launch, which sent four Tianqi satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO). Liftoff occurred at 3:38 a.m. EDT (0738 GMT; 3:38 p.m. local Beijing time). This was the fifth launch of Ceres-1 from a sea-based platform. The four Tianqi satellites join a constellation of Internet of Things (IoT) data-connectivity spacecraft operated by the Beijing-based company Guodian Gaoke. Read More Science & Astronomy (NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA/Lockheed Martin) Not-so-clean rooms: Microbe species found in NASA facility Life, as they say, finds a way -- even in the most sterile places on Earth. Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, along with researchers in India and Saudi Arabia, have discovered 26 previously unknown bacterial species in the clean rooms that were used to prep NASA's Phoenix Mars lander for its August 2007 launch. Clean rooms are decontaminated and intensely controlled environments specifically designed to prevent microbial life from hitching a ride into space. But some microorganisms, known as extremophiles, show impressive resilience in inhospitable environments, whether that's the vacuum of space, hydrothermal vents on the slopes of undersea volcanoes, or even NASA clean rooms. Read More SpaceX (SpaceX) Starship gets updated FAA launch license ahead of Flight 9 SpaceX still has some boxes to tick before it can launch the ninth test flight of its Starship megarocket. Friday (May 15), the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it has approved license modifications ahead of Starship Flight 9, which will lift off from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas. That license officially grants SpaceX's request to boost the number of Starship launches from Starbase per year by a factor of five, to 25 -- something that the agency greenlit earlier this month in an environmental assessment. Read More Search for Life (NASA) Dark streaks on Mars may not come from water after all First identified in the 1970s by NASA's Viking mission, long, dark markings snake down Martian slopes, sometimes stretching across Mars' surface for hundreds of feet. Scientists have watched some of these markings exist for decades, while others, known as "recurring slope lineae," appear to fade in a single season. Nonetheless, they all starkly stand out against the planet's dusty red surface. 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