Venus brightest this week

Join EarthSky’s Marcy Curran for your skywatching best bets for the week of September 14. Don’t miss dazzling Venus at its brightest this week in the west after sunset. Plus, this Saturday, September 19, is International Observe the Moon Night. See what’s in store in the night sky this week.

The big picture: September’s 5 best sky sights

September 2026 has an especially beautiful night sky! In this livestream with host Deborah Byrd, we’ll look at 5 things you won’t want to miss. So join us! Watch in the player above, or on YouTube.

All-sky view of morning planets

Will Triggs explains: Why Jupiter has returned

If you go outside and look just as dawn is breaking, you should be able to see bright Jupiter near the sunrise point. In this video, EarthSky’s Will Triggs explains why Jupiter is returning now and what to expect from our sky’s 2nd-brightest planet (after Venus) in the months ahead. Watch in the player above or on YouTube.

Around September 18: Venus brightest

Read more: Massive ruby red Antares is the Scorpion’s Heart

Our charts are mostly set for mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. To see a precise view – and time – from your location, try Stellarium Online.

September 16 and 17 evenings: Moon near Antares

September 18: 1st quarter moon

Want more? Here are 4 keys to understanding the moon’s phases.

September 18 and 19 evenings: Moon near Teapot

Read more: Teapot of Sagittarius points to Milky Way center

Late September evening planets: Northern Hemisphere view

September 23: September equinox

Full Harvest Moon September 26

Our charts are mostly set for mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. To see a precise view – and time – from your location, try Stellarium Online.

September 28 evening: Moon near Pleiades

September 29 and 30 evenings: Moon near Pleiades

September evening planets

September morning planets

September stars

If you’re out stargazing on any September evening, look for these stars and constellations overhead in the evening sky.

Our charts are mostly set for the northern half of Earth. To see a precise view – and time – from your location, try Stellarium Online.

Have fun exploring the sky!

New to stargazing? Read more: Planisphere: Your friend to find stars and constellations

Sky dome map for visible planets and night sky

Read more: Guy Ottewell explains sky dome maps

Heliocentric solar system visible planets and more

Read more: Guy Ottewell explains heliocentric charts.

Some resources to enjoy

For more videos of great night sky events, visit EarthSky’s YouTube page.

Don’t miss anything. Subscribe to daily emails from EarthSky. It’s free!

Visit EarthSky’s Best Places to Stargaze to find a dark-sky location near you.

Post your own night sky photos at EarthSky Community Photos.

Visit Stellarium-Web.org for precise views from your location.

Bottom line: Visible planets and night sky guide: Venus reaches its brightest in the sky this week. Don’t miss it near the thin moon tonight.

The post Visible planets and night sky guide for September first appeared on EarthSky.

Sun news September 14: Violent filament eruption last night

Today’s top story: The solar southwest was lit up last night by a violent filament eruption. The eruption came from the vicinity of sunspot region AR4528, and has been associated with a C1.4 (common) flare at 19:45 UTC. The blast sent a chunk of sun-stuff into space, which could give Earth a glancing blow by early Thursday.

Past 24 hours on the sun

(11 UTC September 13 – 11 UTC September 14)

Flare activity: Very low. Observers counted 2 flares: 1 C-class and 1 B-class (weak).

• Strongest flare: C1.4, peaking at 19:45 UTC on September 13 from an as-yet-unnumbered active region now located in southwest solar quadrant.
• Lead flare producer: The southwestern region and AR4529 were tied for the lead with just one flare each.

Sunspot regions: Currently, the sun shows four numbered regions on its Earth-viewed side. They are grouped to the west of the solar disk, leaving a wide area on the east hemisphere with no active regions at all.

• AR4524 (alpha), AR4527 (alpha), AR4428 (alpha), AR4529 (beta): All regions are magnetically simple and are either stable or slowly decaying.

Blasts from the sun? The abovementioned filament eruption hurled plasma into space at 19:45 UTC on September 13. A glancing blow is anticipated by early September 17. Other than that, observers detected no Earth-directed coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in available coronagraph imagery during the past 24 hours.

Past 24 hours in space weather

Solar wind: Solar wind speeds reached moderate levels through the first half of the period. At around 21 UTC on September 13, conditions started to decrease to background levels.

Bt, Bz and magnetic coupling: The total interplanetary magnetic field was weak. The north-south component (Bz) kept a moderately southward orientation throughout most of the period.

Earth’s magnetic field: The geomagnetic field kept quiet, with the Kp at 0-2.

What’s ahead? Sun–Earth forecast

Flare activity forecast: Forecasters expect very low to low activity through September 15. The chance for M-class (moderate) flares to occur dropped from 10% yesterday to 5% today.

Geomagnetic activity forecast:

• September 14: Quiet conditions anticipated. Isolated unsettled periods could come with the arrival of fast solar wind from a coronal hole. G1 (minor) geomagnetic storm intervals are reasonably possible. Auroras might be visible as far south as northern Scotland and similar latitudes.
• September 15: A second coronal hole high-speed stream is expected to arrive, maintaining unsettled-to-active conditions. Again, isolated G1 intervals are possible. Aurora visibility could extend slightly further south than usual at high latitudes.
• September 16: Quiet-to-active levels likely as the high-speed stream influence gradually wanes. The likelihood of elevated geomagnetic activity decreases over the course of the day.

The sun in recent days

Earlier sun images

Sun images from our community

More sun images from our community

We sometimes feature sun images obtained using hydrogen-alpha filters. Read why.

Bottom line: Sun news September 14, 2026: A violent filament eruption sent plasma into space. Initial analysis suggests a glancing blow at Earth on September 17.

Submit your photos here.

View community photos here

The post Sun news: Violent filament eruption last night first appeared on EarthSky.

Venus brightest? Now’s the time

Venus is blazing in the evening sky now. You’ll see it easily in the west after sunset. It lives up to its reputation of outshining all other objects in our sky, except the sun and moon. UFO reports are probably increasing! But you’ll know better. It’s not a UFO in the western twilight sky. It’s Venus, the 2nd planet from the sun.

This inner world is now speeding up from behind Earth, the 3rd planet, in the race of the planets around the sun. It’ll go between us and the sun on October 23-24, 2026.

Whenever that happens, about five weeks before (and after), Venus shines at greatest brilliancy in our sky. You’ll sometimes hear this peak in brightness in our sky called greatest illuminated extent, for reasons explained below. Venus will reach its peak brilliancy on September 18. Then it’ll be brighter than it’s been for all of 2026 so far.

Start watching now! You can’t miss it. And be sure to look for the waxing crescent moon shining near Venus this evening and tomorrow evening. It’ll be lovely to see this blazing world near a slim crescent in the evening sky.

So Venus is now brighter than it’s been for all of 2026. Clouded out this week? Never fear. Venus will have a 2nd greatest brilliancy after it goes between us and the sun in late October, when it emerges into the predawn sky. Its predawn greatest brilliancy will happen on November 29, 2026.

Afterwards, Venus won’t appear this bright to us again in the evening sky until April 2028.

Don’t miss the next spectacular sky event! Subscribe to EarthSky’s free daily newsletter for sky and science news.

How bright is it?

Venus is always the 3rd brightest object in our sky, after the sun and moon. But it’s especially blazing around now.

Venus will reach its maximum brightness at 23 UTC on September 18. Then it’ll shine at magnitude -4.8. That’s much, much brighter than any star.

And the fact of this very bright Venus in mid-September 2026 presents an interesting challenge for experienced observers in parts of Europe, Africa and Asia. They might be able to catch an occultation of Venus by the moon around 11 UTC on September 14. In other words, the moon will pass in front of Venus. The trick is, the event will happen in daytime. It’s likely only experienced observers will see it.

Read about the daytime occultation of Venus from In-the-sky.org.

For the rest of us: How to see Venus in the daytime

Why does Venus look brightest now?

It’s only when we see Venus as a crescent that this world comes close enough to us to appear brightest in our sky. In other words, it only happens before and after inferior conjunction, when Venus goes between us and the sun. Again, that’ll happen next on October 23-24, 2026.

Greatest elongation for Venus is a combination of two factors: Venus’ disk size in our sky, and its phase in our sky.

Disk size. If you could see Venus through a telescope now, you’d find the planet as a relatively large disk (around 40 arcseconds). That’s because it’s relatively close to us now.

Phase. Venus is now in a waning crescent phase. Its thinnest phase will come when it goes between us and the sun on October 23-24. Then its day side will be almost entirely turned away from us. Why almost? It’s because Venus rarely goes exactly between us and the sun. Such events are called transits of Venus. The next one won’t be until December 10-11, 2117!

So greatest brilliancy for Venus is a combination of a relatively large phase and relatively large disk size.

Venus charts for 2026, from Guy Ottewell

Venus photos from our community

Bottom line: Venus will be brightest in the evening sky around September 18, 2026. After that, Venus will next be at its brightest again — this time in the morning sky — in November 2026.

Planet-observing is easy: Top tips here

EarthSky’s monthly planet guide, updated daily: Visible planets and more

The post Venus brightest in the evening sky this week first appeared on EarthSky.

• Could there be evidence of alien technology … on the moon? SETI scientists have proposed a new way to search for it.
• A new mission would collect samples of lunar regolith and then scientists would search for microscopic particles that might have originated from alien technology elsewhere.
• These tiny technosignatures could have drifted through space, shed from alien structures, much as particles shed from human satellites.

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Microscopic bits of alien tech on the moon?

As scientists searched for intelligent extraterrestrial life — i.e., aliens — they’ve focused on a short list of standard possibilities. In other words, they’ve searched for radio signals, laser pulses or other technosignatures. Now a team of scientists, led by the SETI Institute, has a new idea. The researchers are proposing we search the moon’s surface for microscopic bits of material shed by alien technology.

The moon would act as a “collection plate,” as it were.

As the SETI Institute noted in a statement on September 8, 2026, the study presents the first quantitative framework for testing whether microscopic technosignatures could accumulate in lunar soil over billions of years.

A preprint version of their new paper was submitted to the arXiv server on August 17, 2026. The paper is currently in peer review for submission to the International Journal of Astrobiology.

Leftover debris from alien civilizations

The proposed scenario is really simple. If an alien civilization ever did have advanced technology in the space near Earth, then space weather — the changing conditions of charged particles, plasma, magnetic fields, and radiation throughout our solar system — might gradually have worn down this alien debris to microscopic bits. As a result, the structures could shed microscopic bits of debris. Those particles would then drift in space, perhaps even spreading across the galaxy.

The idea is similar to that of how microplastics have spread around Earth, contaminating almost everything.

Lewis Pinault, an affiliate scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, and a researcher at Birkbeck College, University of London, led the new study. He told The New York Times:

If any other technological civilization has ever existed in our galaxy, it’s not an unreasonable hypothesis to think that particles of them are on the moon in some quantity.

Pinault also said:

The moon has been quietly accumulating material from space for billions of years, much of it likely billions of years older than the moon itself. We’re asking whether that ancient collection might contain microscopic traces of technologies that existed long before humans ever looked up at the sky.

The moon would be an ideal place to look for such material, since it has no atmosphere to speak of, and no flowing water or active geology. The particles could remain preserved for billions of years.

?? The next breakthrough in SETI may come not from a radio telescope, but from a microscope.Researchers propose searching lunar soil for microscopic engineered particles—potential traces of technologies that could have existed billions of years ago. ? ?

— SETI Institute (@setiinstitute.bsky.social) 2026-09-08T19:01:25.607Z

Neat writeup of a recent study about looking for the tiniest physical technosignatures!

— Jason Wright (@astrowright.bsky.social) 2026-09-07T17:16:45.389Z

Tiny particles of alien technology

This concept isn’t far-fetched. Our own satellites shed tiny microscopic particles into space as space weather erodes them on a microscopic scale. For the study, the team modeled how particles from alien space structures could eventually disperse across our galaxy. It’s a new take on the search for alien tecnnosignatures.

As Sofia Sheikh, a scientist at the SETI Institute, noted:

We know on Earth that time and entropy take their toll on everything that humans make, and there’s a lot more to explore in how the breakdown of technological artifacts can be applied to SETI searches.

Co-author Ian Crawford, a professor of planetary science at Birkbeck College, University of London, added:

If you concede that looking for alien intelligences is a legitimate part of science, which clearly it is, then looking for the technological products — aka artifacts of these intelligences — ought to be just as scientifically valid as looking for their radio emissions.

Alien tech on the moon: a fringe idea

It might sound like a long shot, and it probably is. It’s also partly based on a proposal that was considered fringe back in the 1990s. Ukrainian researcher Alexey V. Arkhipov had suggested searching the moon for traces of alien technology; in this case, though, more like actual artifacts of technology.

The new proposal is similar, but looking for that evidence on a microscopic scale. Pinault surmised that aliens:

… may have become starfarers who are developing similar technologies around each star system that they go to, so the potential of there being quite a bit of interesting debris in the galaxy is pretty high.

SETI researcher Jason Wright at Penn State is supportive of the plan. He said:

They’ve revived what is actually a pretty obscure idea and shown that it’s plausible.

Collection Plate: Could Our Moon Be Peppered with Evidence of Extraterrestrial Technology?https://t.co/o6fMUP9TXO pic.twitter.com/7wU6i5wEeL

— marsboy (@marsboy) September 6, 2026

Sifting through the lunar regolith

So how would researchers search for these tiny particles? They propose sending a mission to collect about a cubic meter (35 cubic feet) of regolith. Regolith is the lunar “soil,” the top layer of dust and bits of rock on the surface.

Researchers would then use specialized instruments to comb through the sample. They would look for any types of particles that could have an artificial — and alien — origin. The analysis would use modern microscopy, tomography, spectroscopy and AI-assisted image analysis.

Of course, there would also likely be particles originating from human missions to the moon. Those missions, over decades, could also leave behind microscopic debris. As Crawford acknowledges, finding particles that are actually alien is a long shot:

The chances of finding anything on the moon are so small, this would immediately imply that there must probably be lots and lots of them, at least in the history of the galaxy. It would be a very, very important discovery if made, but it is a needle-in-a-haystack exercise.

But we’ll never know if we don’t look.

As SETI Institute President and CEO Bill Diamond put it:

The concept of searching the lunar regolith for microscopic technosignatures is at once extraordinarily original and eminently reasonable. This is a novel addition to the search methodologies applied to seeking evidence of technology as a proxy for life and intelligence beyond our solar system and we are excited at the prospect of bringing this to fruition.

Microscopic alien probes?

There’s another twist to this idea, too. What about microscopic probes? Physicist Ronald Bracewell came up with the idea of Bracewell probes in the 1960s. A similar concept is the von Neumann probe. These would be small, autonomous alien probes that could self-replicate in order to spread across the galaxy. Could there be microscopic versions of those? We are already using microtechnology that keeps getting smaller and smaller.

Carbon nanotubes on the moon

With all of this in mind, it is worth noting an interesting discovery that was already made. On December 30, 2025, researchers from Jilin University in China published a paper about the discovery of single-walled carbon nanotubes in samples brought back from the far side of the moon.

The assumption of course is that these are naturally occurring. On Earth, though, they are ultra-thin hollow cylinders made artificially from a single layer of carbon atoms. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes do form naturally on Earth, for instance in volcanic eruptions. As the paper notes:

Although CNTs have been predominantly assumed to require artificial preparation, the study findings demonstrate that these materials exist in nature.

Bottom line: Could there be alien tech on the moon? Scientists propose new search for microscopic particles shed by alien technology.

Source: Micron-Scale Technosignatures: How a Cubic Metre of Lunar Regolith May Begin to Constrain the Number of Past Technological Civilisations in the Galaxy

Source: Discovery of Naturally Occurring Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes and Graphitic Carbon on the Far Side of the Moon

Via:

New York Times

SETI Institute

Leonard David’s INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Read about this research in the New York Times

The post Alien tech on the moon? Scientists propose search for microscopic debris first appeared on EarthSky.

• Venus is bright enough to see in daylight when the sky is clear and you know exactly where to look.
• One way is to use the moon as a guide. Or look when Venus is highest in the sky. Or, when Venus is up before sunrise, track it after sunrise.
• Never look at the sun with your unprotected eyes. When searching for Venus in daylight, position the sun behind a building.

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Why can you see Venus in daylight?

After the sun and moon, Venus is the brightest natural object in our sky.

It appears so bright because it’s relatively close to Earth, and is nearly as large as Earth. But, most importantly, Venus is covered with highly reflective clouds. It reflects approximately 75% of the sunlight shining on it back into space.

Still, Venus can be difficult to find against a bright blue sky. You need to know its location before you begin looking. How can you know at any given time whether Venus is up in the morning or the evening? A great way is to check EarthSky’s visible planets guide. It’s updated daily and will tell you when and where Venus is currently visible.

Or use an astronomy app such as Stellarium.

Right now – September 13, 2026 — Venus is in the west after sunset. It’ll pass between the Earth and sun on October 23-24, 2026. Afterwards, it’ll return to the east before dawn. You should begin to see it before dawn in early November, 2026.

Safety warning: Never look directly at the sun. Do not use binoculars, a telescope or a camera to search for Venus in daylight. If possible, stand where a tree trunk or building completely blocks the sun.

Tip #1 for seeing Venus in daylight: Use the moon

Venus is bright enough to appear as a tiny white point in a blue daytime sky. The easiest way to find it — when Venus is in the evening sky, as it is now – is to use the moon as a guide.

Then, on a clear sunny day, find the moon first with your unaided eyes. And use the app to determine which direction Venus lies from the moon and how far apart they appear. Venus will look like a tiny white point.

Remember to keep the sun hidden behind a building.

Tip #2: Look for Venus high in the sky

On days when Venus is above your horizon in daylight, it reaches its highest point in the sky as it crosses your local meridian (an imaginery line across the sky over your head, between your sky’s due north and due south points). Astronomers call this crossing a meridian transit, or culmination, of Venus.

Venus can be easier to find around this time because — at meridian transit — it’s as high above the horizon as it will be that day.

An astronomy app can provide the time of Venus’s meridian transit, along with its altitude, or height above your horizon. It’ll also give you the compass direction of Venus. That direction varies with your location, the season and the time of day. So follow the app rather than assuming Venus will be due south or north.

As always, before you look, position yourself so that a solid structure blocks the sun.

Tip #3: Track Venus after sunrise

Another way — useful when Venus comes back to the morning sky this November — is to locate Venus before sunrise and follow it as the sky brightens. Again, an astronomy app can also show you exactly where to look. But you don’t need an app. You can just watch. This is often the easiest method for finding Venus in daylight, but it only works when Venus is visible in the morning (which it will be, again, by early November 2026).

Just find the planet before sunrise, when it will be the brightest starlike object in that part of the sky. Note its position relative to a building, pole or other fixed landmark. Continue watching as the eastern sky brightens at dawn. Venus will become less obvious after sunrise, but, if you keep watching, you can keep it in view. If you look away, use your landmark to return to Venus as dawn is breaking.

Stop if the sun approaches your line of sight, and never use binoculars or a telescope to search for the planet.

Good luck!

Have you photographed Venus in daylight? Submit your image to EarthSky.

Bottom line: You can see Venus in daylight when the sky is clear and you know where to look. Use the moon as a guide, track Venus through sunrise or use an astronomy app to find it when it is highest in the sky. Always keep the sun safely out of view.

Source: Venus facts from NASA

Source: Eye safety from the American Astronomical Society

Read more: Why is Venus so bright?

Read more: Top 10 space objects to see during the day

The post See Venus in the daytime: Here are 3 tips first appeared on EarthSky.

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What are crepuscular rays?

Crepuscular means resembling twilight or dim. This phenomenon occurs around sunrise or sunset, when the sun is below the horizon. And you can also see crepuscular rays when the sun is hiding behind clouds. They’re more noticeable when the sky is a bit darker and there is greater contrast between dark and light. We can see the rays of light thanks to dust, smoke or water droplets that scatter the light toward our eyes.

The darker streaks beside the sunrays are due to shadows, where the terrain or clouds block the sunlight from coming through. Sometimes those obstructions are below the horizon from your point of view, so it may not seem immediately clear what’s causing the darker rays.

When crepuscular rays extend from behind a cloud toward the ground, they also go by the nickname Jacob’s Ladder. The term comes from a story in the Bible where Jacob has a dream in which he sees a ladder leading up to the golden light of heaven with angels ascending and descending.

Parallel lines that seem to converge

Crepuscular rays appear to fan across the sky. But these sunrays are really parallel to each other. In fact, sometimes you can trace them all the way across the sky to the point on the horizon opposite the sunset. So, the next time you see them, remember to turn around. You might spot the fainter and less noticeable anticrepuscular rays. The illusion is similar to standing on train tracks and seeing how they appear to converge in the far distance in front of and behind you.

Photo gallery of crepuscular rays

All of these photos were contributed by EarthSky friends. Thanks for sharing your awesome photos with us! Would you like to contribute? Submit your image here.

Bottom line: Crepuscular rays are shadows in the sky of distant terrain or clouds. They form around twilight when particles in the atmosphere reflect the sun’s light beams toward our eyes. Sometimes you can see anticrepuscular rays on the horizon opposite the sun.

Anticrepuscular rays: How to see them

The post Crepuscular rays are sunrays in twilight skies first appeared on EarthSky.

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Does this Mars image show an alien in a hallway?

On February 24, 2026, the Curiosity rover took the above image on Mars with its Mast Camera. And just recently the image has been making the rounds on social media, with some claiming there’s something unusual in the image. At the upper left, there are some rocks with sharp edges. And if you look closely, you might see what looks like a wee Martian wandering down a hallway! Scientists call seeing things — like faces in rocks — pareidolia.

This is a phenomenon that happens a lot with images of Mars. Mars is a dry, rocky world. And when we see pictures of its surface, our brain is always trying to make sense of them in context of what we already know. So sometimes we see a face on Mars, for example. Or, perhaps, a gorilla mask discarded on the ground. And there was this fun sighting of a doorway on Mars.

But, in reality, these are normally occurring formations on the surface of Mars, formed by natural processes such as wind and water.

What do you think you see in the image at top? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Bottom line: What do you see in the Mars image? Some people think the rocks look like a hallway where a little alien is walking. When our brains see faces and figures that aren’t there, it’s called pareidolia.

The post Does this Mars image show an alien in a hallway? first appeared on EarthSky.

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Record quiet Atlantic hurricane season so far

As of the morning of September 11, 2026, the Atlantic hurricane season set a new record for the quietest in the modern era. As the National Hurricane Center said on social media:

We officially passed the satellite-era (1966-present) record for the latest formation of the first hurricane during an Atlantic hurricane season, held by Hurricanes Gustav (2002) and Humberto (2013).

It’s important to remember that about half of a normal season’s activity happens after today. In fact, there has never been a season during the satellite era without the formation of at least 2 hurricanes. Late-starting years can still produce hurricane impacts, so stay prepared! Continue to visit Hurricanes.gov for the latest forecast.

Hurricanes Gustav (2002) and Humberto (2013) both formed on September 11 of their respective years.

The forecast for the next seven days will continue the quiet streak we’ve seen so far. While we haven’t had any hurricanes in the Atlantic yet, we have had five named tropical storms: Arthur, Bertha, Cristobal, Dolly and Edouard.

Why the extra-quiet season? El Niño appears to be the driving force.

Why does El Niño mean fewer hurricanes?

El Niño conditions happen when warmer-than-average water pools in the eastern Pacific near equatorial South America. Normally, cold, nutrient-rich water rises from the deep ocean in this area. But El Niño blocks the upwelling of this cold water. So it disrupts marine life and local fisheries. And its effects cascade into Earth’s atmosphere, creating conditions like rainfall and temperature shifts in some parts of the world … and affecting wind shear.

It’s El Niño’s wind shear effects that have a major impact on hurricanes. Wind shear is the change in speed and direction of the wind. Specifically for hurricanes, what matters is the condition of wind shear at 5,000 to 35,000 feet (1,500 m to 10,700 m) above the ground.

In the Atlantic, El Niño can create strong wind shear, so strong it can rip apart storms or prevent them from forming in the first place. El Niño often brings a downstream trough of flowing winds over the Caribbean Sea and western tropical Atlantic. It’s this trough that brings the wind shear that can disrupt hurricane formation or growth. Plus, El Niño can bring sinking air to the region, which is a sign of an area of high pressure. And hurricanes are essentially huge, organized low-pressure systems.

While El Niño hinders the formation of strong hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean, it helps hurricane formation in the Pacific. El Niño creates a ridge over parts of the Pacific, which favors conditions such as weaker upper-level winds and less vertical wind shear.

In conditions such as these, hurricanes can grow without obstruction.

Read more: Hurricane triplets spin across the Pacific Ocean

An update to the Atlantic hurricane season forecast

After El Niño conditions were set in place this season, Colorado State University (CSU) revised its earlier hurricane forecast downward. The earlier forecast was already low, but now it is lower still.

On July 8, 2026, CSU predicts just nine named storms and just one major hurricane.

Back on April 9, the CSU forecast had called for 13 named storms, and two major hurricanes.

Both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and CSU release a forecast for the Atlantic hurricane season yearly. Earlier this year, both organizations called for a below-average year for tropical storms in the Atlantic basin.

CSU said:

Coastal residents are reminded that it only takes one hurricane making landfall to make it an active season for them.

As always, be aware and be prepared.

The original Atlantic hurricane season forecast for 2026

Originally, NOAA released its official forecast for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season on May 21, 2026. And it predicted a below-average hurricane season, specifically, 8-14 total named storms (this includes both tropical storms and hurricanes), 3-6 hurricanes and 1-3 major hurricanes. NOAA did not make any changes to its 2026 forecast.

Hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30.

What are the categories of hurricanes? Well, major hurricanes are those that reach Categories 3, 4 or 5.

• Category 3: 111–129 mph sustained winds (180-209 km/h)
• Category 4: 130–156 mph sustained winds (210-250 km/h)
• Category 5: 157 mph or higher sustained winds (251+ km/h)

Keep up-to-date with tropical conditions

To stay up-to-date on the tropics, visit NOAA’s National Hurricane Center page. You can toggle between Atlantic, Pacific and Central Pacific, as well as 2-day and 7-day forecasts.

Bottom line: The 2026 Atlantic hurricane season has set a record. It’s the longest we’ve ever gone in a recorded hurricane season without seeing a hurricane.

Read more: Here’s the hurricane name list for 2026

The post Atlantic hurricane season sets a record: No hurricanes yet! first appeared on EarthSky.

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Did the sun swallow a planet early in its history?

The early days of solar system formation were chaotic! For example, planetesimals – solid bits ranging from a few hundred meters to hundreds of kilometers across – smashed into each other and clumped together to form planets, or they flew apart. And a planet-sized body appears to have hit Earth to become the moon.

And some of the early solar system’s turbulent motions likely involved material spiraling into the sun as well. On September 10, 2026, researchers said a super-Earth-sized planet might have fallen into our sun billions of yeas ago. It might have left behind a chemical fingerprint inside the sun that scientists can see today.

The researchers published their peer-reviewed study in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on September 10, 2026.

Fingerprints from a lost planet

Lead author Mutlu Yildiz of Ege University in Turkey said:

Our new study suggests that a planet several times more massive than Earth may have fallen into the young sun and left a lasting chemical imprint deep inside it.

As the planet got pulled into the sun’s environs, the researchers said it could have even survived as it enters the sun’s outer atmosphere. As in, the planet would still have been mostly intact and lost very little mass as it first began to merge with the sun. Therefore, the planet might have left behind “fingerprints” before the sun completely consumed it.

Can eating a planet explain solar puzzles?

Solar researchers have long been puzzled by the sun’s lack of lithium on its surface. Also, their models don’t accurately show all helioseismic observations. For example, the physics models struggle with things such as how deep the convection zone is on the sun, estimated at 125,000 miles (200,000 km) deep! Could the sun eating a planet explain these issues? Yildiz said:

By modeling the sun’s evolution and comparing the results with precise observations of its interior, we find that the ingestion of a super-Earth could help explain long-standing differences between standard solar models and observations, including subtle changes in the sun’s internal structure and its depleted lithium abundance.

We were interested in whether these problems might have a common origin in the early chemical history of the sun. Young stars are surrounded by protoplanetary disks, where substantial amounts of material can move between the disk and the star. Since planets are made of material that is chemically different from the gas in the disk, we wondered whether the early engulfment of a planet could have left a chemical signature inside the young sun.

Testing an idea

To test their idea, the researchers used an open-source code, the MESA stellar-evolution code. The researchers investigated a variety of parameters. They looked at how much material the sun would need to consume in order to come up with what we see on the sun today. They also tested alternate theories. And what they ended up with that best fit observations was a scenario in which a super-Earth (some 5–10 times the mass of Earth) fell into the young sun.

What’s fascinating is that the swallowed super-Earth model explains a number of the puzzles we see on the sun. Those include the depletion of lithium and observations of its interior. Yildiz said:

We thought planetary engulfment might affect the solar structure but did not expect the calculations to converge on such a specific super-Earth mass range. That was one of the most interesting outcomes of the study.

Even so, the researchers caution that it’s probably not possible to prove the sun swallowed a planet. But they do hope other researchers will find other observations to bolster their theory.

A missing super-Earth

Super-Earth-type planets seem to be relatively common in the galaxy. With more than 5,000 exoplanets now known, some 30% of them are super-Earths. So where is our solar system’s super-Earth if they’re so common? Perhaps the answer is that it’s now part of the sun.

Previous research has suggested that:

… one or more super-Earths could have formed inside the orbit of Mercury and migrated inward through the gas disk, potentially falling into the young sun.

Yildiz said:

The earlier work proposed that a super-Earth could have formed and migrated into the young sun. Our paper asks whether the sun itself could still carry observable evidence that such an engulfment actually happened, and we believe it could.

The next step is to see if these fingerprints can be independently detected.

Bottom line: Did the sun swallow a planet early in its history? Models show a super-Earth might have spiraled into the sun and left behind a fingerprint we can still see today.

Source: Planetary engulfment as a solution to solar-model discrepancies and its implications for planetary systems

Via Royal Astronomical Society

The post Did the sun swallow a planet early in its history? first appeared on EarthSky.

• Astronomers discovered the earliest and most distant proto-supercluster yet. They’ve named it COSMOS-z3.1-A, and they see it when the universe was just 2.1 billion years old.
• The enormous structure has a mass about 5,000 times that of the Milky Way. It will eventually evolve into a “cluster of clusters” of galaxies, or a supercluster.
• Detailed 3D maps show the young structure is tangled with filaments of the cosmic web, which is an even larger structure, the largest of all structures astronomers have identified.

NOIRLab published this original story on September 8, 2026. Edits by EarthSky.

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Most distant proto-supercluster

An international team of astronomers said on September 8, 2026, that it has discovered the most distant progenitor to a galaxy supercluster ever. The discovery supports existing theories of how galaxy clusters evolve. And it reveals that they lie at the intersection of multiple filaments of the cosmic web, which is a vast, interconnecting network made up of dark matter and gas that dictates where galaxies and matter are distributed throughout space.

The study relies largely on data from the ODIN survey. The U.S. Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope in Chile conducted this survey.

The researchers published their study on September 8, 2026, in the peer-reviewed journal The Astrophysical Journal.

Galactic superstructures in the early universe

Galaxy clusters are the most massive gravitationally bound structures in the universe. These colossal groupings of hundreds to thousands of galaxies span millions of light-years. They are held together by large concentrations of dark matter, which serves as the building block for the larger structure of the universe.

Clusters that scientists observe relatively near to us in space and time are mature structures that evolved from what are known as protoclusters. These protoclusters are enormous, loosely bound collections of galaxies that are in the process of merging together. But they have yet to settle into a stable cluster. By studying very distant protoclusters that formed when the universe was relatively young, scientists can understand how modern galaxy clusters grew and evolved over time.

Looking back in time for protoclusters

With this goal, an international team of scientists led by Vandana Ramakrishnan, a graduate student at Purdue University at the time of the study, looked billions of years back in time to search for these ancient galaxy cluster progenitors. Ramakrishnan said:

With this project, we’re hoping to understand the growth of massive structures in the universe and how they influence the evolution of galaxies within them. We also hope to get a better sense of how these protoclusters are connected to the larger cosmic web.

Their study used data from the One-hundred-deg2 DECam Imaging in Narrowbands (ODIN) survey. This survey is conducted with the DOE-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam). And this cam is mounted on the NSF Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile, a program of NSF NOIRLab. With its large field of view and 570-megapixel resolution, DECam spent more than 100 nights over the last three years capturing deep images of a huge area of the Southern Hemisphere sky.

Mapping a distant proto-supercluster

In total, the team identified 150 distant protoclusters that formed when the universe was about 1–3 billion years old. They narrowed their focus to two clusters that showed a striking overdensity of galaxies, dubbed COSMOS-z3.1-A and COSMOS-z3.1-C. The ODIN survey provided the 2D coordinates of these structures’ locations in the sky. However, to get a true sense of their galaxy distribution and how they fit into the large-scale cosmic web, scientists need a 3D perspective.

To map these structures in 3D, Ramakrishnan was joined by two other graduate students, Byeongha Moon (KASI) and Nicole Firestone (Rutgers). They lead follow-up observations using a suite of instruments called spectrographs. Rather than taking a 2D image of the sky, spectrographs use properties of light to measure the distance to an object, allowing scientists to determine its position in 3D.

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is a powerful multi-object spectrograph that can measure the distance to 5,000 different galaxies simultaneously. The researchers used DESI for the majority of spectra in this study.

Plus, the team acquired additional spectra using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on the Gemini South telescope in Chile. And they also used the DEep Imaging Multi-Object Spectrograph (DEIMOS) on the Keck II telescope located on Mauna Kea in Hawai‘i.

Prediction the evolution of the galaxies

This study is one of the first to produce such detailed 3D maps of multiple distant protoclusters. The maps allowed the team to predict what kind of clusters COSMOS-z3.1-A and COSMOS-z3.1-C will evolve into. They found that both will evolve to be more massive than the largest known galaxy cluster in our local universe, the Coma Cluster.

Moreover, they determined that COSMOS-z3.1-A is something even rarer than a protocluster, which is already quite rare. It is a proto-supercluster, or the ancestor of a ‘cluster of clusters’ of galaxies. As we see it when the universe was only 2.1 billion years old, this is the earliest, most distant proto-supercluster ever found. And it boasts an impressive mass 5,000 times that of the Milky Way galaxy. Ramakrishnan said:

COSMOS-z3.1-A represents the most extreme, most overdense regions of the universe. We think there should be fewer than one such object for every 10,000 galaxy clusters!

What does a distant proto-supercluster look like?

From their detailed 3D maps, the team concludes that these ancient protoclusters are very clumpy and irregular. And they lie at the intersections of multiple cosmic web filaments. This is the first time scientists have directly observed such features in the distant universe. The observations agree with scientists’ expectations of how matter is distributed throughout the cosmos.

Current models suggest that structure formation proceeds in a ‘bottom-up’ manner. For example, smaller structures would form first and merge together to give rise to larger ones. It is likely that the clumpy substructure seen in the 3D maps is evidence of this bottom-up growth. The clumps will collapse together as the protoclusters evolve, giving rise to clusters similar to what we see in the local universe, which are much rounder in shape. Ramakrishnan said:

The 3D reconstruction methodology presented in this work will be a vital component of these efforts, enabling us to clearly distinguish the cores and outskirts of the protoclusters, as well as cosmic filaments feeding into them.

The team looks forward to more discoveries in the next decade with the Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). By imaging the entire Southern Hemisphere sky every few nights, Rubin will create a rich dataset that will complement ODIN’s deep imaging of the overlapping region of sky. Together, the data will create a deep view of the nearby and distant universe, allowing scientists to study galaxy cluster evolution across cosmic time.

A closer look

This animation shows a 3D model of the newly discovered galaxy proto-supercluster named COSMOS-z3.1-A. A proto-supercluster is a loose collection of galaxies that will one day coalesce into a stable ‘cluster-of-clusters’ of galaxies. Having been observed when the universe was only 2.1 billion years old, COSMOS-z3.1-A is the earliest, most distant proto-supercluster ever found. And it boasts an impressive mass 5,000 times that of the Milky Way galaxy. Video via NOIRLab.

Bottom line: Astronomers have found the most distant proto-supercluster yet, an early collection of galaxies at a junction in the cosmic web.

Source: ODIN: Characterizing the Three-dimensional Structure of Two Protocluster Complexes at z = 3.1

Via NOIRLab

The post Distant proto-supercluster! An early intersection point in the cosmic web? first appeared on EarthSky.