🚨 Exciting news! 🚨 Here is the first known picture of the 19th Century astronomer Richard Carrington – who had the largest geomagnetic storm in history named after him. It was found by our assistant archivist Kate Bond thanks to some brilliant detective work.🕵️‍♀️ 👉️ ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

A significant #SolarFlare is currently underway on the Sun! The flare was so bright, it has caused saturation and diffraction patterns in images captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. Early data also seems to suggest the flare was eruptive.

Great NZ fireball footage here with a superb example of a persistent train. NZ friends: if you saw it or caught it on camera do send in a report as the info can help localise any potential meteorite fall. ☄️

🚜 🛰️ @ukspaceagency.bsky.social is supporting two innovative projects that will use satellite data and digital tools to help farmers make more informed decisions, boost productivity and care for the environment. space.blog.gov.uk/2026/01/20/u... @ukspace.bsky.social @nfudc.bsky.social

Here’s a time series of the evolution of what I suspect are proton aurora at the edge of Monday night’s display. These were incredibly dynamic features and you can kind of see how blurred they are in these 10s exposures.

Lots of shots to go through from tonight’s incredible auroral show over Dartmoor. Here are four of my favourites so far. While the camera does see far more than the naked eye, the colours in tonight’s display were the best I’ve seen in 30 years of mid-latitude aurora watching. #NorthernLights #Devon

MAJOR naked-eye aurora visible through cloud gaps from Dartmoor in Devon right now. Vibrant red and green colours easily visible to the eye with direct vision. Here’s back of DSLR view from a few moments ago.

Diffuse photographic aurora showing up from South Devon (50°N). It’s currently hugging the horizon between Alkaid and Deneb. #NorthernLights

🌌 It’s the peak of the Geminid meteor shower this weekend and with the Moon below the horizon for most of Friday & Saturday night it should be a great show this year. To find out more see my latest piece for the @ukspaceagency.bsky.social blog over at: space.blog.gov.uk/2025/12/08/g...

🪐 The #ExoMars team at the University has welcomed the UK Space Agency’s renewed backing for the Rosalind Franklin rover mission, a flagship project that will see Europe’s first Mars rover launch in 2028. 🖱️ tinyurl.com/d3m5ysah @esa.int @ukspaceagency.bsky.social @abercompsci.bsky.social

NASA's Curiosity Rover found evidence of tides in the sediments of an ancient lake. Today's Martian moons aren't big enough to to do that. Mars may once have had a much larger moon, which then shattered (perhaps repeatedly), creating the smaller moons of today. 🧪🔭 agu.confex.com/agu/agu25/me...

☀️ £131 million commitment from the UK for the crucial Vigil space weather mission. 🚀 Rosalind Franklin rover’s future secured. Mars-bound in 2028. 🌌 £511 million commitment to ESA’s core budget backing space science like the PLATO & Ariel missions. More from @ukspaceagency.bsky.social below.👇

This is the nicest shot of the night, via two different cameras that captured the same meteor. Crestone, Colorado USA November 12, 2025 at 2:36am MST #astronomy #astrophotography #meteor #aurora

Substantial geomagnetic activity underway now with naked-eye aurora being reported down to US mid latitudes. Aurora has been building in this live cam view from Northumberland over the past hour with bright isolated patches up to 20+° above the horizon. m.youtube.com/watch?v=8vZZ...

Just stepped outside as the sky had cleared and saw a beautiful (I’m guessing from direction Taurid) meteor fireball at 23UT. Brilliant turquoise & white then a really vibrant blue with two white fragments continuing then fading. About 15° long from near Mira down to Theta Ceti area. @ukfall.org.uk

A trio of monster active regions have rotated into view over the Sun’s eastern horizon. Whilst the front of the Sun has been quiet for a while, these regions were producing significant activity on the Sun’s backside. They will rotate to face Earth later this week. #spaceweather

So long Comet Lemmon! Here’s a moonlit shot taken from Dartmoor tonight with the tail pointing straight up from the western horizon. Blustery up on the moor, so this is just a 5 second single exposure at high ISO, hence the noise.

Auroras on the planet Jupiter, imaged by the star tracker camera aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft. nasa.gov/juno

ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft is ready to aim its instruments at interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS! 🪐☄️ Here’s what’s happening and why it’s such a rare opportunity 🧵

Here’s a wider shot, taken with a 50mm lens, showing Comet Lemmon (along with numerous bright satellite trails) over Dartmoor tonight. #astrophotography

Comet C/2025 A6 glowing through thin cloud tonight over Dartmoor National Park, Devon. Single 8s exposure at ISO2500. #CometLemmon

Had some brief cloud gaps on Dartmoor around 8pm and was able to see the head of Comet Lemmon clearly by eye (with direct vision) as a fuzzy star just below Sigma Bootis. With averted vision could make out the tail extending about 1.5° up and to the right. #CometLemmon

We’re lucky at the moment to have a comet visiting the inner Solar System that’s bright enough to see with a pair of binoculars, and it may in the coming week or so just reach naked-eye visibility. To find out more, see the @ukspaceagency.bsky.social blog: space.blog.gov.uk/2025/10/21/c...

🛑 Fireball Alert - Spain 🇪🇸 🛑 An extremely bright fireball ☄️ was observed and video recorded over North-West Spain on Oct 15 evening, around 18h 38min UT (20h 38min, CEST). If you observed and/or recorded it, please share your observation with the international community: fireballs.imo.net

Lucky to get some brief glimpses of Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) from Dartmoor this evening around the end of astronomical twilight. This is a single 13s shot taken with a tracking mount at 135mm focal length. Looked great in binoculars too with a grey-green coma and short section of the tail visible.

A great opportunity for experienced amateur astronomers in Europe to help refine the orbital ephemerides for Ganymede, and so help ESA’s mission to the icy Jovian moons. Anyone in the UK going to try it?

Summer skies giving way to autumn as the the Great Cygnus Rift and the Milky Way dip toward the western horizon. Taken a few nights ago from Dartmoor National Park in Devon. #astrophotography

☀️🛰️ Last week the NASA IMAP mission launched to study the heliosphere & make crucial space weather measurements. But did you know one of the key science instruments on board was developed & built in the UK with @ukspaceagency.bsky.social funding? Find out more at: www.gov.uk/government/n...

🌔 Every day, Earth is bombarded by tiny asteroids, most too small to even be detected. But what if we could study those impacting the Moon? ESA's NELIOTA-III #HorizonEurope project closely monitors Moon impact flashes and just released its first observations. www.esa.int/Space_Safety...

With £1.5 million of funding from us, 6 innovative projects will use satellite technology and AI to deliver real-world impact across a range of Britain's sectors. 🛰️🚅🌱 We're bringing the benefits of space down to Earth. 🌍🔭 👉 www.gov.uk/government/n...

The sun was just 10 degrees above the horizon when NASA's Perseverance rover captured this morning view of Nili Planum yesterday. The rim of Jezero crater is casting a long shadow over the rover and foreground landscape. 🔭 Full res: flic.kr/p/2rt54pJ Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Simeon Schmauß

Plato has arrived! ESA's planet-hunting spacecraft has safely arrived at ESTEC, where engineers will attach its solar panels and sunshield before running critical tests to ensure everything's ready for launch. 🚀

The UK is playing a huge role in the mission, from leading on the science to the design and build of the camera electronics. 📸 Read more about the UK's involvement in the mission 👉 gov.uk/government/c...

The umbral shadow slipping away as the Moon rises during tonight’s lunar eclipse. Photographed from Teignmouth, Devon. #lunareclipse

Here are the track-stacks from our #GMN #UKMON #MeteorCameras from overnight 12/13 Aug 2025. Despite the moonlight, they captured so many #meteors! Most of them are #Perseids but there are new Kappa Cygnids + sporadics. Dotted lines are aircraft #Perseids2025 #MeteorShower

Despite it being a poor year for the #Perseid meteor shower with the very bright Moon up all night, still worth popping out for a look. We’ve just seen an incredible Perseid fireball across about 30° of sky with a highly structured persistent train that lingered for a good 10 seconds. #Perseids

With 14,000+ satellites orbiting the Earth, the risk of collision and re-entry is rising, making space security vital. 🌍 🛰️ Discover how the National Space Operations Centre is safeguarding UK space interests as it celebrates its first anniversary. 👉 space.blog.gov.uk/2025/07/11/u...

#NoctilucentClouds last night as seen from South Devon. Haytor on Dartmoor is visible silhouetted on the horizon.

Really nice #NoctilucentCloud display visible from South Devon currently. Not particularly bright and only ~5° above horizon but some nice structure on camera.

We have images of a new interstellar visitor! ☄️ 👀 Comet 3I/ATLAS is only the third object ever spotted coming from beyond our Solar System. In this timelapse, our VLT observes the comet move across the sky — just two days after its discovery! https://www.eso.org/public/videos/potw2527a/ 🔭 🧪

Amplifying the call from Marc Delcroix and co. over the weekend: the team are looking to verify/refute a potential impact on #Saturn on July 5th, 09:00-09:15UT. Videos taken by amateur observers at that time might hold the key. This 📸 credit: Mario Rana pvol2.ehu.eus/pvol2/news/v...

☄️ Analysis by UK Meteor Network experts suggests a bright fireball meteor dropped meteorites over the Scottish Highlands on Thursday night [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq8ze2vnz38o.amp]. Here’s the UK Fireball Alliance guidance on what to do if you think you’ve found a meteorite:

The IMO calendar is a great resource and an excellent antidote to the online hype & misinformation about meteor showers. We’ll have Moon-free nights for the Perseids & Geminids in 2026, so fingers crossed for clear skies! ☄️

We rely on satellites for our daily lives - from sat-nav to weather forecasts - and they are at risk from space debris. 🌍🛰️ We have launched a tender for the UK’s first mission to remove defunct satellites from orbit, and safeguard vital services. 🛰️📱 Read more 👉 www.gov.uk/government/n...

FACT THREAD on New Interstellar Object #A11pl3Z This story unfolded pretty fast yesterday for a few reasons. The object was discovered on July 1st UTC by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS team. A #NASA funded survey at the University of Hawaii. atlas.fallingstar.com 🔭🧪

Last night we had a phenomenal display of noctilucent clouds over the UK with really striking structure & masses of embedded gravity waves. Grabbed these shots from a bedroom window with a DSLR & fast 135mm lens, which has ‘frozen’ a lot of the fine, filamentary, detail in the dynamic shapes/waves.

Wonderful #NoctilucentCloud display emerging out of the twilight currently in South Devon. Almost overhead with lots of patches of embedded gravity wave structures. #NLCs

Asteroid 2024 YR4 made headlines this year when its probability of impacting Earth in 2032 rose to 3%. While an Earth impact has now been ruled out, the story continues. The final glimpse of the asteroid left it with a 4% chance of hitting the Moon on 22 Dec 2032. www.esa.int/Space_Safety...

Daylight fireball over the U.S. Southeast - and there may have been a related meteorite hit of a house: www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_Oa.... Visual reports: fireballs.imo.net/members/imo_.... Another TV report: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcTk...