HERE COMES THE STORM: NOAA forecasters are predicting a G2-class geomagnetic storm on Aug. 10th when a CME is expected to hit Earth. It was launched by one of multiple explosions between sunspots AR3774 and AR3777 on Aug. 7th. A second CME might be coming as well. Stay tuned for updates. CME Impact alerts: SMS Text

CHINA LAUNCHES NEW SATELLITE MEGACONSTELLATION: Earth orbit is about to get a lot more crowded. On Aug. 6th, China launched the first 18 satellites of its new Thousand Sails megaconstellation. Sky watchers in the USA watched it happen as the the booster stage of the Long March rocket created a spectacular display across the midwest:

"I did not see it in person," says Dan Bush, of Albany, Missouri. "But my automated camera was monitoring the sky for Perseids. In the morning when I checked the footage for meteors, I discovered I had recorded this remarkable event."

Pilot Alexander Goroshko of Westjet Airlines witnessed the display from a plane flying over Denver at 39,000 ft. "It looked amazing from the flight deck," he says.

The comet-like plumes are fuel dumped by the rocket booster as a safety precaution before re-entering Earth's atmosphere. SpaceX does this all the time; their fuel dumps and deorbit burns frequently look like spirals because the rockets spin to release the Starlink satellites. This may be a case of a spiral viewed at an angle.

Thousand Sails is a Chinese initiative to compete with Starlink. Officials say that 108 satellites are planned for launch this year in separate batches of 36 and 54 satellites; another 500+ are planned for 2025. Ultimately the megaconstellation will contain more than 14,000 satellites (Starlink currently has about 6,200).

A Long March-6 rocket carrying 18 Thousand Sails satellites blasts off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in China's Shanxi Province on Aug. 6, 2024.