SpaceWeather.com Archive — Sat, Aug 17, 2024

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STRONG GEOMAGNETIC STORM: A CME hit Earth's magnetic field on Aug. 17th (~1400 UT), sparking a brief but strong (G3) geomagnetic storm. The timing was bad for both European and North American sky watchers. Daylight washed out what must have been a widespread aurora display. This CME was hurled toward Earth 3 days ago by an X1-class solar flare from sunspot AR3784. CME impact alerts: SMS Tex t

ROCKET FUEL OVER THE KATTEGAT: Nobody outgasses like SpaceX. The company's latest launch produced a spectacular fuel dump over Denmark around midnight on Aug. 17th. Bettina Begtoft photographed the display over the Kattegat, a body of water connecting the North and Baltic Seas:

"This is the Space X Transporter-11 mission," says Begtoft. It lifted off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on Aug. 16th carrying 116 satellites for a mix of government and commercial customers. All 116 were successfully deployed into Earth orbit less than three hours after launch.

Begtoft may have witnessed the beginning of a "SpaceX spiral." On rideshare missions like Transporter-11, the numerous satellites from various clients have different destinations. SpaceX must rotate the second stage of the rocket for deployment. As a result, stage 2 is still rotating when they do the de-orbit burn and this creates a spiral. Here are some examples from New Zealand, east Africa, Hawaii, and, most famous of all, Alaska.

Did you witness this outgassing event? Submit your pictures here.

more images: from Daniel Strehle of Hof, Bavaria, Germany

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REAL MONEY FROM SPACE: On July 16, 1969, the world watched as a Saturn V rocket launched Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the Moon. Exactly 55 years later, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched the US Mint's limited edition Saturn V dollar coin to the stratosphere:

You can have a single coin for $49.95 or an entire unbroken roll for $249.95. No longer available from the US Mint, these rare coins flew 121,665 feet above the Sierra Nevada on July 16, 2024. One side shows the mighty Saturn V rocket blasting off from Cape Canaveral; the other side features the Statue of Liberty in profile.

The students are selling space coins to support to support their cosmic ray research program. (Helium is expensive!) Each order comes with a greeting card showing the coins in flight and telling the story of their journey to the stratosphere and back again.