SpaceWeather.com Archive — Sat, Aug 2, 2025

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A SHADOW IS ABOUT TO FALL ACROSS SATURN: Amateur astronomers, prepare your telescopes. The shadow of Titan is about to fall across Saturn. It looks like this. The transit will occur on Sunday, Aug. 3rd, between 06:25 and 1104 UTC, dotting Saturn's cloudtops with an inky-black spot. Submit your photos here.

INTERSTELLAR COMET 3I/ATLAS: The largest interstellar object we've ever seen is hurtling at breakneck speed through the solar system. Comet 3I/ATLAS was traveling 61 kilometers every second (134,000 mph) on July 30th when Gerald Rhemann & Michael Jäger photographed it using a 12-inch telescope in Farm Tivoli, Namibia:

"The comet has brightened since the last time we photographed it," says Jäger. "It is now at magnitude +16.7."

The high speed of this object is the foremost sign that it comes from the stars. It is moving too fast to be held by the sun's gravity. Mainstream media reports are buzzing with the possibility that 3I/ATLAS might be alien tech. However, images from Hubble and Gemini North show clearly that it is a comet. If 3I/ATLAS is a spaceship, it has an amazing disquise.

Realtime Comet ATLAS Photo Gallery
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NASA SPACEWALKER $1 COINS: The US Mint has just released a new set of limited edition $1 coins to honor NASA's astronaut core. Yesterday, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched them to the edge of space onboard a cosmic ray research balloon. Here they are, parachuting back from the stratosphere:

You can have a single coin for $49.95 or an entire unbroken roll for $299.95. No longer available from the US Mint, these rare coins flew 113,949 feet above the Sierra Nevada on July 31, 2025. One side shows an American astronaut conducting a spacewalk outside the International Space Station; the other side features the Statue of Liberty in profile.

Bonus: If you need to, you can spend these coins. They're real legal tender.

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.