SpaceWeather.com Archive — Sat, Aug 9, 2025

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G2-CLASS GEOMAGNETIC STORM IN PROGRESS: Geomagnetic storming has intensified to category G2 on Aug. 9th as Earth moves through the magnetized wake of a CME that passed nearby yesterday. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras, although they may be hard to see in the full moonlight. Aurora alerts: SMS Text

The storm sparked rare August auroras near the Arctic Circle. Thomas Kast photographed the display from Oulu, Finland:

"Just a few hours before I took this photo, I was thinking I still have around a week to sleep peacefully at night," says Kast. "After all, I haven't seen auroras this early in all my years in Oulu, Finland. The strong solar wind and G1 storm had other plans. Barely dark enough, this wonderful corona appeared. Happy new aurora season!"

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WHAT DOES A PERSEID METEOR SOUND LIKE? The Perseid meteor shower is underway and, although the peak is not until next week, already dozens of meteors may be seen gliding silently across the night sky. Emphasis on silently. However, Heiko Ulbricht of Freital, Germany, has found a way to hear them. Click to listen:

"This is an echo from the GRAVES space surveillance radar in France," explains Ulbricht. "I recorded on Aug. 8th when a Perseid meteor passed over Europe."

GRAVES is a radar France uses to monitor the space around Earth for satellites and space debris. While GRAVES is monitoring the heavens, Ulbricht is monitoring GRAVES. He uses a 143 MHz Yagi antenna and receiver to listen in to "pings" as objects pass over the radar site in neighboring France.

"The Perseids are already active," he says, "and I plan to continue listening throughout the shower's peak on August 12-13." Stay tuned for more echoes.

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THIS IS REAL MONEY FROM SPACE: The US Mint has just released a new set of $1 coins to honor NASA's astronaut corps. On July 31st, 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. 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.