AN OUTBREAK OF NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS: Last night, observers in Europe and North America reported seeing bright night-shining (noctilucent) clouds--"the best of the season so far," says John C. McConnell of Northern Ireland. These clouds are made of frosted meteor smoke. They form naturally in summer months, and now is prime time to see them. [photo gallery]
BIG SOLAR ACTIVITY: On July 7th, two sides of the sun exploded almost simultaneously. This movie from NOAA's GOES-19 satellite shows what happened:
Plumes of hot plasma flew away from opposing hemispheres within the same 2 hours. Coincidence? Maybe not. NASA has seen this happen before. Magnetic instabilities can quickly ripple across the entire sun, destablizing widely-separated regions. In 2010, an entire hemisphere erupted.
This event, in combination with recent flares from sunspot 4482, suggest that the sun is in a heightened state of activity. Stay tuned. Solar flare Alerts: SMS Text
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STEVE VISITS IDAHO: During 4th of July weekend, auroras blanketed the USA during a strong geomagnetic storm. Upon closer inspection, not all the lights were auroras. "We also saw STEVE," reports David Egan of Driggs Idaho, who took a family photo with the phenomenon:
STEVE is a recent discovery. It looks like an aurora, but it is not. The purple glow is caused by hot (3000°C) ribbons of gas flowing through Earth’s magnetosphere at speeds exceeding 6 km/s (13,000 mph). It appears during many geomagnetic storms alongside actual auroras. Indeed, Egan's family saw those, too.
Browse the realtime aurora gallery for more scenes from the holiday weekend.
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THE METEOR CRATER PENDANT: Have you heard of Moissanite? It's a very rare mineral discovered by 19th-century chemist Henri Moissan in Arizona's Meteor Crater. At first, he thought it was diamond, but later realized it was even more rare. It's a diamond lookalike that, until the 1950s, was found naturally only in meteorites.
On Aug. 2, 2025, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched this Moissanite pendant to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $169.95. Engraved with the words "I love you always and forever," the sterling silver frame bends around the Moissanite in a heart-shaped curve--all highlighted by glittering 5A cubic zirconia nuggets.
The students are selling space pendants to pay the helium bill for their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its trip to the stratosphere and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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