They came from outer space--and you can have one! Genuine meteorites are now on sale in the Space Weather Store. | | | PERSEID UPDATE: The Perseid meteor shower is subsiding. Counts reported by the International Meteor Organization suggest a peak on Aug. 13th of not much more than 60 to 80 meteors per hour. This makes it an off-year for the Perseids, which normally produces peak rates almost two times higher. This year's glaring full Moon sharply reduced visibility. Moonlight was no problem for Stan Nelson of Roswell, New Mexico, who spent peak-night listening to the shower. Nelson monitors the US Air Force Space Surveillance Radar in Texas for echoes of meteors passing over the facility. He recorded this specimen ping at 9:30 am MDT on Aug. 13th:  "The Perseids held up nicely, radar-wise," comments Nelson. more Perseid images: from Antonio Finazzi of Monte Avaro - Cusio (BG) - Italy;from Dan Bush of Albany, Missouri; from Brian Emfinger of Ozark, Arkansas; from Martin Popek of Nýdek, Czech republic; from P-M Hedén of Älmsta Sweden; from Darryl Reid of Canadian Badlands near Drumheller Alberta. What sat was that? The hours before dawn are a great time to see satellites. There are hundreds in Earth orbit, and you're sure to spot some of them while you're watching the Perseids. Your Android phone can tell you which ones you're seeing: Download WhatSat. August 2011 Aurora Gallery [previous Augusts: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002] 2011 Noctilucent Cloud Gallery [previous years: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009] Potentially Hazardous Asteroids ( PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time. On August 14, 2011 there were 1241 potentially hazardous asteroids. Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach. | The official U.S. government space weather bureau | | The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. | | Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever. | | 3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory | | Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. | | from the NOAA Space Environment Center | | the underlying science of space weather | | for out-of-this-world printing and graphics | |