Rocket Transits Rippling Sun

The launch of a rocket at sunrise can result in unusual but intriguing images that feature both the rocket and the Sun. The Starlink satellites were carried into low Earth orbit last month when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center. In the featured launch picture, the rocket's exhaust plume glows beyond its projection onto the distant Sun, the rocket itself appears jagged, and the Sun's lower edge shows peculiar ripples. The physical cause of all of these effects is pockets of relatively hot or rarefied air. The sunspot region on the upper left crosses the Sun slowly.

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It was a night to remember, but it wasn't the storm of the century. The peak of the Tau Herculids meteor shower was last night. The Earth might be passing through a dense stream of comet debris, which could cause a storm of bright meteors to streak out from the constellation of Hercules. A decent meteor shower could be called after what actually happened. The image was taken at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona on May 30. There were 19 Tau Herculids meteors captured, along with 4 unrelated ones. Can you find them? The Mayall Telescope is just behind the 2.3-meter Telescope in the foreground. The next active night forecast is for 2049, and the annual Tau Herculids are expected to return to their normal low rate next year.