Let's start with the aurora. After snoozing much of the summer, the sun "woke up" Aug. 5.

A complex sunspot group broke out in a flare that launched an angry cloud of charged particles in Earth's direction that's expected to arrive Thursday night, Aug. 7, and spark a moderate auroral display between about 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. local time. Light from the nearly full moon will lessen the storm's intensity, but we should still see arcs and rays ripple across the northern sky should it come to pass.

The big event in the coming week is the annual Perseid meteor shower, which peaks Tuesday night, Aug. 12, through Wednesday morning, Aug. 13.

Every summer, the Earth crosses the path of comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. Debris shed by the interplanetary traveler litters its orbit. When we encounter the drif

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