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Solar physicists and space weather experts expect some powerful storms to be generated by the Sun over the coming days or weeks. They have recently observed a massive sunspot on the surface of the star, which may start producing solar flares at any moment.
Dubbed AR 1476, the sunspot cluster is made up of at least ... |
8 May 2012
08:42 GMT |
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At this point, we feel very fortunate when we narrowly escape the effects of solar storms, and the massive clouds of high-energy particles they aim at our planet. But, in the future, it may be that we could harness their power for electricity production.
Between March 8-10, the upper atmosphere protecting Earth from... |
26 March 2012
03:25 GMT |
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On Friday, March 9, officials from the European Space Agency (ESA) and aerospace company Thales Alenia Space signed a new contract for the strengthening of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS). The goal is to protect this asset from the effects of solar storms.
Additionally, officials are l... |
14 March 2012
04:50 GMT |
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Officials with the American space agency are proud to announce that one of their workhorse solar observatories is now celebrating its tenth anniversary in Earth's orbit. The spacecraft also holds the record for the most X-ray solar flares observed on the Sun.
The probe reached its tenth anniversary on February... |
10 February 2012
03:06 GMT |
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A few days ago, when the strongest solar flare to occur on the surface of the Sun since 2005 struck the Earth, the shock waves also headed for Mars, and then further out into the solar system. On its way, it met the Radiation Assessment Detector aboard the NASA Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft.
The MSL is current... |
30 January 2012
08:37 GMT |
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The solar flare that was produced on Sunday, January 22, caused a series of negative effects on our planet, such as for instance the development of several geomagnetic storms. These events led to several communications blackouts, and forced some airlines to use polar airways with extreme caution.
Solar flares and co... |
26 January 2012
14:01 GMT |
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Experts managing the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) mission have just released a series of images and a short video, depicting a strong storm that has been taking place on the surface of the Sun over these past few days.
The star is ramping up its activity after a long period of calm, ramping up for a new ma... |
24 January 2012
04:25 GMT |
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Strong solar flares and coronal mass ejections can cause significant damage if they hit Earth, so experts are currently focused on developing methods of predicting space weather. This will be especially important over the next couple of years.
The Sun is scheduled to reach a new period of maximum activity in its 11-... |
8 December 2011
04:59 GMT |
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As the video embedded at the end of this article will confirm, a skywatcher recently discovered an interesting object near Mercury, apparently moving in the same direction as the planet itself. The unidentified object might very well be an UFO, or it could be a light artifact.
YouTube user siniXster says that the vi... |
7 December 2011
03:50 GMT |
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According to the conclusions of a new simulation conducted by NASA experts, it would appear that solar storms – and the coronal mass ejections (CME) they produce – are enough to literally erode the lunar surface. This primarily happens because the Moon has no protective atmospheric layers.
The discovery... |
6 December 2011
10:54 GMT |
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In a paper published in the November 18 issue of Science, solar physicists say that there is currently no foreseeable danger of the Sun going into a deep period of inactivity, once it reaches the current cycle's maximum. This idea has been widely speculated on lately .
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute f... |
18 November 2011
08:46 GMT |
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One of the most successful missions NASA ever conducted, the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO), has now turned 5. Both spacecraft making up this advanced system are in good health, and continue to carry out observations of the Sun from both sides of the planet.
STEREO consists of two identical spacec... |
26 October 2011
02:52 GMT |
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This amazing video sent back by the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows how a speeding comet slammed itself into the Sun. According to solar physicists, the ensuing blast that occurred on the other side of the star was not caused by the impact.
The collision took place over the weekend, when a sungrazer c... |
5 October 2011
05:39 GMT |
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Solar physicists at the American space agency say that their Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft were able to follow the path of a coronal mass ejection (CME), from origins all the way to the time when it reached our planet. In part, the creation of the dataset was enabled by the fact that inv... |
19 August 2011
03:18 GMT |
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Solar physicists say that the Sun released its most powerful solar flare in four years yesterday, August 9. The class-X6.9 event was so intense that it briefly knocked out HF communications, but the full effects of the event will most likely not be felt on Earth. The eruption itself was not aimed at our planet, which... |
10 August 2011
09:34 GMT |
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An in-depth study of the activity going on on the surface of the Sun has revealed an interesting aspect of how powerful solar storms form. According to researchers, it would appear that giant bubbles of plasma, superheated at high temperatures, are responsible for fueling the events.Understanding the physics behind s... |
17 May 2011
10:08 GMT |
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This week, scientists with the American space agency saw a relatively large comet strike the Sun, after having spiraled ever closer to the star for a while now. At the same time, they also noticed a huge solar eruption, but the team that made the observations says that the two events are unrelated. The Sun is now w... |
14 May 2011
03:05 GMT |
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A team of experts made an amazing announcement at a dedicated conference today, when they said that the first space weather prediction model went online recently. The instrument will aid solar physicists get a 1-to-4-day forecast about how the Sun will behave. The simulation is heavily based on physics, and is the fi... |
26 January 2011
10:25 GMT |
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The Large Hadron Collider switched from using protons for its collisions to heavier lead ions recently, so that the events would produce more data than ever before. Some three weeks into the studies, this has already resulted in new insights of how the Universe looked like at the Big Bang.The goal of the LHC is to de... |
26 November 2010
11:00 GMT |
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Officials at the American space agency announce the development of a new defensive measure against solar flares. Dubbed Solar Shield, the new system can provide ample forewarning on incoming solar storms, which can fry satellites and disrupt Earth-based power grids.Powerful Sun storms can release massive streams of e... |
8 November 2010
09:13 GMT |
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Irish researchers from the Trinity College in Dublin have recently revealed that solar storms can change directions after being produced by the Sun.The new finding goes against established theories, which state that storms go in a straight direction once they are produced. This is the first investigation to prove thi... |
23 September 2010
03:22 GMT |
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The twin components of the NASA Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) mission were recently able to detect one of the fastest and largest solar eruptions in recent history. On August 1, the Sun released a massive amount of matter and radiation, which sped away from the star at a whooping 2.2 million miles ... |
6 August 2010
04:58 GMT |
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On April 3, at 11:54 CET, the European Space Agency's (ESA) small solar observatory Proba-2 observed a solar eruption taking place on the surface of the Sun. Astrophysicists classified the phenomenon as a low-intensity, or weak, event, even if this still implies temperatures averaging tens of millions of degrees... |
14 April 2010
18:01 GMT |
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Coronal mass ejections (CME) are some of the most interesting and important phenomena going on on the surface of our Sun. As the years pass, astronomers and astrophysicists gain a deeper and deeper understanding of how these structures form and develop. This is of tremendous importance, as the CME have the potential ... |
12 April 2010
05:48 GMT |
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Astronomers are puzzled each time readings from satellites monitoring solar activity and the Earth's magnetosphere come in, because they realize exactly how little they know about the complex phenomena that ensure life on the planet is not wiped out every time the Sun acts up. In such a recent episode, ESA exper... |
1 May 2009
05:01 GMT |
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The American space agency's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) twin observation spacecraft has allowed experts at NASA to observe a solar storm in 3D for the first time. This could bring about a new era of knowledge on how our star erupts, and what the underlying issues behind its coronal mass eje... |
29 April 2009
20:31 GMT |
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On April 9, a coronal mass ejection weighing about a billion tons emerged from the surface of the Sun and, to the surprise of physicists, executed a cartwheel. At the same time, part of the mass of matter made a backflip in what now appears to be just a regular way for solar explosions to behave. "What a rare and exc... |
29 May 2008
10:34 GMT |
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