http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- In Sept. 1859, on the eve of a below-average1 solar cycle, the sun unleashed one of the most powerful storms in centuries. The underlying flare was so unusual, researchers still aren't sure how to categorize it. The blast peppered Earth with the most energetic protons in half-a-millennium, induced electrical currents that set telegraph offices on fire, and sparked Northern Lights over Cuba and Hawaii. http://phys.org/news227971029.html Space & Earth Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:17:29 EST news227971029 George Mason University scientists discovered recently that a phenomenon called a giant magnetic rope is the cause of solar storms. Confirming the existence of this formation is a key first step in helping to mitigate the adverse effects that solar storm eruptions can have on satellite communications on Earth. http://phys.org/news227354173.html Space & Earth Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:56:42 EST news227354173 (PhysOrg.com) -- Since 1611, humans have recorded the comings and goings of black spots on the sun. The number of these sunspots waxes and wanes over approximately an 11-year cycle -- more sunspots generally mean more activity and eruptions on the sun and vice versa. The number of sunspots can change from cycle to cycle, and 2008 saw the longest and weakest solar minimum since scientists have been monitoring the sun with space-based instruments. http://phys.org/news227278130.html Space & Earth Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:49:11 EST news227278130 An unusual solar flare observed by a NASA space observatory (video) on Tuesday could cause some disruptions to satellite communications and power on Earth over the next day or so, officials said. http://phys.org/news226680413.html Space & Earth Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:47:15 EST news226680413 Whether it's a giant solar flare or a beautiful green-blue aurora, just about everything interesting in space weather happens due to a phenomenon called magnetic reconnection. Reconnection occurs when magnetic field lines cross and create a burst of energy. These bursts can be so big they're measured in megatons of TNT. http://phys.org/news223313256.html Space & Earth Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:28:08 EST news223313256 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have discovered 122 new eclipsing binary stars and observed hundreds more variable stars in an innovative survey using NASA's two STEREO solar satellites. The survey has been carried out by team from the Open University, University of Central Lancashire and the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. Dr Danielle Bewsher presented highlights at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno, Wales on Tuesday 19th April. http://phys.org/news222530615.html Space & Earth Wed, 20 Apr 2011 15:03:45 EST news222530615 The SpaceMath@NASA mathematics resource for teachers and students recently achieved a landmark number of downloads. http://phys.org/news221381057.html Other Sciences Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:44:29 EST news221381057 Space weather-based disturbances in the Earth's upper atmosphere cause disruptions that affect space-based communication and navigation signals, such as GPS and radio signals. http://phys.org/news219592777.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:59:50 EST news219592777 NASA's new iPhone application couldn't have come at a better time. http://phys.org/news219517908.html Space & Earth Wed, 16 Mar 2011 18:11:58 EST news219517908 They nicknamed it the "Little Balloon That Could." Launched in December of 2010 from McMurdo Station in Antarctica, the research balloon was a test run and it bobbed lower every day like it had some kind of leak. But every day for five days it rose back up in the sky to some 112,000 feet in the air. http://phys.org/news217690116.html Space & Earth Wed, 23 Feb 2011 13:29:16 EST news217690116 A geomagnetic space storm sparked by a solar eruption like the one that flared toward Earth Tuesday is bound to strike again and could wreak havoc across the gadget-happy modern world, experts say. http://phys.org/news217406413.html Space & Earth Sun, 20 Feb 2011 06:40:25 EST news217406413 (PhysOrg.com) -- A powerful solar flare has ushered in the largest space weather storm in at least four years and has already disrupted some ground communications on Earth, said University of Colorado Boulder Professor Daniel Baker, an internationally known space weather expert. http://phys.org/news217257208.html Space & Earth Fri, 18 Feb 2011 13:14:15 EST news217257208 Close to the globe, Earth's magnetic field wraps around the planet like a gigantic spherical web, curving in to touch Earth at the poles. But this isn't true as you get further from the planet. As you move to the high altitudes where satellites fly, nothing about that field is so simple. Instead, the large region enclosed by Earth's magnetic field, known as the magnetosphere, looks like a long, sideways jellyfish with its round bulb facing the sun and a long tail extending away from the sun. http://phys.org/news217187955.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:59:34 EST news217187955 A powerful solar eruption that triggered a huge geomagnetic storm has disturbed radio communications and could disrupt electrical power grids, radio and satellite communication in the next days, NASA said. http://phys.org/news217140403.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Feb 2011 04:47:50 EST news217140403 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Time History of Events and Macroscale Interaction during Substorms (THEMIS) spacecraft combined with computer models have helped track the origin of the energetic particles in Earth's magnetic atmosphere that appear during a kind of space weather called a substorm. Understanding the source of such particles and how they are shuttled through Earth's atmosphere is crucial to better understanding the Sun's complex space weather system and thus protect satellites or even humans in space. http://phys.org/news215711599.html Space & Earth Mon, 31 Jan 2011 15:53:35 EST news215711599 (PhysOrg.com) -- The first large-scale, physics-based space weather prediction model is transitioning from research into operation. http://phys.org/news215285835.html Space & Earth Wed, 26 Jan 2011 18:00:06 EST news215285835 The first global simulation study of equatorial spread F (ESF) bubble evolution using a comprehensive 3D ionosphere model, SAMI3, has been demonstrated. The model self-consistently solves for the neutral wind driven dynamo electric field and the gravity driven electric field associated with plasma bubbles. http://phys.org/news214493441.html Physics Mon, 17 Jan 2011 13:31:06 EST news214493441 On August 1, 2010, an entire hemisphere of the sun erupted. Filaments of magnetism snapped and exploded, shock waves raced across the stellar surface, billion-ton clouds of hot gas billowed into space. Astronomers knew they had witnessed something big. http://phys.org/news211544900.html Space & Earth Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:00:11 EST news211544900 On December 2, 1995, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory or SOHO was launched into space from Cape Canaveral aboard an Atlas IIAS rocket. The joint ESA/NASA project began its work observing the sun at a time when the term "solar weather" was almost never used. http://phys.org/news210604223.html Space & Earth Fri, 03 Dec 2010 13:10:45 EST news210604223 Solar storms sweeping from the Sun to Earth can damage anything from spacecraft to Earth's electrical utilities. The "Halloween Storm" of October 29, 2003 destroyed the $450 million Midori-2 research satellite. A storm on March 13, 1989 caused a collapse of the entire Quebec power grid. But such things can be avoided with enough advance warning. http://phys.org/news209205558.html Space & Earth Wed, 17 Nov 2010 08:39:40 EST news209205558 Naval Research Laboratory scientists have analyzed and developed the first comprehensive empirical characterization of solar Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) size, speed, mass, and kinetic energy. http://phys.org/news209115489.html Space & Earth Tue, 16 Nov 2010 08:00:01 EST news209115489 (PhysOrg.com) -- A 6.5-pound satellite is scheduled to become the first stand-alone spacecraft built by Michigan students to go into orbit and perform a science mission. http://phys.org/news203182204.html Space & Earth Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:40:03 EST news203182204 With a brilliant, finely tuned spark of ultraviolet (UV) light, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology helped NASA scientists successfully position a crucial UV sensor inside a space-borne instrument to observe a "hidden" layer of the Sun where violent space weather can originate. http://phys.org/news202563284.html Space & Earth Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:10:01 EST news202563284 Researchers using NASA's fleet of five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a form of space weather that packs the punch of an earthquake and plays a key role in sparking bright Northern Lights. They call it "the spacequake." http://phys.org/news199554868.html Space & Earth Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:57:26 EST news199554868 (PhysOrg.com) -- ESA's pioneering Cluster mission is celebrating its 10th anniversary. During the past decade, Cluster's four satellites have provided extraordinary insights into the largely invisible interaction between the Sun and Earth. http://phys.org/news198509510.html Space & Earth Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:50:01 EST news198509510 (PhysOrg.com) -- Proba-2 is a small but innovative member of ESA's spacecraft fleet, crammed with experimental technologies. In its first eight months of life it has already returned more than 90 000 images of the Sun. http://phys.org/news197125900.html Space & Earth Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:12:08 EST news197125900 (PhysOrg.com) -- The Japanese Hinode spacecraft that launched in September 2006 contains the Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS), which provides measurements of properties of the solar corona such as its temperature, density, and dynamics (flows and turbulence). http://phys.org/news196699807.html Space & Earth Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:10:01 EST news196699807 Earth and space are about to come into contact in a way that's new to human history. To make preparations, authorities in Washington DC are holding a meeting: The Space Weather Enterprise Forum at the National Press Club on June 8th. http://phys.org/news195297437.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 Jun 2010 10:30:01 EST news195297437 (PhysOrg.com) -- For more than 25 years, our understanding of terrestrial space weather has been partly based on incorrect assumptions about how nitrogen, the most abundant gas in our atmosphere, reacts when it collides with electrons produced by energetic ultraviolet sunlight and "solar wind." http://phys.org/news195192885.html Physics Tue, 08 Jun 2010 05:15:17 EST news195192885 (PhysOrg.com) -- The series of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites known as GOES provide daily satellite images of weather here on Earth, but they also provide scientists with solar data and space weather observations in geosynchronous (over a fixed location on Earth's surface) orbit. NASA has just released a four-minute educational video called "A Weather Satellite Watches the Sun" explaining the uses of space weather instruments on the GOES satellites. http://phys.org/news192457879.html Space & Earth Fri, 07 May 2010 13:31:44 EST news192457879