News tagged with solar energetic particles

Cosmic rays alter chemistry of lunar ice

Space scientists from the University of New Hampshire and multi-institutional colleagues report they have quantified levels of radiation on the moon's surface from galactic cosmic ray (GCR) bombardment that ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 19, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Sun delivered curveball of powerful radiation at Earth

A potent follow-up solar flare, which occurred Friday (Jan. 17, 2012), just days after the Sun launched the biggest coronal mass ejection (CME) seen in nearly a decade, delivered a powerful radiation punch ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Feb 01, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Exoplanet aurora: An out-of-this-world sight

Earth's aurorae, or Northern and Southern Lights, provide a dazzling light show to people living in the polar regions. Shimmering curtains of green and red undulate across the sky like a living thing. New ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jul 21, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (5) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

A big surprise from the edge of the solar system: magnetic bubbles (w/ video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Voyager probes are truly going where no one has gone before. Gliding silently toward the stars, 9 billion miles from Earth, they are beaming back news from the most distant, unexplored ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jun 09, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (35) | comments 25 | with audio podcast

SwRI energetic particle instruments selected for Solar Probe Plus mission

NASA selected two instruments led by Southwest Research Institute, which measure energetic particles for the Solar Probe Plus spacecraft, slated to launch by 2018. This first-ever journey into the Sun's outer atmosphere - ca ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Sep 03, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 2

A decade of studying the Earth's magnetic shield, in 3-D

Today (September 1), space scientists around the world are celebrating ten years of ground-breaking discoveries by 'Cluster', a mission that is illuminating the mysteries of the magnetosphere, the northern ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Aug 31, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (8) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Scientists Use Atomic Physics Codes to Study Coronal Mass Ejections

(PhysOrg.com) -- Giant eruptions of ionized gas, or plasma, from the Sun called coronal mass ejections [CMEs] produce solar energetic particles that cause spacecraft anomalies and communication interruptions, ...

Physics / Plasma Physics

created Apr 07, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Shocking recipe for making killer electrons (w/ Video)

Take a bunch of fast-moving electrons, place them in orbit and then hit them with the shock waves from a solar storm. What do you get? Killer electrons. That's the shocking recipe revealed by ESA's Cluster ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 11, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (8) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Oldest measurement of Earth's magnetic field reveals battle between Sun and Earth for our atmosphere

Scientists at the University of Rochester have discovered that the Earth's magnetic field 3.5 billion years ago was only half as strong as it is today, and that this weakness, coupled with a strong wind of ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Mar 04, 2010 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (22) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

CU Students to Build Tiny Spacecraft to Observe 'Space Weather' Environment

(PhysOrg.com) -- The University of Colorado at Boulder has been awarded $840,000 from the National Science Foundation for students to build a tiny spacecraft to observe energetic particles in space that should ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 29, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Cosmic Rays Hit Space Age High

(PhysOrg.com) -- Planning a trip to Mars? Take plenty of shielding. According to sensors on NASA's ACE (Advanced Composition Explorer) spacecraft, galactic cosmic rays have just hit a Space Age high.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 29, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (16) | comments 4

Cosmic meddling with the clouds by seven-day magic

Billions of tonnes of water droplets vanish from the atmosphere, as if by magic, in events that reveal in detail how the Sun and the stars control our everyday clouds. Researchers of the National Space Institute in the Technical ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Aug 01, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (21) | comments 9