News tagged with space plasmas

Elusive matter found to be abundant far above Earth

(PhysOrg.com) -- Cold plasma has been well-hidden. Space physicists have long lacked clues to how much of this electrically charged gas exists tens of thousands of miles above Earth and how the stuff may impact our planet's ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jan 24, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (12) | comments 15 | with audio podcast

Plasma Rocket Could Travel to Mars in 39 Days

(PhysOrg.com) -- Last Wednesday, the Ad Astra Rocket Company tested what is currently the most powerful plasma rocket in the world. As the Webster, Texas, company announced, the VASIMR VX-200 engine ran at ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Oct 06, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (169) | comments 71 weblog

Spacequakes Rumble Near Earth (w/ Video)

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 ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jul 28, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (21) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Goddard building instrument to study reconnection

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 ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 29, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Catching space weather in the act

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 ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Feb 17, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | 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

Large solar flares generate geomagnetic storm

A pair of unusually large solar flares early yesterday generated a Coronal Mass Ejection that will reach Earth around mid-day today. It will likely cause at least a strong geomagnetic storm that could affect ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 09, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Scientists explain mystery of observed turbulent density fluctuations in interplanetary space

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at The University of Alabama in Huntsville have developed a three-dimensional simulation model to understand behavior of interplanetary charged particles in space.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Oct 28, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 2

New rocket aims for cheaper nudges in space: Plasma thruster is small, runs on inexpensive gases (Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Satellites orbiting the Earth must occasionally be nudged to stay on the correct path. MIT scientists are developing a new rocket that could make this and other spacecraft maneuvers much less ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Feb 23, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (12) | comments 7

Zubrin claims VASIMR is a hoax

A next-generation plasma rocket being developed by former NASA astronaut Franklin Chang Diaz called the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) has been touted as a way to get astronauts to ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jul 13, 2011 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (15) | comments 75

How space eruptions happen

(PhysOrg.com) -- Mathematicians at the University of St Andrews have made a discovery which could lead to a better understanding of why huge eruptions occur in space.

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created Apr 07, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (10) | comments 3

Space storm tracked from sun to earth

(PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time, a spacecraft far from Earth has turned and watched a solar storm engulf our planet. The movie, released today during a NASA press conference, has galvanized solar physicists, ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 19, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 18 | with audio podcast

Cassini chronicles life of Saturn's giant storm

(PhysOrg.com) -- New images and animated movies from NASA's Cassini spacecraft chronicle the birth and evolution of the colossal storm that ravaged the northern face of Saturn for nearly a year.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 18, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Journal receives its first paper from space

EPL (Europhysics Letters) has today gone beyond Earthly limits by publishing its first ever paper submitted from space.

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 11, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

First large-Scale, physics-based space weather model transitions into operation

(PhysOrg.com) -- The first large-scale, physics-based space weather prediction model is transitioning from research into operation.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jan 26, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0