"Don't fly too close to the sun," said Daedalus to Icarus. Flying too high would melt the wax in his wings, while going too low would cause the sea's moisture to create drag.
Space Exploration
Sep 6, 2021
0
79
Sending human travelers to Mars would require scientists and engineers to overcome a range of technological and safety obstacles. One of them is the grave risk posed by particle radiation from the sun, distant stars and galaxies.
Space Exploration
Aug 26, 2021
6
4200
The surface of the sun churns with energy and frequently ejects masses of highly-magnetized plasma towards Earth. Sometimes these ejections are strong enough to crash through the magnetosphere—the natural magnetic shield ...
Astronomy
Jun 3, 2021
8
32
Threads of superheated gas and magnetic fields are weaving a tapestry of energy at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. A new image of this new cosmic masterpiece was made using a giant mosaic of data from NASA's Chandra X-ray ...
Astronomy
May 27, 2021
7
55
About 17 years ago, J. Martin Laming, an astrophysicist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, theorized why the chemical composition of the Sun's tenuous outermost layer differs from that lower down. His theory has recently ...
Astronomy
Mar 2, 2021
1
14710
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have furthered understanding of a barrier that can prevent doughnut-shaped fusion facilities known as tokamaks from operating ...
Plasma Physics
Jul 22, 2020
15
477
A team of fusion researchers succeeded in proving that energetic ions with energy in mega electron volt (MeV) range are superiorly confined in a plasma for the first time in helical systems. This promises the alpha particle ...
Plasma Physics
Jul 29, 2019
1
705
In a small, square room walled by four feet of concrete, the air smells as if a lightning storm just passed through—crisp and acrid, like cleaning supplies. Outside, that's the smell of lightning ripping apart oxygen in ...
Space Exploration
Jun 11, 2019
14
158
The celestial phenomenon known as STEVE is likely caused by a combination of heating of charged particles in the atmosphere and energetic electrons like those that power the aurora, according to new research. In a new study, ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 25, 2019
2
496
We all know bubbles from soapy baths or sodas. These bubbles of everyday experience on Earth are up to a few inches across, and consist of a thin film of liquid enclosing a small volume of air or other gas. In space, however, ...
Astronomy
Feb 28, 2019
4
247
