The SwRI-led Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) orbiting Jupiter aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft has detected new faint aurora features, characterized by ring-like emissions, which expand rapidly over time. SwRI scientists determined ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 29, 2021
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150
Before the Apollo era, the moon was thought to be dry as a desert due to the extreme temperatures and harshness of the space environment. Many studies have since discovered lunar water: ice in shadowed polar craters, water ...
Astronomy
Jan 28, 2021
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9283
Mercury, the planet nearest the sun, shares with Earth the distinction of being one of the two mountainous planets in the solar system with a global magnetic field that shields it from cosmic rays and the solar wind. Now ...
Astronomy
Apr 9, 2020
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143
Vast rings of electrically charged particles encircle the Earth and other planets. Now, a team of scientists has completed research into waves that travel through this magnetic, electrically charged environment, known as ...
Space Exploration
Jul 12, 2019
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2639
An international team of researchers has succeeded in measuring the current system responsible for Jupiter's aurora. Using data transmitted to Earth by NASA's Juno spacecraft, they showed that the direct currents were much ...
Space Exploration
Jul 11, 2019
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347
Researchers have investigated wave-particle interactions between energetic electrons and chorus waves evolving in the space surrounding the Earth using the scientific satellite Arase and, simultaneously, transient auroral ...
General Physics
Feb 5, 2019
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133
Solving a decades-old mystery, an international team of astronomers have discovered an extremely hot magnetosphere around a white dwarf, a remnant of a star like our Sun. The work was led by Dr. Nicole Reindl, Research Fellow ...
Astronomy
Nov 6, 2018
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122
Far across the solar system, from where Earth appears merely as a pale blue dot, NASA's Galileo spacecraft spent eight years orbiting Jupiter. During that time, the hearty spacecraft—slightly larger than a full-grown giraffe—sent ...
Space Exploration
Apr 30, 2018
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90
Interplanetary space is hardly tranquil. High-energy charged particles from the Sun, as well as from beyond our solar system, constantly whizz by. These can damage satellites and endanger astronaut health—though, luckily ...
Space Exploration
Nov 17, 2017
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39
Space may seem empty, but it's actually a dynamic place populated with near-invisible matter, and dominated by forces, in particular those created by magnetic fields. Magnetospheres—the magnetic fields around most planets—exist ...
Space Exploration
Nov 1, 2017
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