New sunspots producing space weather

On Jan. 13, 2013, at 2:24 a.m. EST, the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection or CME. Not to be confused with a solar flare, a CME is a solar phenomenon that can send solar particles into space and reach ...

Are dust devils whirling around the Curiosity rover?

In this latest update from the MSL team, Ashwin Vasavada, the Deputy Project Scientist, explains how Curiosity has been monitoring the winds and radiation levels in Gale Crater. Curiosity has also been looking for dust devils—the ...

NASA's cure for a common phobia

NASA has found a cure for a common phobia—the fear of asking "stupid" questions. It's not a pill. No therapy is required. The cure is a rubber chicken.

Methane on Mars may be result of electrification of dust-devils

Methane on Mars has long perplexed scientists; the short-lived gas has been measured in surprising quantities in Mars' atmosphere over several seasons, sometimes in fairly large plumes. Scientists have taken this to be evidence ...

The radiation belt storm probes

(Phys.org)—Since the dawn of the Space Age, mission planners have tried to follow one simple but important rule: Stay out of the van Allen Belts. The two doughnut-shaped regions around Earth are filled with "killer electrons," ...

Chasing storms in space

There was probably no one looking forward to this morning with more anticipation than University of Alberta physics professor Ian Mann, when an Atlas rocket lifted a pair of NASA satellites into orbit from Cape Canaveral, ...

NASA Radiation Belt Storm Probes to launch, UNH components aboard

At 4:08 a.m. Thursday, August 23, NASA's twin Radiation Belt Storm Probes are scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida on a two-year mission to investigate Earth's hazardous radiation belt environment as never before. ...

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