UCLA scientists have discovered a new source of super-fast, energetic electrons raining down on Earth, a phenomenon that contributes to the colorful aurora borealis but also poses hazards to satellites, spacecraft and astronauts.
Planetary Sciences
Mar 30, 2022
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1482
(Phys.org) —On March 15, 2013, at 2:54 a.m. EDT, the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME), a solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space and can reach Earth one ...
Space Exploration
Mar 15, 2013
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UCLA researchers have explained the puzzling disappearing act of energetic electrons in Earth's outer radiation belt, using data collected from a fleet of orbiting spacecraft.
General Physics
Jan 29, 2012
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A potent solar flare has unleashed the biggest radiation storm since 2005 and could disrupt some satellite communications in the polar regions, US space weather monitors said Monday.
Space Exploration
Jan 23, 2012
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In the months ahead, two of NASA's Mars spacecraft will have an unprecedented opportunity to study how solar flares—giant explosions on the sun's surface—could affect robots and future astronauts on the Red Planet.
Planetary Sciences
Apr 29, 2024
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35
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 ...
Space Exploration
Sep 11, 2012
9
0
Our planet is nestled in the center of two immense, concentric doughnuts of powerful radiation: the Van Allen radiation belts, which harbor swarms of charged particles that are trapped by Earth's magnetic field. On March ...
Space Exploration
Aug 15, 2016
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860
Through analyses of ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica, a research team led by Lund University in Sweden has found evidence of an extreme solar storm that occurred about 9,200 years ago. What puzzles the researchers ...
Planetary Sciences
Jan 26, 2022
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837
The Sun unleashed an M-2 (medium-sized) solar flare, an S1-class (minor) radiation storm and a spectacular coronal mass ejection (CME) on June 7, 2011 from sunspot complex 1226-1227. The large cloud of particles mushroomed ...
Space Exploration
Jun 7, 2011
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(Phys.org)—A large team of researchers with members from several institutions in the U.S., Korea, and the U.K. has found evidence of random radiation clouds in the Earth's atmosphere at elevations used by aircraft. In their ...
