Didymos is spinning so quickly that rocks are detaching at its equator and going into orbit
Asteroid Didymos is spitting rocks out into space.
Planetary Sciences
Mar 16, 2023
0
112
News tagged with solar wind
Astronomers just discovered a comet that could be brighter than most stars when we see it next year. Or will it?
Hot on the heels of the disappointing Green Comet, astronomers have just discovered a new comet with the potential to be next year's big story—C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS).
Astronomy
Mar 13, 2023
0
81
The northern lights appeared in southern England twice in one week—here's why this could happen again soon
People across the UK, from the Shetland Islands to Somerset and from Norfolk to Northern Ireland, have been treated to a stunning display of the aurora borealis or northern lights recently. But what causes this beautiful ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 3, 2023
0
15
MAVEN status update
NASA's MAVEN spacecraft entered safe mode on Feb. 16 after encountering an issue with its Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), which measures the spacecraft rate of rotation for use in determining its pointing. The IMU had been ...
Space Exploration
Feb 24, 2023
0
37
Researchers investigate quasi-periodic variations of coronal mass ejections
Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are large expulsions of magnetized plasma from the sun. Determining the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of CMEs, especially their possible periodic patterns, is valuable for establishing ...
Astronomy
Feb 23, 2023
0
18
NASA's IMAP spacecraft completes mission critical design review, moves closer to 2025 launch
NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) spacecraft has completed the Mission Critical Design Review and is on track to meet its scheduled 2025 launch. Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is managing the ...
Space Exploration
Feb 14, 2023
0
2
Hubble captures the start of a new spoke season on Saturn
New images of Saturn from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope herald the start of the planet's "spoke season" surrounding its equinox, when enigmatic features appear across its rings. The cause of the spokes, as well as their seasonal ...
Astronomy
Feb 9, 2023
0
222
Researchers detect heavy oxygen isotope in Earth's upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere
A study of the upper atmosphere's composition has successfully measured an increased presence of 18O, a heavier oxygen isotope with 10 instead of eight neutrons. Helmut Wiesemeyer (MPIfR Bonn) and his colleagues have measured ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 2, 2023
0
25
Simulations reproduce complex fluctuations in soft X-ray signal detected by satellites
Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have used numerical methods to model the variations observed in soft X-ray signals detected by X-ray satellites. They analyzed data from the Suzaku telescope and compared it ...
Astronomy
Jan 30, 2023
0
24
BepiColombo and Solar Orbiter compare notes at Venus
The convergence of two spacecraft at Venus in August 2021 has given a unique insight into how the planet is able to retain its thick atmosphere without the protection of a global magnetic field.
Space Exploration
Jan 26, 2023
0
140
Solar wind
The solar wind is a stream of charged particles—a plasma—ejected from the upper atmosphere of the sun. It consists mostly of electrons and protons with energies of about 1 keV. The stream of particles varies in temperature and speed with the passage of time. These particles are able to escape the sun's gravity, in part because of the high temperature of the corona, but also because of high kinetic energy that particles gain through a process that is not well-understood.
The solar wind creates the Heliosphere, a vast bubble in the interstellar medium surrounding the solar system. Other phenomena include geomagnetic storms that can knock out power grids on Earth, the aurorae such as the Northern Lights, and the plasma tails of comets that always point away from the sun.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
