Tag: Sun
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How space weather events impact launches, orbiting spacecraft, and our future in space
When Blue Origin scrubbed the launch of its NG-2 mission on its New Glenn rocket on Nov. 12, the culprit wasn’t Florida’s notoriously unpredictable thunderstorms or high winds — it was space weather. NASA’s ESCAPADE mission, the primary payload on NG-2, was eventually launched on Nov. 13 and is designed to study how solar storms…
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NASA, SpaceX launch IMAP and rideshare payloads to study space weather at L1
NASA and SpaceX successfully launched the agency’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) from Florida on Wednesday morning. Joining IMAP on its way to Lagrange Point 1 are two additional rideshare payloads: NOAA’s Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) and the joint NASA/University of Illinois Carruthers Geocorona Observatory. Liftoff took place on Wednesday, Sept. 24,…
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CHEOPS discovers exoplanet triggering explosive flares on host star
Using the European Space Agency’s Characterizing Exoplanets Satellite (CHEOPS) telescope, a team of astronomers has discovered an exoplanet that may be triggering its host star to release massive flares of radiation. These flares are similar to the coronal mass ejection our Sun produces, and the harsh radiation emitted from the flares is slowly blowing away…
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Parker Solar Probe takes images close to the Sun as primary mission winds down
On Dec. 24, 2024, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe traveled closer to the Sun than any spacecraft had before. During this close approach, or perihelion, the spacecraft’s four instruments observed the Sun’s atmosphere from inside. This week, NASA released images collected by the spacecraft’s Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR) instrument. Since the close approach in…
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Solar Orbiter makes first ever observations of Sun’s south pole, reveals messy magnetic field
Following a flyby of Venus in February that successfully increased its orbital inclination around the Sun, the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter recently imaged the Sun’s poles for the first time. The images are the first to show how the Sun’s immense magnetic field interacts at its poles, and will improve scientists’ understanding of the…
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SPHEREx starts science observations while PUNCH commissioning continues
NASA’s latest space telescope has taken the first science observations of its two-year mission to study the universe in dozens of colors. The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) telescope maps the entire sky in 102 infrared wavelengths — or colors — to study galaxy formation, cosmic…
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NASA and ESA missions unexpectedly collaborate to reveal what accelerates solar winds
As the solar wind moves away from the Sun, it cools slower than expected and accelerates. Where the energy that powers this phenomenon comes from has long been unknown. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Solar Orbiter, when they coincidentally lined up to observe the same solar wind stream, provided scientists…
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Ahead of total solar eclipse, scientists use spacecraft data to predict the Sun’s corona
On April 8, a total solar eclipse will sweep across the continental United States — the first since 2017 and the last until Aug. 12, 2045. During totality, or the moment at which the Moon is completely covering the Sun, the Sun’s outer atmosphere, called the corona, and other prominences become visible to the naked…
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Solar Orbiter discovers plasma jets that could fuel the production of solar wind
Recently, the joint European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft discovered an array of tiny jets of material being ejected from the Sun’s outer atmosphere. Ejecting plasma at 100 kilometers per second, the jets last for just 20 to 100 seconds, and could be the source of solar wind. Solar wind is made up of…
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India launches first solar research mission, Aditya-L1, aboard PSLV
India’s space program continued its busy 2023 with the launch of its first solar research mission, Aditya-L1, on Saturday. Liftoff, aboard the country’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) XL rocket, occurred at 11:50 Indian Standard Time (06:20 UTC) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. Aditya-L1 will be the first mission conducted by the Indian Space…