Tag: Sun
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Solar Orbiter reveals closest pictures, new science of the Sun
The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA have released the first pictures and preliminary findings captured by the Solar Orbiter, including intriguing glimpses of “campfires” near the solar surface that could shed new light on one of the biggest solar mysteries scientists are eager to learn more about. Numerous other scientific areas of intrigue were…
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First images from Solar Orbiter mission bring sun into sharper focus
The first images from the European-built Solar Orbiter mission are the closest ever taken of the sun, revealing previously unseen mini-flares nicknamed “campfires” that may offer hints about what makes the solar corona, or outer atmosphere, hotter than the sun’s surface. The European Space Agency-led Solar Orbiter mission, built and launched in partnership with…
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NOAA awards Xplore $670,000 to study the options for space weather observatory
Artwork shows Xplore’s Xcraft probe observing the sun in different spectral bands. (Xplore Illustration) Seattle-based Xplore has won a $670,111 award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to look into the feasibility of sending a solar observatory to a gravitational balance point that’s a million miles from Earth. From that spot, known as the…
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NASA and ESA Solar Stalkers mark milestones
Two intrepid spacecraft are dancing with the Sun and making great progress toward the goal of learning more about our star. After NASA announced that Parker Solar Probe (PSP) had sent the “Status A” beacon after its fifth close flyby of the Sun, the European Space Agency (ESA) has announced that its Solar Orbiter has…
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NASA and ESA Solar Stalkers mark milestones
Two intrepid spacecraft are dancing with the Sun and making great progress toward the goal of learning more about our star. After NASA announced that Parker Solar Probe (PSP) had sent the “Status A” beacon after its fifth close flyby of the Sun, the European Space Agency (ESA) has announced that its Solar Orbiter has…
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Tethers Unlimited to provide hardware for NASA’s PUNCH sun-watching mission
Four microsatellites will study how the sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, imparts energy and mass to the solar wind during NASA’s PUNCH mission. (SwRI Illustration) Bothell, Wash.-based Tethers Unlimited says it will provide key communications and propulsion capabilities to Southwest Research Institute in support of a NASA mission to study how the sun’s corona whips…
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NASA satellite ends 17-year mission measuring the sun’s impact on climate
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated April 13 to include mention of the University of Colorado’s role in the mission. The SORCE spacecraft undergoes preparations for launch. Credit: NASA NASA has shut down a spacecraft that measured the amount of solar energy entering Earth’s atmosphere for 17 years, more than three times the mission’s original design life. The Solar Radiation…
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Swarm of NASA nanosats to probe source of solar eruptions
This image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory in 2013 shows the bright light of a solar flare on the left side of the sun and an eruption of solar material shooting through the sun’s atmosphere, called a prominence eruption. This same region of the sun sent a coronal mass ejection out into space. Credit: NASA/SDO…
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Solar Orbiter blasts off on a mission to study the sources of the sun’s power from pole to pole
The Solar Orbiter spacecraft was launched tonight to begin a seven-year, $1.5 billion mission aimed at studying the sun and its mysterious magnetic field from an unprecedented vantage point. A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket launched the two-ton, bus-sized probe from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 11:03 p.m. ET (8:03 p.m. PT) after…
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Amazon Web Services enlists AI to help NASA get ahead of solar superstorms
An extreme ultraviolet image of the sun, captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, shows an X9.3 flare erupting at lower right during a solar storm in 2017. (NASA / Goddard / SDO Photo) If the sun throws out a radiation blast of satellite-killing proportions someday, Amazon Web Services may well play a role in heading…