Tag

Solar Wind

All articles tagged with #solar wind

Michigan Aurora Forecast: Geomagnetic Storms Clash with Rain and Clouds

NOAA predicts a minor geomagnetic storm could allow northern lights to appear in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and northern regions on September 16, but local weather forecasts indicate rain and overcast skies may block visibility. A subsequent solar wind event from a coronal hole is expected to enhance aurora activity later in the week, though recent data suggests calm conditions for the start of the new workweek.

via Detroit Free Press|

#geomagnetic-storm #michigan-weather #noaa-forecast

science27 days ago•3 min saved

Apollo 11: Solar Wind Foil Captures Particles on the Moon

APOD's image from Apollo 11 shows Buzz Aldrin unfurling the Solar Wind Composition Experiment foil on the Moon while Neil Armstrong watches from the Eagle, catching solar wind particles that were later returned for analysis alongside lunar rocks.

via NASA Science (.gov)|

#apollo-11 #moon #nasa

space1 month ago•166 min saved

Genesis Solar Wind Capsule Crashes in Utah, 2004

On Sept. 8, 2004, NASA’s Genesis solar-wind spacecraft crash-landed in Utah after its parachute failed to deploy because four gravity switches in the sample-return canister were wired backwards, dooming the primary and backup parachutes. Genesis, launched in 2001 for $264 million, was NASA’s first robotic sample-return mission since Apollo 17 and sought to collect solar wind particles on ultrathin wafers; while the capsule shattered on impact, some samples were salvaged and the mishap led to reviews of future missions like Stardust.

via space.com|

#genesis #nasa #sample-return

space1 month ago•10 min saved

Voyager 2’s Uranus flyby captured a rare, sun-driven compression of the magnetosphere

A late-1980s reanalysis shows Voyager 2 arrived at Uranus during an unusually strong solar-wind event that compressed the dayside magnetosphere, shrinking its volume by about 78% in a simplified model. The encounter, though revealing, reflects a rare state (about 4% of similar conditions) rather than Uranus’s normal magnetic environment, and confirms the planet’s tilted, off-center internal field. The study also links the intense radiation belts to compression and notes the possible but not definitive absence of plasma from moons. A future Uranus orbiter would be needed to map the magnetosphere’s time evolution beyond a single flyby.

via Space Daily|

#magnetosphere #reanalysis #solar-wind

space2 months ago•10 min saved

Voyager 2’s Uranus Flyby: A Rare 4% Moment That Shaped Planetary Science

A 2024 reanalysis argues Voyager 2’s 1986 Uranus flyby occurred during an exceptionally compressed solar wind—an event estimated to happen only about 4% of the time—reframing the encounter as a rare snapshot that may explain Uranus’s unusual magnetosphere and radiation belts, and underscoring the need for multi-year orbital observations rather than a single flyby.

via Space Daily|

#magnetosphere #solar-wind #space

science2 months ago•2 min saved

Solar-Wind Waves Erode Mars' Ancient Atmosphere

Researchers using MAVEN and Tianwen-1 show that solar wind drives Kelvin-Helmholtz waves at Mars’ atmospheric boundary, creating giant waves that strip atmospheric particles into space. This effect is uneven around the planet and depends on the solar wind's electric field, offering a key explanation for Mars’ historic atmosphere loss and implications for other unmagnetized worlds.

via Gizmodo|

#atmospheric-escape #habitability #kelvin-helmholtz

science2 months ago•7 min saved

New Study Suggests Extreme Solar Storms Could Hit Harder Than Previously Thought

A WIRED study argues that Earth's magnetic response to solar wind may not have a true upper limit. By accounting for timing delays and variability in solar wind measurements, the apparent saturation disappears and the response appears linear, implying Carrington-scale storms could be about twice as damaging as older models predicted.

via WIRED|

#geomagnetic-storm #measurement-bias #regression-toward-the-mean

science2 months ago•47 min saved

No ceiling on solar storms: NASA study suggests extreme space weather could be stronger than we thought

A NASA-led study published in Nature finds a longstanding measurement bias from L1 solar-wind data has caused scientists to underestimate how powerful extreme solar storms can be. By comparing million-scale wind-energy measurements with closer, near-Earth observations from THEMIS, MMS, and DoubleStar, the researchers found no statistical evidence of an upper limit to energy transfer from the solar wind to Earth’s polar ionosphere. If there is indeed no ceiling, the worst-case space weather scenarios used in planning could be too mild, with potential disruptions to satellites, GPS, and communications, prompting a revision of extreme-storm modeling and preparedness.

via Yahoo|

#carrington-event #geomagnetic-storms #nasa-goddard-space-flight-center

space2 months ago•11 min saved

Parker Solar Probe shatters solar speed record during corona flyby

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe reached about 692,000 km/h (192.22 km/s) relative to the Sun while skimming the Sun’s corona during its 28th close approach in June 2026, a record for a human-made object. The peak speed comes from a highly elliptical near-Sun orbit aided by Venus flybys; Parker’s shield protects its instruments as it studies coronal heating and solar wind, with mission extensions still under review and no sustained cruise speed implied by this record.

via Space Daily|

#gravity-assists #parker-solar-probe #solar-corona

science2 months ago•105 min saved

Extreme solar storms could punch deeper than feared, new study finds

A Nature study argues the Earth’s response to extreme solar storms may be stronger than previously estimated because most measurements come from near the Sun–Earth L1 point. When researchers analyzed data from spacecraft closer to Earth, they found geomagnetic disturbances continue to rise with solar-wind strength, suggesting rare one-in-a-thousand-year events could have greater impacts on satellites, GPS, communications, and power grids, even as such events remain extremely rare. Historical storms like the Carrington Event and Quebec blackout are cited to illustrate potential risks, underscoring the need to rethink extreme space-weather risk assessments during solar maximum.

via Space|

#note-only-five-tags-will-be-kept-included-an-extra-tag-for-clarity #satellites #science

science3 months ago•5 min saved

New Horizons Awakens to Continue the Solar-Wind Frontier

NASA’s New Horizons woke from a nearly yearlong hibernation about 6 billion miles from Earth and is expected to operate into the 2050s, studying how the solar wind slows as it moves through the Kuiper Belt and planning one more flyby with Rubin Observatory help. Measurements show solar wind is about 13-15% slower at the edge than near Earth.

via Mashable|

#arrokoth #kuiper-belt #new-horizons

space3 months ago•103 min saved

Dust Near the Sun Offers Clue to the Corona’s Extreme Heat

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe detected voltage spikes from clouds of charged dust near the Sun, suggesting dust interacts with Alfvén waves and the solar wind to deposit energy into the corona. This could help explain why the corona reaches millions of degrees hotter than the Sun’s surface and may influence how future solar missions study near-sun dust.

via Space|

#alfven-waves #corona #dust

space3 months ago•13 min saved

Parker Solar Probe Surges Near the Sun Behind Ultra-Light Heat Shield

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, launched in 2018, pushed closer to the Sun than any spacecraft by reaching about 3.8 million miles from the solar surface at ~430,000 mph during the December 2024 pass; its 4.5-inch-thick, 2.3-meter heat shield—a carbon-carbon sandwich with a carbon foam core weighing ~160 pounds and a white alumina coating—keeps the instruments at room temperature while the sun-facing side reaches up to 2,500°F, with actual temperatures staying well below worst-case estimates, providing thermal margin; the mission has transformed solar physics by directly measuring the corona and solar wind, and is planned to operate through 2026 as it conducts further perihelia.

via Space Daily|

#carbon-foam #nasa #parker-solar-probe

science3 months ago•12 min saved

Mars's Lost Dynamo: From a Wetter World to a Frozen Desert

Mars once had a global magnetic field strong enough to shield its atmosphere from the solar wind, but when the dynamo faded around four billion years ago the atmosphere and surface water were gradually stripped away by solar wind over hundreds of millions to billions of years, turning Mars from a possibly habitable world into the current cold desert; the loss was slow and interlinked with interior cooling and crustal water sequestration, with MAVEN confirming ongoing atmospheric loss today.

via Space Daily|

#atmosphere #dynamo #magnetic-field

space3 months ago•2 min saved

Predicting the Solar Wind to Map New Horizons' Path to the Heliosphere's Edge

SwRI researchers merged a solar wind forecasting method with heliosphere models to predict where New Horizons will encounter the termination shock, the outer boundary of the heliosphere. They estimate the crossing could occur between 2029 and 2040, with the possibility of multiple crossings as the heliosphere expands and contracts, helping plan future measurements at the solar system's edge.

via Universe Today|

#heliosphere #interstellar-medium #new-horizons