Tag

Solar Wind

All articles tagged with #solar wind

space16 hours ago•72 min saved

Mars shows Earthlike solar-wind bending in its atmosphere

NASA’s MAVEN data, gathered after it went quiet in 2025, reveal the Zwan-Wolf effect—an Earth-style solar-wind deflection—occurring in Mars’ upper atmosphere during a December 2023 solar storm. The finding suggests Mars’ atmosphere can host temporary magnetic structures that funnel charged particles, implying the effect may operate continuously there but is usually too weak to detect; the results were published in Nature Communications. NASA also notes MAVEN’s ongoing recovery efforts after a period of contact loss.

via Space|

#magnetosphere #mars-atmosphere #maven

science7 days ago•10 min saved

Europe–China’s SMILE mission launches to image Earth’s magnetic shield against the solar wind

SMILE, a joint European-Chinese mission, launched from Kourou to image Earth’s magnetopause with soft X‑ray optics, enabling a three-year study of how the magnetosphere responds to solar wind and space weather while highlighting ongoing EU‑China scientific cooperation.

via Space Daily|

#magnetopause #magnetosphere #science

space8 days ago•5 min saved

ESA-China SMILE Mission to X-ray Earth’s Magnetosphere During Solar Storms

A joint ESA-Chinese mission named SMILE will launch to study how solar storms interact with Earth's magnetosphere by capturing X-ray emissions—the first such observations—from a highly elliptical orbit that will reach up to 121,000 km above Earth. Equipped with an X-ray imager, UV imager, ion analyzer and magnetometer, SMILE aims to improve space-weather understanding for satellites, astronauts and power grids over an initial three-year mission.

via The Daily Galaxy|

#esa-china-collaboration #magnetosphere #smile

space1 month ago•74 min saved

Solar wind breath reveals the solar system in X-ray light

Astronomers using the eROSITA X-ray telescope mapped soft X-ray emissions produced by solar wind charge exchange, revealing how the solar wind “breathes” around the heliosphere and isolating the local solar-system glow from distant cosmic sources.

via Space|

#erosita #heliosphere #soft-x-ray

science-and-exploration1 month ago•2 min saved

Smile mission set for May 19 launch to map Earth's response to solar wind

The European-Chinese Smile mission, a joint ESA-CAS project to study how Earth reacts to solar wind using an X-ray camera for magnetosphere observations and a UV imager for auroras, is rescheduled to launch on May 19, 2026, aboard a European Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana after a precautionary delay due to a Vega-C subsystem issue. The launch time is 05:52 CEST / 04:52 BST / 00:52 local, with Smile released after about 57 minutes into a low-Earth orbit and solar panels unfolding around 63 minutes after liftoff, before entering an elongated orbit peaking about 121,000 km above the North Pole and extending to roughly 5,000 km above the South Pole to deliver data to ground stations. The mission aims to shed light on space weather, solar storms and geomagnetic processes through its four instruments, as ESA and CAS collaborate on this Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer.

via European Space Agency|

#esa #science-and-exploration #smile

science1 month ago•4 min saved

Rare Mid-Latitude Aurora Graces U.S. Skies Tonight and Tomorrow

A surge of fast solar wind could trigger geomagnetic storms tonight and tomorrow, pushing the Northern Lights into mid-latitude skies from Illinois to Oregon. NOAA forecasts moderate (G2) storms, with the possibility of stronger (G3) bursts. The display is expected to peak between 5 p.m. and 2 a.m. EDT, weather permitting, and skywatchers are advised to find dark, clear sites and use long-exposure photography for the best view.

via The Daily Galaxy|

#aurora #geomagnetic-storm #mid-latitude

space1 month ago•62 min saved

Giant Solar Hole Could Bring Northern Lights Across Several U.S. States This Weekend

A large coronal hole opened in the Sun’s atmosphere, sending high-speed solar wind toward Earth and potentially lighting up the Northern Lights across several northern U.S. states Friday night into Saturday morning (Idaho to New York). NOAA forecasts gusty geomagnetic activity (possible G2 storm), which could cause visible auroras under darker skies aided by a new moon. The auroras result from solar particles interacting with Earth’s atmosphere near the poles, driven by coronal holes and related solar wind structures.

via Live Science|

#aurora-borealis #coronal-hole #geomagnetic-storm

space1 month ago•73 min saved

Solar wind near the Sun proves faster than thought, Proba-3 reveals

ESA's Proba-3 eclipse mission captured high-resolution views of the Sun's corona and measured slow solar wind speeds up to about 300 miles per second (roughly 480 km/s), four times faster than previously thought, suggesting the slow wind originates from nonuniform, gusty flows near the solar surface and offering new clues about how the solar wind is accelerated.

via Space|

#astronomy #esa #solar-wind

science1 month ago•43 min saved

Chandra Captures First Astrosphere Around a Sun-like Young Star

Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have captured the first image of an astrosphere around a Sun-like young star HD 61005 (nicknamed the “Moth”). The extended X-ray emission shows a bubble created by a wind that’s about three times faster and 25 times denser than the young Sun’s, offering insights into how the Sun’s heliosphere may have looked billions of years ago as it moved through the galaxy.

via Good News Network|

#astronomy #astrosphere #chandra-x-ray-observatory

space1 month ago•5 min saved

Proba-3 finds slow solar wind speeding up near the Sun

ESA's Proba-3 mission, using artificial eclipses to study the Sun's inner corona, has revealed slow solar wind speeding up to 250–500 km/s near the Sun—three to four times faster than previously thought—with thousands of hours of data still to be analyzed.

via European Space Agency|

#aspiics #inner-corona #proba-3

space2 months ago•6 min saved

NASA's ESCAPADE Deploys Twin Probes to Decode Mars Space Weather

NASA’s ESCAPADE mission launched in 2025 with two orbiters to study how the solar wind and Mars’ magnetosphere interact, revealing real-time atmospheric escape from the Red Planet and providing stereo measurements. The twins will fly in tandem near Mars after looping through a distant Earth magnetotail en route to a Sept. 2027 Mars arrival, also doing discovery science in Earth’s magnetotail. Findings will help protect future astronauts and inform Mars communications and ionospheric understanding as humanity prepares to explore the Red Planet.

via NASA Science (.gov)|

#magnetosphere #mars #nasa-mission

science3 months ago•4 min saved

Deflated Crescent: Scientists Redraw the Shape of the Sun’s Protective Bubble

Researchers using ENA data from IBEX and a 3D mapping approach from Los Alamos reveal the heliosphere—our solar wind–generated shield—has a deflated crescent shape, not a sphere or oval, with the sun–heliopause distance around 120 AU in one direction and at least 350 AU in the opposite, indicating an asymmetric boundary shaped by solar and interstellar winds.

via The Daily Galaxy|

#3d-mapping #heliosphere #ibex

science3 months ago•4 min saved

Eclipsed Turbulence: Tracing How the Sun's Corona Feeds the Solar Wind

A decade of eclipse-era observations by researchers at the University of Hawai'i reveals turbulent structures in the Sun's outer atmosphere that originate from prominences and survive as they travel outward with the solar wind, providing new clues to coronal heating and space-weather effects on Earth.

via The Daily Galaxy|

#corona #prominences #science

science3 months ago•4 min saved

Parker Solar Probe Sets Proximity Record, Revealing New Solar Wind Secrets

NASA's Parker Solar Probe flew closer to the Sun than any spacecraft before, reaching about 3.8 million miles from the surface, and gathered detailed data on the solar wind and the Sun’s outer atmosphere to help explain solar heating and improve space weather forecasting.

via The Daily Galaxy|

#nasa #parker-solar-probe #science

space3 months ago•9 min saved

Parker Solar Probe Reveals the Hidden Heating of the Solar Wind

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, flying closer to the Sun than any prior mission (within 3.8 million miles of the surface), uses a new ALPS analysis tool to map how energy heats and accelerates the solar wind, addressing the coronal heating puzzle and improving space-weather forecasts while providing insights into plasma behavior across the cosmos.

via SciTechDaily|

#parker-solar-probe #plasma-physics #solar-wind