Solar Wind

Voyager 2 proves solar system is squashed

harminka — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 02:53:59 -0600

NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft has followed its twin Voyager 1 into the solar system's final frontier, a vast region at the edge of our solar system where the solar wind runs up against the thin gas between the stars.

SECCHI team obtains images of solar wind at Earth

harminka — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:06:00 -0600

Using the Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI) instruments on board NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft, a consortium of scientists has seen, for the first time, large waves of solar material sweeping past Earth.

New insights on origin of solar wind

harminka — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:04:33 -0600

Spectacular images and data from the Hinode mission have shed new light on the Sun's magnetic field and the origins of solar wind, which can disrupt power grids, satellites and communications on Earth.

Voyager 2 will reach major milestone in space in late 2007–early 2008

harminka — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:32:03 -0600

Using a computer model simulation, Haruichi Washimi, a physicist at UC Riverside, has predicted when the interplanetary spacecraft Voyager 2 will cross the “termination shock,” the spherical shell around the solar system that marks where the solar wind slows down to subsonic speed.

Killer electrons in space are now less mysterious

harminka — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 00:59:12 -0500

A rare, timely conjunction of ground-based instrumentation and a dozen satellites has helped scientists better understand how electrons in space can turn into ‘killers’. ESA’s Cluster constellation has contributed crucially to the finding.

Fractal image of Sun storm season imprinted on solar wind

harminka — Fri, 25 May 2007 12:43:53 -0500

Plasma astrophysicists at the University of Warwick have found that key information about the Sun storm season is being broadcast across the solar system in a fractal snapshot imprinted in the solar wind. This research opens up new ways of looking at both space weather and the unstable behaviour that affects the operation of fusion powered power plants.

Earth Had as Strong Magnetic Field as 3.2 billion years ago

harminka — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:04:06 -0500

Geophysicists at the University of Rochester announce in today's issue of Nature that the Earth's magnetic field was nearly as strong 3.2 billion years ago as it is today.

Gathering Data on Earth's Auroras, Radiation Belts, and Solar Wind

harminka — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 10:16:56 -0500