Activity on the sun affects Earth’s magnetic field. It can cause geomagnetic storms, the same events that create the beautiful aurorae, or northern and southern lights. Are these storms dangerous? Source: https://earthsky.org/space/are-solar-storms-dangerous-to-us…
Tag: flare
Scientists measure the evolving energy of a solar flare’s explosive first minutes
Toward the end of 2017, a massive new region of magnetic field erupted on the Sun’s surface next to an existing sunspot. The powerful collision of magnetic energy produced a series of potent solar flares, causing turbulent space weather conditions at Earth. These were the first flares to be captured, in their moment-by-moment progression, by NJIT’s then recently opened Expanded Owens…
Polio Eradication Program Faces Hard Choices as Endgame Strategy Falters
The “endgame” in the decadeslong campaign to eradicate polio suffered major setbacks in 2019. From a report: While the effort lost ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which recorded 116 cases of wild polio — four times the number in 2018 — an especially alarming situation developed in Africa. In 12 countries, 196 children were paralyzed not by the wild virus, but…
Photos of December 26 ‘ring of fire’ eclipse
The December 26, 2019 annular or ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse was viewed across a narrow track that started at sunrise in Saudi Arabia and ended at sunset over the North Pacific Ocean. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/photos-dec-26-2019-annular-ring-of-fire-eclipse…
New Boson Appears In Nuclear Decay, Breaks Standard Model
An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from an Ars Technica article: In November, people started polishing a Nobel prize for a group of physicists who seemed to have found new boson. […] This result has been cooking for quite some time. The first experimental results date back to 2015, with publication in 2016. Essentially, the scientists took some lithium and shot…
Astronomers catch a comet outburst
Remember comet 46P/Wirtanen? It was a bright comet about this time last year. Around the time it swept near the Earth and sun, the comet entered the field of view NASA’s TESS planet-hunter. And boom! It underwent an outburst, caught by TESS. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/comet-46p-wirtanen-outburst-caught-by-tess…
Uber To Allow Audio Recording of Rides, Aiming To Launch Feature In US
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Uber will allow passengers and drivers in Brazil and Mexico to record audio of their rides as it attempts to improve its safety record and image, and eventually it hopes to launch the feature into other markets including the United States. The ride-hailing company plans to pilot the feature in cities…
Caught in the act: MeerKAT telescope spies stellar flare
Scientists using the MeerKAT radio telescope have discovered a unique and previously-unseen flare of radio emission from a binary star in our galaxy. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-11-caught-meerkat-telescope-spies-stellar.html…
Orion the Hunter now easy to view
At this time of year, the famous constellation Orion the Hunter is back in the evening sky! Its most recognizable feature is a short, straight line of 3 medium-bright stars. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/orion-rises-in-the-east-at-mid-evening…
TESS planet-hunter shows you the southern sky
Mosaic of the southern sky constructed from 208 images by NASA’s TESS spacecraft, taken during the mission’s first year of science operations. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/tess-panorama-southern-sky-video…