On October 29, NASA re-established contact with its Voyager 2 spacecraft, after the probe was left flying solo for 7 months while repairs were made to the radio antenna in Australia used to control it. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/nasa-reestablishes-contact-with-voyager2-spacecraft-oct2020…
Tag: heliosphere
What is interstellar space?
You might be surprised to learn that interstellar space isn’t just vacuum. It’s full of gases, elements, and dust – very thinly spread, to be sure – but the building blocks of stars and planets. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/definition-what-is-interstellar-space…
Are we living in a giant deflated croissant ?
Scientists have determined the most likely shape of the heliosphere which surrounds the solar system. Generated by the Sun, this vast protective regio… Source: https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/338693/are-we-living-in-a-giant-deflated-croissant…
Solar Orbiter’s 1st views of the sun
Solar Orbiter’s new views are the closest images of the sun taken so far. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/solar-orbiters-first-views-of-the-sun…
NASA’s IBEX charts 11 years of change at the boundary to interstellar space
Far beyond the orbits of the planets are the hazy outlines of the heliosphere, the magnetic bubble in space that we call home. This flexible cosmic bubble stretches and shrinks in response to the sun’s gasps and sighs. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-06-nasa-ibex-years-boundary-interstellar.html…
Solar Ring mission: A new concept of space exploration for understanding Sun and the inner heliosphere
With the development of science and technology, human activity has expanded from land, sea and sky to space and other planets. In the near future, deep space and other terrestrial planets will become the next main territory of humanity. The Sun is the nearest star in the universe. It affects the (interplanetary) space of our planets in many time scales. Thus,…
PUNCH mission achieves milestone
On April 8, 2020, the Polarimeter to UNify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission achieved an important milestone, passing NASA’s critical System Requirements Review/Mission Definition Review (SRR/MDR). Southwest Research Institute is leading PUNCH, a NASA Small Explorer (SMEX) mission that will integrate understanding of the Sun’s corona, the outer atmosphere visible during eclipses, with the tenuous “solar wind” filling the solar…
Reimagining our solar system’s protective bubble, the heliosphere
You are living in a bubble. Not a metaphorical bubble—a real, literal bubble. But don’t worry, it’s not just you. The whole planet, and every other planet in the solar system, for that matter, is in the bubble too. And, we may just owe our very existence to it. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-03-reimagining-solar-heliosphere.html…
ESA’s Solar Orbiter will launch next month
We know our sun is surrounded by a great bubble-like heliosphere, which sets our solar system apart from the rest of interstellar space. ESA’s Solar Orbiter – due to launch in February 2020 – will probe how the sun creates and controls this heliosphere. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/esa-solar-orbiter-video-launch-feb-2020…
Flying solo: Solar Orbiter will take first-ever direct images of solar poles
Solar Orbiter will orbit our nearest star, the sun, observing it up close. It will take the first-ever direct images of its poles, while also studying the inner heliosphere—the bubble-like region around the sun created by the stream of energized, charged particles released in the solar wind. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-01-solo-solar-orbiter-first-ever-images.html…