China’s Chang’e 5 moon mission – which successfully returned moon rocks to Earth in December, 2020 for the first time in 44 years – is now headed toward the Earth-sun Lagrange point, for the goal of making sun observations. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/china-change-5-moon-mission-extended-to-l1-sun…
Tag: space weather
Will iceberg twice the size of NYC break off Antarctica this year?
A crack on the Antarctic ice shelf grew dramatically in late 2020 into 2021. Scientists are watching to see if the rapidly accelerating crack will cause the shelf to rip apart before Antarctica’s sunlit summer season – going on now – comes to an end. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/iceberg-brunt-ice-shelf-antarctica-break-off…
The myths behind the southern and northern lights
For millennia, humans have viewed the northern and southern lights – aurora borealis and aurora australis – and created myths and folklore to explain the dancing lights they saw in the sky. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/legends-folklore-myths-northern-southern-lights-auroras…
The sun in 2020
See a whole year of sun images, an image a day for 2020, taken by ESA’s Proba-2 satellite. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/sun-in-2020-movie-images…
Is a solar flare the same thing as a CME?
Solar Cycle 25 is here, and that means – in the years ahead – more solar flares and more coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. People sometimes use the words interchangeably, but they’re not the same thing. Here’s the difference. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/is-a-solar-flare-the-same-thing-as-a-cme…
Hostile space weather might not be all bad for exoplanet life
A new study from Northwestern University shows that solar flares – space weather – might not always be as dangerous for life on exoplanets as typically thought. In fact, it might even help astronomers discover alien life on distant worlds. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/hostile-space-weather-might-not-be-all-bad-for-exoplanet-life…
New sunspot cycle could be among strongest on record
A study of oppositely charged magnetic field bands, moving in the sun’s northern and southern hemispheres, suggests the coming sunspot cycle – Cycle 25 – will be a particularly strong one. This result contradicts an earlier expert forecast, suggesting a weak Cycle 25. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/sunspot-cycle-25-among-strongest-on-record-says-ncar…
Space weather in Proxima’s vicinity dims hopes of habitable worlds
Astronomers used radio waves to study conditions in the vicinity of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our sun. The results suggest Proxima’s 2 known planets are likely bathed in intense radiation from this star, casting doubt on the planets’ potential for life. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/proxima-centauri-space-weather-planets-uninhabitable…
Solar Orbiter: Turning pictures into physics
Solar Orbiter’s latest results show that the mission is making the first direct connections between events at the solar surface and what’s happening in interplanetary space around the spacecraft. It is also giving us new insights into solar ‘campfires,” space weather and disintegrating comets. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-12-solar-orbiter-pictures-physics.html…
Watch: 25 years of the sun
This video, merging more than 2 decades of footage from SOHO cameras, captures thousands of sunspots, flares, and coronal mass ejections breaking out from the sun. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/sun-25-years-video-solar-flare-cme-sunspot…