Massive Scorching-Hot Plasma Blast: A Sun-Like Star May Hold Dire Warnings for Life on Earth
Astronomers spying on a stellar system located dozens of lightyears from Earth have, for the first time, observed a troubling fireworks show: A star, named…
Space Weather
Breakthrough for SHIELD Team Studying Our Solar System’s Protective Magnetic “Force Field”
Astrophysicists on BU’s NASA-funded SHIELD team reach another milestone on their quest to understand the heliosphere. A multi-institutional team of astrophysicists headquartered at Boston University,…
Strange Things Happening in Earth’s Atmosphere: NASA Launches Rocket To Investigate Mysterious Area Above the North Pole
Strange things happen in Earth’s atmosphere at high latitudes. Around local noon, when the Sun is at its highest point, a funnel-shaped gap in our…
Scientists Discover New Physics Missing From Existing Models of Magnetic Reconnection
Micro-Scale Current Sheets Unleash Macro-Scale Space Weather NRL scientists discover new physics missing from existing models of magnetic reconnection. While movies show Earth as existing…
Mysteries Abound: NASA Studying the Edge of the Sun’s Magnetic Bubble
Our corner of the universe, the solar system, is nestled inside the Milky Way galaxy, home to more than 100 billion stars. The solar system…
Earth’s Magnetosphere: Protecting Our Planet from Harmful Space Radiation
Among the four rocky planets in our solar system, you could say that Earth’s “magnetic” personality is the envy of her interplanetary neighbors. When solar…
When the Solar Wind Slams Into Earth’s Magnetosphere, a Surprising Stillness Ensues
Energy from the solar wind interacting with the magnetospheric ‘bubble’ around Earth creates waves of energy that appear to stand still. This new finding, from…
Calm Above the Storm: Incredible Green Smoky Swirls of Plasma Seen From Space Station
Auroras make for great Halloween décor over Earth, though ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet snapped these green smoky swirls of plasma from the International Space Station…
Violent Coronal Mass Ejection Crashes Into Earth’s Magnetosphere, Lighting Up the Sky
Credit: All-sky camera, Kiruna Atmospheric and Geophysical Observatory (KAGO) within the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF). Data provided as part of ESA’s Space Weather…
The Sun and Stars Affect Our Everyday Clouds and, Ultimately, Earth’s Energy Budget
Large Effect of Solar Activity on Earth’s Energy Budget This is the result of a new study by researchers from DTU Space at the Technical…
Auroras Announce the Solar Cycle: More Frequent Opportunities To See the Northern and Southern Lights
The 25th cycle is underway, and it brings more frequent opportunities to see the northern lights and southern lights. Solar Cycle 25 is underway, and…
Geomagnetic Storm: Solar Eruption Arrives at Earth
A mass of solar material that erupted from the Sun on October 9, 2021, reached Earth on October 12. The Earth-directed coronal mass ejection, or…
Van Allen Radiation Belts: 21 Fun Facts
Radiation Belts — Fun Facts Two radiation belts filled with electrons and charged particles surround Earth. The inner one is fairly stable, but the outer…
Surprising Standing Waves at Edge of Earth’s Magnetic Bubble Found in NASA Data
Earth sails the solar system in a ship of its own making: the magnetosphere, the magnetic field that envelops and protects our planet. The celestial…
Auroraspectacular: Timelapse Video Made by Astronaut on International Space Station
Timelapse video made during ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet’s second mission to the International Space Station, “Alpha”. The camera is setup to take pictures at regular…
Lightning Impacts Edge of Space in Ways Not Previously Observed
Solar flares jetting out from the sun and thunderstorms generated on Earth impact the planet’s ionosphere in different ways, which have implications for the ability…
NASA GOLD’s Bird’s-Eye Reveals Mysterious Dynamics in Earth’s Interface to Space
New research using data from NASA’s Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk, or GOLD, mission, has revealed unexpected behavior in the swaths of charged…
Under the Northern Lights: Mesospheric Ozone Layer Depletion Phenomenon
The same phenomenon that causes aurorae — the magical curtains of green light often visible from the polar regions of the Earth — causes mesospheric…
